Commentary: New NCAA Rule Hurts Players

This past winter, the NCAA ruled to eliminate the Spring "Live" Recruiting Period for Division I Coaches, essentially prohibiting D1 coaches from attending April events to evaluate players. The ruling has created a situation where the only time in which coaches will be able to evaluate players (outside of the regular high school season games) is during the two "live" periods in July.

The NCAA has cited "missed class time" as the main objective behind the new rule. They felt as if the National AAU Tournaments held in April were forcing high school players to miss school as a result of traveling to and from tournaments. According to an e-mail from spokesperson Jennifer Kearns, the NCAA hopes to address the "significant amount of class time missed by prospective student athletes ... to accommodate travel to and from events." So, according to that logic, players from Atlanta who say were traveling to the Kingwood Classic in Houston would miss school on Friday while traveling to the Event and then arrive home late on Sunday evening, thus probably missing school on Monday morning as well.

Are players participating in these tournaments missing a day of school here and there? Yes, in all likelihood, they are. However, that is not a major issue if the player takes responsibility to complete assignments in advance, alert teachers of absence, etc. I find it highly hypocritical that the NCAA is passing rulings to prevent one or two days of missed class for high school students when players at NCAA institutions miss over a dozen plus "class days" during a typical basketball season?

The "real", but disguised reasoning behind the new NCAA ruling seems to have more to do with eliminating the influence that aau coaches have with their player's recruitment, and less to do with missed class time. If you read between the lines, the NCAA's logic was that if you cut out the time in which players are competing with their AAU teams in "live" exposure events, you will in turn be reducing the "juice" that aau ball and programs have on a player's recruitment. In the NCAA's logic, this will help clean up some of the negative influences and shady elements surrounding the grassroots scene. While there may or may not be some merit to that thinking (that is a whole different debate for a different day); the bottom line is that the biggest victim in this new ruling are the high school players themselves.

The Blue Chip prospects, such as Derrick Favors or Lorenzo Brown, are not affected with this new ruling. These kids have been sitting on High Major D1 scholarship offers for several years now and already have their tickets punched to the college of their choice this Fall. Rather, the ones who are most severely affected are those Unsigned Senior players, who have Mid-Major D1 aspirations and talent. While the Peach State has received much acclaim for the NBA Caliber hoops talent produced in recent years, the state is also a hotbed for Mid Major Level players. In past years, many of these players would have been able to use the April Period of their senior years to perform in front of of D1 coaches. Hundreds of these college coaches would travel to these events with open scholarships in hand, hoping to spot players who could help their program. Kid plays well, college spots talent, they make an offer, the player accepts, and hopefully goes on to a successful career. A number of Atlanta area kids who have gone that route have gone on to very successful careers at the D1 level over the past few years.

The bottom line is that opportunity is no longer available as a result of the new ruling by the NCAA. The new rules are hurting the kids...not helping them. Now, the only course of action for these players with legit D1 talent is to send out video to schools or to hope that news of a good performance at either an exposure camp or tournament will reach the ears of college coaches. They are heavily reliant upon 3rd parties to recommend them to coaches, while in past years they could get in front of the coaches directly. While D1 college coaches can still travel to a individual prospect's high school to watch a workout, few will do so as a means to initially observe a prospect. The vast majority of coaches are NOT going to travel out of state to watch a kid workout they have never seen play before. This is especially true with the state of our current economy and many colleges cutting budgets. Moreso, coaches would have to travel to hundreds of different high schools to even approach the access they would have available to them at a tournament or camp setting.

The Mid and Low Major D1 schools are also being hurt with this new ruling. Many of these schools relied heavily upon the month of April to identify talent and prospects. They lack the budgets that the traditional Big Conference programs have to recruit and rely heavily upon events where they can see alot of talented players in one location.

In short, this is an NCAA rule that makes no sense. Passing a rule which denies opportunity to kids is wrong and in my opinion, is in conflict with what our great country is about. It is a shame that the NCAA can not legislate in a manner which promotes opportunity for the youth of this country, versus only making decisions to protect their bottom line.