As of today, Division I men’s basketball coaches are able to send unlimited texts and make unlimited calls to recruits who have finished their sophomore year in high school.
Kelvin Sampson was so ahead of his time. He got in trouble by making too many phone calls to recruits when he was the coach at Oklahoma and then was caught doing the same thing as the coach of the Indiana Hoosiers. That act basically cost him his job, his career in the college ranks, and put the Indiana basketball program on probation.
I explain the old rules the coaches had to obey and how the new changes will affect the way NCAA men’s basketball coaches use social media. Will more followers mean more blue-chip recruits?
Under current NCAA rules, coaches can call a recruit just once a month from June 15 after his sophomore year to July 31 after his junior year. The recruit is permitted to call coaches as often as he wants. Coaches can make two phone calls a week to a recruit starting Aug. 1 after his junior year. Text messages are strictly prohibited. A coach cannot publicly message a recruit on Twitter or any other social media platform.
Those rules are no longer valid. All contact via phone, text, or tweet will be unlimited. I wonder how many of ESPN’s Top 100 will block certain coaches’ numbers?
The NCAA Division I Board of Directors adopted the rule that was recommended by its leadership council. They believe that it will help make a closer bond between the player and coach. Transfers will be reduced and the student athlete will receive the most out of their basketball career.
The Board of Directors has its heart and mind in the right place with this rule. If they want to help secure a bond between the coach and a player, why will they still make a player sit out a year if the coach that recruited him takes another job? If the NCAA wants to keep saying that a player signs with a school and not a coach, this rule goes against that notion. They need to tweak the transfer system if they want to avoid speaking out of both sides of their mouth.
Can you imagine if this rule was implemented while Bob Knight was still recruiting? His Twitter account would be the most followed of all NCAA coaches. He would go on post-game tirades and throw virtual chairs at referees with RTs from upset fans. Oh, what a great time that would have been.
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The #11 play-in game has Middle Tennessee (28-5) playing St. Mary’s (27-6).
