Bombshell: NCAA approves proposal to prohibit college coaches from issuing early scholarships

Eric-Paul Johnson, Associated Press
The NCAA committee has approved a proposal which would prohibit college coaches from issuing early scholarship offers, the Associated Press reported. Under this proposal, coaches would not be allowed to offer scholarships to prep athletes until the summer between the recruit’s junior and senior years. Recently, many athletes have been offered and accepted scholarship offers during their freshman year and there have been some cases of coaches offering scholarships to middle school athletes. (To continue, click thread)


According to the AP report, college coaches would have to receive transcripts documenting at least five semesters or seven quarters of academic work before they can make a scholarship offer to the recruit. Petrina Long, the chair of the NCAA Recruiting and Athletics Personnel Issue Cabinet committee, acknowledged the rule will be difficult for compliance officers to monitor. Long, who is the senior associate athletic director at UCLA, said the proposal came about because recruits and their families felt pressure to make decisions too soon. Long also told the Associated Press that college coaches expressed concern about the pressure to “keep up” on offering scholarships to younger players or risk losing them.

The proposal also would allow more flexibility for college coaches to contact a recruit, allowing for one phone call to a player and their family once a month from June 15 of the sophomore year through July 31 of the junior season. Coaches would be able to call a prospective recruit twice a week beginning August 1. This rule already is in place for basketball and would be expanded to include all sports except football.

The proposal will not be voted on by the NCAA legislative council until January and could be delayed until April.

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