The more often than not corrupt and crooked NCAA has taken some steps to be less of the sort, specifically within the sport of college basketball. These sweeping changes come amid a FBI investigation into the seedy recruiting practices from some Universities that included the exchange of money, goods and in some cases sexual favors such as what we saw at Louisville.
The changes announced Wednesday focus on basketball’s bylaws, the recruiting calendar plus further legislation that will provide more entitlements to student athletes.
However the biggest changes are outlined by the following (via CBS Sports):
- All players who get invited to the NBA Combine but go undrafted will have the option to return to their former school.
- Elite prospects will now be allowed to have official relationships with agents. This applies to high schoolers and college athletes alike. USA Basketball, in conjunction with the NCAA, will be tasked with identifying which prospects in a given class are “elite.” In regard to high school athletes, however, the rules will not go into effect until the NBA changes its current age-limit rule.
- The NCAA is requiring all school presidents, chancellors and athletics staff members to contractually comply with any and all future investigations. This is the NCAA’s way of trying to institute a de facto version of subpoena power, which it lacked previously.
- School presidents and chancellors will now personally be held accountable by the NCAA for their athletic departments abiding by the rules.
- The FBI’s case into college basketball brought about mounds of documents of information. Previously, the NCAA did not allow for information and findings from outside investigations at established agencies to be used in its infractions process. Effective immediately, the NCAA and its Committee on Infractions can use information obtained in other probes as a means to an end for its own investigations. This will be implemented immediately by the NCAA with the schools currently caught up in the Department of Justice’s case regarding multiple schools — and alleged violations of multiple federal laws.
- The recruiting calendar, as detailed here, is getting a major overhaul. In a first, college coaches will be allowed to attend the NBA Players Association Top 100 camp each June. Also, the first live period of July will be attendable for non-scholastic events.
In addition to the player entitlements the NCAA will look to implement harsher penalties for programs that could include five-year postseason bans, suspensions for coaches that can last longer than a year and lifetime bans for level-one show cause violations. Whatever that means.
Furthermore the perception of the NCAA seemingly doing the right thing here, which it is most certainly a step in the right direction there’s always some fine print and ambiguity with what the NCAA is laying out.
First It’s assumed the NCAA will determine who ‘elite prospects’ will ultimately be. That in and of itself should be pretty interesting to see how that works out on both ends in terms of the players and NCAA.
Second, not that it’s any kind of fine print but the NCAA is making sure they have even greater oversight when it comes to investigations into potential violators. CBS put it as the NCAA trying to institute a de facto version of subpoena power when it comes to just about every aspect of a University to comply with any future investigations.
Finally when it comes to coaches they will now have to report all income they receive from sports apparel companies. Furthermore the NCAA says they are “pursuing an agreement” with those companies to promote a more transparent environment.
Transparency and the NCAA… how ironic.
Ultimately though what these new rules and entitlements fail to touch though is the idea of paying players or allowing them to benefit from their likeness. Until that happens we’re going to continue to have problems when it comes to violations something no rule can fully extinguish no matter how strict the punishment. And before anyone starts going on about amateur athletics and scholarships, the NCAA and what they helped create is so far behind amateurism. The NCAA essentially prints money at the expense of the players and have been doing so for far too long without being held accountable. And I’m not saying something needs to get done overnight but the NCAA has been extremely reluctant to even have the conversation.
So are these new changes a start to paving the way for fair compensation for the players? Possibly but we also have to be real with all of this. What these new rules actually provide the NCAA is just another way to de-incentivize players and coaches from pursuing their own marketing deals. And if they do the NCAA has implemented ways for the punishments to be far stricter.
