Compliance Corner – Ohio State Buckeyes
7/31/2000 12:00:00 AM | General
With summer quickly approaching and those long hot summer days just around the Compliance corner, the thoughts of many supporters of Ohio State University athletics turn once again to that age old summer ritual: trying to recruit the Buckeyes’ next All-American sensation. Particularly, the men’s and women’s basketball programs rely upon the summer evaluation period to evaluate prospective high school senior student-athletes. The importance placed upon summer basketball camps and the influence wielded by summer league and AAU coaches have helped create a summer basketball recruiting environment that needed to be improved according to the NCAA’s administrative leadership.
In response to the need for improvement in the summer recruiting system, the NCAA Division I Management Council and the Board of Directors, the bodies responsible for approval of any change in a Division I Bylaw, adopted a number of proposals designed to significantly change the way in which prospective student-athletes are selected by Division I institutions. Below is a comparison of the system currently in place and the approved changes which will help Buckeye basketball fans understand and appreciate the gravity of the overhaul made by the NCAA Management Council and the Board of Directors.
CURRENT BASKETBALL RECRUITING SYSTEM APPROVED CHANGES Summer Evaluation Period Summer Evaluation Period July 8 – July 31, 2000 = Summer 2001(Effective August 1, 2000) 24 Evaluation Days 14 evaluation days
Academic Year Evaluation Period Academic Year Evaluation Period 2000 – 01 = 2001 – 02 (Effective August 1, 2000) 40 Evaluation Days 50 Evaluation Days
Athletics Aid Athletics Aid No allowance for summer term Beginning summer term 2001, financial aid before full-time a university may provide athletics collegiate enrollment aid to a men’s or women’s basketball student-athlete for attending the school’s summer term. The student must be enrolled in at least six hours of academic work excluding physical education courses.
Supervision Effective immediately, establishment of a Division I Basketball Issues Committee to ensure oversight of basketball with emphasis on recruiting, enhancement of the public perception of the sport, and making policy recommendations. The above changes serve as the foundation for what the Council hopes is a complete restructuring of the summer recruiting rules for summer 2002. To provide incentive for and a time frame in which to make these changes, all summer basketball recruiting will be eliminated if a new structure is not implemented by summer 2002.
The committee expects the first phase of its work, the actual research and development, to be completed and submitted as a report to the Board of Directors at its January meeting. After this, the data will be used in the development of a new structure to be submitted to the Management Council by April 2001. Following distribution, commentary, and possibly more revision, the final plan is scheduled to be ready for approval by the Management Council and the Board of Directors by October 2001 to become effective for summer 2002.
The Athletic Compliance Office will continue to monitor all of the proposed changes to the current recruiting system of recruiting of prospective student-athletes and report them to the staff of the Department of Athletics and to Buckeye fans in future editions of the Compliance Corner. Also, as one of the largest member institutions in the NCAA, The Ohio State University will play a role in ensuring that the best interests of student-athletes remain at the center of all changes.
As with all information from the Athletic Compliance Office disseminated in the Compliance Corner, the information detailed above represents only a summary of some of the proposed changes planned for the purpose of reforming Division I men’s and women’s basketball recruiting and is not intended to be an exhaustive discussion. Please feel free to contact Heather Lyke-Catalano, Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance, with specific questions in the Compliance Office at 614.292.2681
