Iowa State University is now the most recent school to get tangled up in a mess of recruiting violations. In the past two years alone, 33 different coaches and nearly every athletic team there totaled 79 separate NCAA violations in regards to recruiting.
Now, Iowa State is on probation for two years, is subject to fines and will most likely be docked on available athletic scholarships for years to come. All because of 1,484 impermissible phone calls.
Sound strikingly familiar?
In 2011 the University of Connecticut faced a similar predicament when it was discovered that men’s basketball coach, Jim Calhoun, was found guilty of not complying with NCAA recruiting regulations.
Again, there were over 2,500 “off-the-books” phone calls and text messages made to one of the players UConn attempted to recruit from 2005-2008. Due to Calhoun’s recruiting violations, UConn suffered a reduction in athletic scholarships, as well as being put on probation through February of 2014.
Another notable recruiting violation scandal happened to Baylor University back in 2008 where 1,200 calls and texts were uncovered resulting in, again, probation, recruiting restrictions and scholarship deductions.
The NCAA should just do away with limits on phone calls and text messages and make everyone’s lives easier. I can only imagine what a trainwreck it must be trying to log thousands of phone calls and text messages on a daily basis, especially if they are calls that go straight to voicemail or you don’t even get in contact with your prospective recruit.
Iowa State claims that 82 percent of its impermissible phone calls fell under this category.
Shockingly, the NCAA made a step in the right direction back in January that would free coaches from phone call and text message restriction starting in August of this year. The response was surprisingly negative.
More than 75 institutions claimed that removing the cap on calls and texts would “consume” coaches’ lives. This seems a little ridiculous to me considering the alternative is logging every individual phone call and text message. I would find that to be much more stressful than allowing texting to take over my life. Regardless, because of this absurd concern, there is a meeting scheduled to revisit the recruiting rendition May 2.
With today’s technology increasing and social media blooming, recruiting regulations are becoming more and more inhibiting — everything is consulted via text messages these days therefore they should keep the new rule in place.
Nothing is being accomplished by putting a cap on the number of times you can call a prospective athlete. How much difference is one extra phone call or text to a recruit really going to make in the long run?
The fact that the cap was ever in place is ridiculous to begin with.
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