You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division I Council has adopted sweeping reforms for college football recruitment that will, among other substantial changes, create an earlier signing period for prospective recruits.
Legislation approved Friday by the council still must pass the Division I Board of Directors, which is scheduled to meet April 26.
Among the changes:
- A shift to the recruitment calendar that allows for an earlier signing period in December, beginning this year.
- Recruits can make official visits to campuses in a period beginning April 1 and extending to the end of June, but visits can’t interfere with a prospect’s high school camp or clinic.
- Bowl Subdivision institutions can’t hire anyone “close to” prospective student-athletes for two years before and after a student’s anticipated and actual enrollment at a college or university.
- Bowl Subdivision institutions are allowed to hire a 10th assistant coach, effective January 2018.
- Bowl Subdivision institutions can only sign 25 prospective and current players to a first-time financial aid agreement or a National Letter of Intent. Student-athletes enrolled at the school for at least two years, or prospective or current players who suffer an incapacitating injury, are excluded from this requirement.
- Bowl Subdivision coaches and staff members can’t participate in more than 10 days of camps and clinics in June and July at a campus or other facilities regularly used for practice or play.
- Coaches employed at a camp or clinic can engage in recruitment conversations, with educational lessons on eligibility, gambling, agent rules and drug regulations being required.
The Division I council also has barred twice-daily practices, mirroring the actions of Division II and II leaders of the NCAA recently.
Teams now are allowed to practice an additional week earlier.
Sports science research teams within the NCAA have determined that a majority of concussions and deaths occur with “consecutive periods of contact,” Bob Bowlsby, chairman of the Division I Football Oversight Committee and commissioner of the Big 12 Conference, said in a recent conference call with reporters.
