Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Cost of Living Stipend Feedback

Funding Student-Athlete Stipends Adds to Northwestern's Costs

As schools all over the country are beginning to address whether or not they have the financial support to fund the full $2,000 cost of living stipends recently approved by the NCAA Board of Directors, even some schools at the BCS level are finding that they may struggle to support the stipends.  While some conferences are getting involved and either mandating the stipends, or prohibiting them, the decision will still come down to the individual schools in most cases.  Bigger schools have more revenue streams from a variety of sources, but the proposition of adding several hundred thousand dollars to the budget is not something to glance over.  In order to receive the stipends, a student must already be on a full scholarship and bigger schools also have more students on the full ride scholarships, meaning more costs associated with the stipends.  While the cost implications are certainly a major factor when looking at the stipends, there can also be potential Title IX implications as well, something this article touches on as well.  That is going to depend on what prong a school is using to comply with Title IX, but issues can certainly arise if a school is looking to add the stipend for many of their male athletes on full rides; doing that may certainly mean that the school will need to provide the stipend to at least a portion of their female athletes on full scholarships. 

President Emmert is quoted in the article as saying that fine tuning of the BOD legislation that was passed will take place over the coming years, which is a reversal of how the NCAA legislative process normally works.  It will certainly be interesting to see what, if any, modifications are made to the financial aid and eligibility issues as we move towards these being implemented across the NCAA membership.

Friday, November 18, 2011

The Great Baseball Card Debate

Russell Wilson's Baseball Card for Sale on eBay

The University of Wisconsin Compliance Office is sending out cease-and-desist emails to eBay selleres who have Russell Wilson's baseball card up for auction.  While the article is a bit cynical about NCAA amateurism rules, it is not uncommon for Compliance Offices to send out these notifications companies or publications that use the photo of a current student-athlete without anyone at the Athletics Department's knowledge.  Commonly, this happens when a photo is taken off of the athletics website and re-used without anyone's knowledge.  This case is a bit unique because Wilson is a legitimate two sport athlete and the card company got his photo at spring training.  As long as either the student or the University make an effort to stop the amateurism violation that is occurring, that will be sufficient in most cases, but it is not uncommon to see this type of reaction to a possible Bylaw 12.5.2.2 issue.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Impact of the NCAA Board of Director's Changes

NCAA Legislation will Impact Initial Eligibility

The Atlanta Journal Constitution provides some interesting insight into the new initial eligibility requirements that were approved last month by the NCAA Board of Directors.  According to research data put out by the NCAA, 43% of men's basketball players who initially enrolled in college for the 09/10 school year would not have met the recently approved initial eligibility standards.  That same number for football was at 35% and when looking at all student-athlete's initially enrolling in 09/10 was just over 15%.  While the new eligibility requirements do not bring back partial-qualifiers, students who meet the current eligibility requirements will still be allowed to receive aid and practice in their first year; the difference being that these students will automatically be eligible for four years of competition following their "academic redshirt".

Initial eligibility was not the only area addressed by the BOD, they also revised the APR standards and penalty structures.  The new APR benchmark will be 930 over a four year period, an increase of five points from the previous benchmark score.  The penalty structure will also be changing to reflect the renewed focus on academics.

The good news with all of this is that both the APR and the initial/transfer eligibility requirements will be phased in over the next several years.  The APR benchmarks will be implemented over the next three year period, while the freshman eligibility requirements will go into effect for the Fall of 2015/16- which are this year's current HS freshman.

If you would like to get a more detailed description of all of these requirements, please plan to attend the Monthly Coaches Compliance Workshop, which will be tomorrow morning (Wednesday November 16th) at 10:30AM.  The meeting will be held in the HLC Conference Room.  We hope to see you there!

Monday, October 31, 2011

Men's Basketball Coaches, Recruits Weigh in on Rules Changes

Feedback on New NCAA MBB Recruiting Model

Last Thursday the NCAA Board of Directors met with the purpose of reviewing NCAA rules and regulations in several areas.  Among the areas that the Board touched on were initial eligibility requirements, transfer eligibility requirements, APR benchmarks, scholarships and recruiting issues in Men's Basketball.

This article offers interesting insight into the legislation that was modified in Men's Basketball because it reached out for opinions from current DI Men's basketball coaches, AAU coaches, recruits and the parents of recruits. Several of the revisions that were made were targeted at allowing college coaches earlier access to recruits.  While this may seem counter intuitive from an NCAA standpoint, the idea in the Men's Basketball world is that allowing earlier access directly to the recruits will cut down on the influence that third parties will have on the recruiting process.

Each piece of legislation enacted by the Board of Directors will carry a different effective date.  Changes to the APR and to initial/ transfer eligibility will go into effect two to four years from now.  This will allow coaches and student-athlete's to plan to meet the new standards established by the legislation.  As for the men's basketball specific pieces of legislation, coaches will now be able to recruit at non-scholastic events held in April starting with the April of 2012.  Along with that, the recruiting calendar for July 2012 will be scaled back from what it has been in the past.  The rules which will allow the earlier access carry an August 1st, 2012 effective date.  After that date PSA's will be allowed to make official visits during their Junior years of high school (in Men's Basketball only).

The Compliance Office will have more information on all of the proposals passed by the Board of Directors as soon as the Head Coaches Meeting this Wednesday.  There is a very good chance that it will also be a main topic of the November Coaches Compliance Workshop, which is Wednesday November 16th at 10:00AM in the SkyDome East Suites.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Huskies Cancel Alumni Shootaround

Washing Dumps Scrimmage After Radio Interview

The University of Washington has canceled  an alumni scrimmage after one of the coaching staff members mentioned the upcoming scrimmage during a radio interview.  The publicity about the event is at the heart of the issue because of the wording in specific Bylaw 14 bylaw.  The shootaround, which would have otherwise been permissible on an "occasional" basis, is now not permissible due to the public announcement.  This specific bylaw differs from the Bylaw 17 rules which allow the closed scrimmages as soon as the start of the permissible playing season in Basketball.  These closed scrimmages, which are against outside competition and not a group of alumni, must be closed to the public, cannot be publicized and no score can be kept.  Exhibition basketball games that are open to the public can also be held as soon as the permissible playing season starts, these are games against non-division one schools and can be publicized and open to the public; in fact, St. John's played one of these games last night in New York.

Publicity also plays a role in several other NCAA bylaws, including many of the bylaws that deal with recruiting and signing NLI's; two other big topics that will be in the news two weeks from today when recruits from several sports will be lighting up fax machines all over the country. 

Just a few examples of how publicity plays into the NCAA manual.  I hope that these situations help to serve as reminders to think before you speak!!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

New Housing Information



  Attached are the links to the websites for the new campus dorms.  The website now has information on floor plans and it does list rental rates for the various housing options.  From what is now listed online, it appears that rent will range from $559 per month to $599 per month depending upon the layout.  It also appears that the “Hilltop Dorm” will have a 12 month lease and the “Suites” will have a 10 month lease term.

The contact information for the leasing company is listed online.  There will also be representatives from the leasing company at the three remaining home football games.  The company will have an informational table set up on the West concourse, which is the student seating side of the Dome.

Bobby Knight Meets with Prospective Student-Athlete's

Pat Knight gets Helping Hand from Father

It is being reported that Bobby Knight may have had interaction with two prospective student-athlete's being recruited by Lamar University, where Pat Knight is now the coach.  We have talked a lot about this as it relates to our staff, more specifically when it comes to interaction with boosters, as is mentioned in the article.  You all know that at the beginning of the year, each coaching staff submits a coaching declaration form as required by Bylaw 11.7.4.  Which also limits the number of countable coaches each team can have and how many of those countable coaches can be off-campus recruiting at any one time.  In order to interact with our current student-athlete's in a coaching capacity, a coach must be listed as one of that teams countable coaches.  This interaction would include having any type of skill related or instructional conversations with current student-athlete's  The same thing applies when talking about recruits, in order to recruit a prospect, or enter into a recruiting conversation, a coach must be declared a countable coach; additionally, they must have passed the NCAA recruiting test in order to recruit at off-campus locations.  A recruiting conversation would be any discussion that is designed to elicit a prospects ultimate enrollment at NAU.  This could include discussions of how a recruit would fit into the team or any discussion of offering financial aid or a scholarship to the student.

Friday, October 14, 2011

ASU Basketballer Waiting on Initial Eligiblity Decision

Sun Devil Sitting Out Pending Eligiblity Center Decision

Sun Devil recruit Jahii Carson is currently sitting out pending an initial eligibility decision.  The story mentions that he may have taken a course towards the additional core course that he is allowed after his graduation date.  With the regulations regarding non-traditional courses and initial eligibility that went into effect on August 1st, 2010, there could be a lot of potential issues with the additional course that Jahii took.  It could range from the amount interaction that he had with the course instructor to the time frame that it took him to complete the course.  The article also touches on the fact that he is currently sitting out and not attending team functions, which could likely mean that he has used up his 21 day temporary certification time and is now sitting out because no decision has been made on his case.

If you recall from our Legislative Proposal review in September, there is legislation out there that would potentially require a recruit to have their seven semester transcripts submitted to the EC prior to being allowed to sign an NLI.  This would help the EC to get early academic qualifiers certified in a more timely manner and would also potentially help by requiring that students who attended multiple HS's to get those transcripts tracked down before July and August roll around.  The latter issue is one that has cause a lot of students to exhaust their temporary certification periods in the past. 

There is also talk that CAP and other NCAA level academic panels may soon look to require prospective student-athlete's to have a certain number of core courses completed after two or three years of HS in order to be on track to be a qualifier.  This would put an end to PSA's getting behind in their early years of HS and then loading up on summer courses/ online course or JC courses in their final year to make up ground towards becoming a qualifier.  None of this is in writing or proposal form yet, but it may well be something that we see coming out in the next legislative cycle, so stay tuned.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

NCAA will not Penalize Auburn for Newton Recruitiment

NCAA Clears Auburn Football

The Enforcement staff at the NCAA has cleared Auburn of any major violations related to the recruitment of Cam Newton; though they do reserve the right to reopen the investigation if any new information surfaces in the case.  Both Julie Roe Latch and President Emmert had vowed to complete a full investigation into the situation when all of this news broke last fall.  The NCAA has made a point of following through with punishment in the recent "high-profile" cases, though in this case it was stated that this case did not meet the "burden of proof", perhaps suggesting that there was something there, just not enough to file a major violation. 

However, this does not mean that the NCAA is dropping the issue of runners/ agents and over-involved parents.  This years legislative cycle included a proposal that would expand the definition of an agent.  In a few months after the NCAA Convention we may find out if President Emmert's efforts to close the "Cam Newton Loophole" will pay off by cracking down on agents and the shopping around of student-athlete's.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

NCAA Chapter 13 Presentation

NCAA Bylaw 13 - Recruiting Materials Presentation

All, attached is an advanced preview of the Recruiting presentation that we will have for all of your tomorrow at the October Compliance Workshop.  We may also present this at the Wednesday October 19th staff meeting at the DuBois Center.

Please let Lee or myself know if you have any topics that you would like covered at tomorrow's workshop.  In additional to this rules ed session, we will have a discussion of the upcoming NLI signing period, which begins Wednesday November 9th.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Tennessee Chattanooga learns from the past

UTC Athletics More Compliant Following Violation

At Tennessee Chattanooga, their Compliance Office discovered and self-reported secondary text messaging and phone call violations.  Upon submitting the violation, the NCAA implemented additional penalties for the secondary violation, including a probationary period.  Regular reports are always part of a probationary period, and it no surprise that following the violation, the issue was addressed and went away moving forward.  What is interesting about this article is that the NCAA asked the institution to go back and look for similar phone call or texting violations over the past two years.  It is an interesting thought, especially for a secondary violation, which could then lead to something more severe, especially since the Compliance Office will be looking into an area where there was just a violation.  That may be something that could be implemented as a best practices for all of us who go through secondary violations, it would certainly help to identify the scope of the problem going back beyond the what most recently happened or was self-reported.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Cincinnati Reports Phone Log Violations

Cincinnati Reports Recruiting Violations to NCAA

The University of Cincinnati has self-reported excessive phone calls to the NCAA.  The excessive phone calls occurred over the period of approximately a year and were limited to the Football and Women's Basketball staff.  The violations were reported through a process called the Summary Disposition process, where the school works cooperatively with the NCAA Enforcement staff to agree upon the facts of the case.  This process is beneficial because it keeps the violations private and out of the news until the process is resolved; the downside of the summary disposition process is that the institution loses the opportunity to appeal the sanctions.  However, it is typically a moot point for schools choosing this method because they are working so closely with the Enforcement Staff.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Trouble Continues to Follow Kiffin from Knoxville

Former UT Coach Paid for Unofficial Visit

A coach on Lane Kiffin's USC staff, who recently resigned, is now rumored to have provided  expenses for a PSA to make an unoffiical visit to UT.  There is a big difference between NCAA Bylaws 13.6 (Official Visits) and 13.7 (Unofficial Visits) and at the heart of those differences is who is paying for the visit. 

Students coming to campus on unofficial visits can drop in at any time, since there are (at least currently) no age restrictions on when a PSA can take an unofficial visit.  On the unofficial visits, our coaches cannot have off-campus contact with a PSA and we cannot purchase meals for them.  All of that changes when a student is on an Official visit; where the institution can provide transportation, lodging and meal expenses for a student.  However, with those privileges, we must limit all of our official visits to no longer than 48 hours. 

Just some brief reminders on the do's and don'ts of hosting recruits on campus.  One final reminder that all officials visits need at least seven days pre-approval, while all unofficial visits need to be logged and tracked for your records.

Monday, June 20, 2011

CAA Proposes Fifth Year of Eligibility

CAA Backs Fifth Year Plan for FCS Football

The CAA appears to be proposing a legislative proposal for this fall that would allow FCS Football student-athlete's to play in a five for five scenario.  It is an interesting proposal, said to combat the fewer number of scholarship athlete's on an FCS team, and the often difficult decision coaches may face when redshirting a student versus saving the year and playing a walk-on.  There appears to be built in provisions for FBS students looking to transfer down for a fifth year; it appears that a student would need to spend at least two years at the FCS school to qualify, at least as the proposal is said to be written. Given that FCS and FBS votes are now separate, it could play out differently that it would have in the past.  Currently, there are sport specific rules for financial aid, recruiting and academic eligibility, but it is hard to imagine a sport specific rule for athletic eligibility.  NCAA eligibility at all levels has been built on the four years of eligibility model and this would mark a radical change from that point of view.  Maybe we will learn more about this as we head towards the fall legislative cycle.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Coaching Exam Dates

We have now set dates and times for the annual NCAA coaching exam.  I will post a sign-up sheet in the Compliance Office, just to help gauge how many people will be showing up at each date.  I would really like to stick with these three dates, but if it is absolutely necessary to add more dates we can do so.


Wednesday June 8th     1:00 – 2:00PM

Wednesday June 22nd   8:00 – 9:00AM

Wednesday July 13th     8:00 – 9:00AM

All exams will be in the computer lab at the South LAC building.
This year’s test is 30 questions, with 24 of 30 being the lowest passing score.  The time limit has also been adjusted to 60 minutes maximum.

The Compliance Office will bring copies of the new legislation and the NCAA manual for you to use.  Please try to be on-time to the session you are attending, we will go over instructions and log-in information at the start of the session.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Boise State Program Halts International Recruitment

Boise State Imposes Two-Year Ban for Track Program

International students are a big part of many NCAA programs, however, recruiting internationals can be more complicated that recruiting domestic students.  International students need Visa's, I-20's, financial guarantees, TOEFL scores and that is just on the admissions side of things.  The leagues and the competitions oversees often push the limits of what is considered 'amateur' competition, and that, combined with many internationals students delaying their enrollment cause the international students to often run into NCAA amateurism issues as well.  It seems to be an interesting self-imposed penalty on Boise State's part, but certainly does not have to be an overly detrimental  penalty for the track program.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Cost of an NCAA Major Violation

Boise State Puts 200K Into Investigation

 It recently came out that Boise State has spent over $200,000 on outside council to defend themselves against the 22 allegations their program faces.  The school has sought the services of two separate law firms that specialize in NCAA compliance cases since they were first informed of the allegations nearly two years ago.  The law firms, combined with the efforts of in-house legal council and compliance staff, drafted a 1,500 page response to the NCAA allegations. Despite the money and the man hours that have gone into BSU's defense, the school has still self-imposed penalties as a proactive response to the allegations.  It remains a possibility that the school can still face additional penalties after appearing before the NCAA Committee on Infractions later this summer.  All in all, it goes to show that you can invest a great deal of time and money into an infractions defense and still not get off the hook without any penalties; which goes to show that following the rules from the start is the way to be.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Incoming Student: Housing Information

Yesterday was the deadline for incoming students who had already filed housing applications to pay their $175 housing rent confirmation fee.  If your team had an incoming student who still needed to pay the charge, we worked with you throughout the later part of last week to get you that information.  We are happy to report that everyone paid the charge and no one was dropped from housing.

From this point forward, once a student files their housing application, they will have seven days from the date the rent charges are posted to pay the $175.  If the student fails to pay the charges within that period of time, their housing application will be cancelled. If you are still adding incoming students to your list, please work with them and pass this information along.  On campus housing space will be valuable again this upcoming year and we would hate for someone to miss their deadline and get dropped from housing.

Here is some additional information regarding housing:
Residence Life: Incoming Student FAQ

Monday, May 9, 2011

NAU Spring Finals Week Information

NAU Dining Hours

All, please take a look the attached dining schedule for this week.  The last meal covered under the on-campus meal plans will be Dinner on Friday May 13th.

All on-campus students must be moved out of their dorm space by Friday May 13th at 10:00AM.  Please be sure to inform your on-campus students of these important deadlines.

If you have student-athlete's who took part in the Textbook Rental Program, rental textbooks are due back to the bookstore by the end of the day Tuesday May 17th.  If the books are not returned by then, the credit card they put down as a deposit will be charged for the balance of the book.

We hope all of your finals week activities go well.  Good luck to our graduating Seniors and we wish everyone a good summer!!!

Compliance Tip of the Week


Strike Zone is a baseball student-athlete at Ocean State College (OSC).  Strike is going to transfer to another institution this fall and has received permission to contact other institutions.  One of the schools that is recruiting Strike is Bay State University (BSU).  The coaches at BSU are hosting a few summer camps in June and July and would like Strike to work the camps.  Is it permissible for Strike to work the camps?




No.  NCAA Staff Interpretation- 5/2/11- Four-Year College Transfer Employed at Institutional Camp (I)- states that a four-year college student-athlete who has received written permission to contact another NCAA institution is considered a senior prospective student-athlete. Therefore, such an individual may not be employed (either on a salaried or volunteer basis) at an institutional football camp. In sports other than football, such an individual may not be employed at an institutional camp (either on a salaried or volunteer basis) if he or she is being recruited by that institution or if he or she was a high school, preparatory-school or two-year college athletics award winner.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

NCAA Decision on beRecruited.com

Coaches, if any of you are receiving emails from beRecruited.com, the NCAA has evaluated their services and determined that they currently do not meet the requirements of NCAA Bylaw 13.14.3.  If you receive an communication from their service, we cannot utilize their services; so please don't until we provide word that they are in compliance with NCAA regulations.

UPDATE
The NCAA has updated their decision on beRecruited.com.  It has now been determined that the service meets the requirements of 13.14.3 (e) and as such can now be used by coaches.  

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Title IX Participation Numbers Inflated?

College Teams, Relying on Deception, Undermine Gender Equity

NY Times article describing some of the creative attempts by various programs to achieve parity with respect to Title IX participation reporting.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Information For Incoming Students

The Northern Arizona University Athletics Department hopes that your son or daughter is excited about arriving on the NAU campus this fall. Realizing that it can be both an exciting and overwhelming time for many families, we have put together this page with links to helpful information from departments all over campus.  After looking at these resources, if you still have questions regarding the admissions/enrollment process please call either your coach, the Compliance Office or the Academic Services Office.

Admissions
NAU Admissions Homepage
Phone:  (928) 523-5511
Admissions Checklist - Prior to Enrollment
The first day of classes for the fall 2011 semester is Monday August 29th.

Bursar's Office
NAU Bursar- Homepage
Phone:  (928) 523-3122
LOUIE- Make A Payment
How To Set Up A Parental Payment Account
Important Tuition Due Dates
Tuition & Fee Rates

Financial Aid Office
NAU Financial Aid Office- Homepage
Phone: (928) 523-4951
Arizona Prop 300 Information - All students receiving any kind of financial aid in the state of Arizona must complete Prop 300 prior to initial enrollment.  Failure to complete this requirement will prevent your son or daughter's financial aid from disbursing; it also means your son or daughter will be charged the out-of-state tuition rates.  It is very important to complete the requirements of Prop 300.  To do this, you can either fill out the federal FAFSA application or fax a copy of your son or daughter's drivers license to (928) 523-1414.  Be sure to write you sons/ daughters name, home address and NAU ID number on the fax.
FAFSA- Federal Aid Application
NAU's school code:  001082

Dining Services Office
NAU Dining Services- Homepage
Phone: (928) 523-2372
Dining Services- Meal Plan Options & Rates - All on-campus freshmen on an athletic scholarship that covers a full dining plan will receive the 19 meals per week plan, which includes $50 per semester in Dining Dollars.  All changes to freshmen meal plans must be approved by the NAU Athletic Compliance Office.  Purchase of any additional dining dollars is the responsibility of the student.
Add Dining Dollars To Your Account

Housing/ Residence Life Office
NAU Residence Life- Homepage
Phone:  (928) 523-3978

Housing Applications & Rates
New Housing Application
2011/2012 Freshman Residence Hall Rates
2011/2012 Upper Division Student Housing Rates
Dorm Specific Information
What to Bring To Your Dorm
Residence Hall Dimensions & Sketches
Residence Hall Front Desk Phone Numbers
Important Dates
Res Life- Important Dates- If you son or daughter is not competing on one of our fall sports teams (Football, W Volleyball, W Soccer or men's & women's cross country), the dorms will open for all students to move in on Thursday August 25th at 9:00AM local time.

Fronske Health Center
NAU- Fronske Health Center- Homepage
Phone:  (928) 523-2131
Immunizations Fax:  (928) 523-1102
NAU- Required Immunizations Form - All incoming students must fill out this form and send proof of their immunizations to the Fronske Health Center prior to enrollment in the fall.
Student Health Plans
Fronske- Services Offered

NAU Parking Services
Parking Services- Homepage
Phone: (928) 523-6623
Parking Permits Rates- Parking permits are not covered by NAU athletic scholarships.  If you son or daughter has a car on campus, a parking permit will be required.
NAU Bus Routes and Schedules

If you still have any questions that are not answered through the links above, please feel free to call the NAU Athletics Department.  We are always more than happy to help you get the information you need to be prepared for fall semester.

Academic Services Office:
Pam Lowie -  Men's Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer, Track & Field/Cross Country, Golf
Diana Ulrey-  Football, Women's Basketball, Swimming & Diving, Men's & Women's Tennis

Compliance Services Office:
Scott Renfro- Financial Aid questions, Outside Scholarships questions.
Lee Prestwood- NCAA Initial Eligibility questions, Amateurism questions or Eligibility Center related issues.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Senderoff Gets Second Chance

Kent State Gives Senderoff New Life

So often you hear about coaches who are involved with major violations and then they drop off the college sports landscape.  Being associated with a major violation is something that no coach wants to have on their resume; it is a black cloud that can follow you around for your entire career.  That is not the case with former IU assistant coach Rob Senderoff.  He was one of the assistant coaches on Kelvin Sampson's staff that placed over 100 impermissible calls to recruits a few years back.  Senderoff, however, found a second chance at his former school Kent State.  They were willing to go in front of the COI and justify their hire, even when Senderoff faced additional penalties for his actions.  Now just a few years later, Senderoff has been elevated to the head coach at Kent State.  It is certainly an interesting story for Senderoff, while Kelvin Sampson has been out of the NCAA ranks since the incident, relegated to being an assistant coach in the NBA.  It is certainly makes a strong case for playing by the rules; if you needed more incentive.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Social Networking and Recruiting

A Recruit’s Friend, a Team’s Fan and a Headache for Colleges

New York Times article that discusses how the advent of social media sites impact recruiting. The article contains several anecdotal examples that provide a useful reminder of how fluid developments are in this area and the need to be mindful of activities when utilizing these media.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Official Visit Form Update

NAU- Official Visit Request Form
All- We have updated the official visit request form on the NAU webpage. The SSN has been taken off of the form and replaced with the NCAA ID number.  The Eligibility Center no longer works off of SSN's, so you don't need to ask for those.  We can now search for student's by name, state or even high school; it is a much better system.  NCAA ID numbers are ten digits long, that is the number that you should ask for from a student when looking to bring them in on a visit.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Tennessee Checks Up on Martin's Compliance Past

Martin Has Two Prior Secondary Violations
I have talked about it in the past, it sounds like Tennessee checked into Cuonzo Martin's history of secondary violations while at Missouri State.  It is no surprise that UT took rules compliance seriously when looking for a new coach.  It sounds like NCAA violations may have limited the chances of Richmond's Chris Mooney landing the Volunteer's head spot.  Under Mooney, Richmond had a major violation involving phone calls and text messages.  Taken together, it is another example of how a number of small violations can follow you around and have a potential impact on your chances at landing other jobs (we hope that everyone wants to stay right here in Flagstaff!).

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Dez Bryant Sued for Loans from College

Bryant Sued for Past Due Loans

Cowboy's WR Dez Bryant is alleged to have accepted over $800,000 in loans from financial advisors/agents during his last year-and-a-half at Oklahoma State.  Bryant was suspended for nearly all of the 2009 football season for lying to the NCAA about an encounter he had with Dion Sanders.  Bryant spend much of that fall training for the NFL draft, and supposedly, spending lots of money too.  Wearing lots of fancy jewelry or driving around campus in a newly tricked out car can be one of the things that tips off compliance officers (and the media/public) that a student-athlete may be coming into some money from somewhere.  It is interesting that in the recent documentary on the Michigan Fab 5, at the end of the show, Mitch Albom states that if Chris Webber really did receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from booster Ed Martin, he and his family certainly weren't spending it or showing it off.  Now that Dez has moved on to the NFL, it becomes a case of did they know/ should they have known at OSU and could be another case where the student-athlete gets out of town before the storm and the school is left to deal with the aftermath.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Interesting Article on Pell Grants

Pell Grants Face Cuts, Possible Overhaul

This is an interesting article on the Federal Pell Grant program and its outlook for the future.  Just like many other government programs, it is facing a lot of uncertainty moving forward and will undoubtedly face change of some kind in the future.  The Pell program is a valuable program for both students and student-athlete's alike and, in its history, has helped many students to be able to afford to go to college.  We have a number of student-athlete's who benefit from the program, so I thought it would be an interesting read for our coaches.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Graduation Success Rates of NCAA Tournament Teams

Analysis of Men's Tournament Field

Men's Field v. Women's Field

The Institute for Diversity & Ethics in Sport (TIDES) from the University of Central Florida has released its annual analysis of the academic success of the teams in this years NCAA tournament fields.  They found that 60 of the 64 teams in the women's tournament field graduated 60% or more of their players, while on the men's side 42 of the 68 teams graduated at least 60% of  their players.  All of the teams in the women's field graduated more than 50% of  their players, while 51 men's teams (76%) graduated more than 50% of their players.  The articles go into more detailed analysis of both graduation rates and APR scores, and much of the analysis indicates change for the positive; the one exception appears to be on the men's side, where white student-athlete's appear to be graduating at higher rates than African American student-athlete's.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Don't Bet On It!!!!

NAU Athletics coaches and staff, just a reminder that you are not allowed to bet on the upcoming NCAA basketball tournaments, NIT, CBI or CIT- or my personal favorite, the upcoming NCAA hockey tournament.  As athletics staff members we are not allowed to wager anything of monetary value on a sport sponsored by the NCAA .  That goes for any level of that sport, whether it is pee-wee hockey, high school, college or the pro's.

Feel free to watch the games and root on your alma maters, just don't put any money (or anything else of monetary value) down on your teams to win.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Text Messages Land SMU on Probation

SMU Men's Basketball on Probation

There have been several recent cases where you have heard that a coach has lied to investigators, withheld information or been dishonest in one way or another.  Doing that certainly does not gain you favor with anyone when it is time for the punishment to come down.  In this case involving SMU, we get a chance to see the opposite effect.  Matt Doherty, the head coach at SMU, sought the compliance offices advice before sending texts to the parents of several prospective student-athletes, which he was told was alright.  Doherty later heard from other sources that the texts were not permissible, which the school then self-reported; it was determined to be a major violation due to over 100 impermissible texts being sent.  There was still a punishment involved for the school and the program since a violation had occurred, but in the decision, the COI noted that the coach had received the wrong information about texting parents, but followed through and self-reported once he knew there was a violation.

Please let this case serve as a reminder that texting a prospective student-athlete, or his/her parents, before they have signed a National Letter of Intent is a violation.  Further, whether you have contact with, call or email a prospective student-athlete's parents, the NCAA Manual considers that the same as having that interaction with the recruit, so you need to count that as a contact or a phone call in all of your logs.

Friday, March 11, 2011

UGA has signing day mishap

Ray Drew's announcement leads to NCAA violations

When HS linebacker Ray Drew made an announcement of the school he was planning to sign his NLI with, NCAA violations resulted from two former UGA players being present at the announcement.  The former players were invited to Drew's signing event through some connections he had made with the former players in the Atlanta community.  The former players did not consult with the UGA Compliance Office prior to attending the event, thinking that it would not result in a violation; however, they were photographed at the event, which lead to the Athletics Department finding out and reporting the violation.  Even though neither former player had been considered a "Representative of athletics interests" at UGA, when they attended Drew's announcement they were considered to have assisted in his recruitment; the announcement taking place at Drew's high school (off-campus), lead to that encounter being an evaluation- and as you all should know only countable coaches who have passed the recruiting test can recruit off-campus.

It is an interesting case, please remember that coaching staff's cannot attend signing events for PSA's (the UGA coaches declined an invitation to Drew's event for that reason).  Along those same lines, PSA's and their friends/family cannot attend the institutions announcement of its NLI signees (Bylaw 13.10.9.2).

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Spring Break Dining Hours

NAU- Spring Break Dining Hours

The attached document contains the dining hall hours for over spring break.  Please note that there will be no on campus food service on Saturday March 12th, Sunday March 13th or Saturday March 19th.  Very limited options will be open Monday March 14th through Friday March 18th.  If students wish to purchase an on campus meal during that time, they will need to pay with cash, credit or dining dollars; they will not receive their 19 meals per weed during Spring Break.

Many of the regular dining options will reopen on Sunday March 20th.  Please check the attachment for a complete list of locations and hours.