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.
