Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Compliance Tip of the Week


The volleyball coaches at Ocean State University are planning their recruiting trips for this spring.  There are several tournaments they want to attend but have to make sure they do not exceed the total number of evaluation days or the maximum number of evaluations per prospect.

Here is the plan for the next recruiting trip:

Assistant Coach attends a tournament Friday, Saturday and Sunday and watches 8 different teams
Head Coach attends the same tournament Saturday and Sunday and watches 4 teams…the same as the assistant coach

How many evaluation days were utilized?
How many total evaluations were utilized?

A.      5 evaluation days and 1 evaluation
B.      2 evaluation days and 1 evaluation
C.      1 evaluation day and 1 evaluation
D.     5 evaluation days and 2 evaluations


The answer is A.  The assistant coach used 3 evaluation days and the head coach used 2 evaluation days even though they were at the same event at the same time.  NCAA Bylaw 13.02.7.2 states that an evaluation day is defined as one coach engaged in the evaluation of any prospective student-athlete on one day (12:01 a.m. to midnight).  Two coaches making evaluations on the same day shall use two evaluation days. The combined total of such days for all staff members shall not exceed 210 in football (270 for U.S. service academies) [42 during the fall evaluation period (54 for U.S. service academies) and 168 during the spring evaluation period (216 for U.S. academies)], 50 in softball and 80 in women's volleyball. (Adopted: 1/9/96 effective 8/1/96, Revised: 1/12/99 effective 8/1/99, 4/27/00 effective 8/1/01, 4/25/02 effective 8/1/02, 4/28/05 effective 8/1/05, 1/14/08 effective 8/1/08, 4/14/08, 1/16/10 effective 8/1/10)
Because the event was a tournament conducted on consecutive days, the coaches only used one evaluation for the prospects they watched.  NCAA Bylaw 13.1.7.15 state that evaluation during each day of a tournament held during the academic year shall count as a separate evaluation except as follows (see Bylaw 13.1.4.1.4.1):  (Revised:  3/22/06)
(a) Evaluation of multiple contests in a tournament that occurs on consecutive days (and normally at the same site) shall count as a single evaluation.
(b) Evaluation of multiple contests in a single tier of a tournament (e.g., sectional, district, regional) shall count as a single observation.  If a particular tier of a tournament is subdivided into identifiable segments (e.g., conducted on different weekends), evaluation of contests in each identifiable segment counts as a single observation.  (Revised:  1/14/97)

Thanks to Jennifer Conderas at the BigEast Conference for the excellent example on recruiting days.