Athletics Veritas is a weekly series aimed at helping higher education executives, faculty, and other stakeholders stay tuned in on trending national issues impacting college athletics, especially NCAA Division I. Athletics Veritas is created by senior DI athletic administrators around the nation.
Modern(ization) Love – NCAA Mobilizing Quickly on Rule Changes
Executive Summary
The Division I Board of Directors is spearheading a faster-paced legislative process to modernize the Division I rule book
The Board of Directors’ Infractions Process Committee identified the first wave of proposals for the modernization that were proposed in October and adopted in November
Rule changes will happen closer to real time
Focal points in first wave of modernization effort focused on eliminating outdated rules that were a monitoring and enforcement burden
Removal of tobacco prohibition in NCAA rule book defers matter to institutional health and safety policies
NCAA recruiting rules that some considered more pedestrian in relevancy or created "optics only" advantages are being deregulated.
NCAA publicity rules that were an overreach are being red-lined.
The resulting deregulation will place more pressure on Division I member institutions to be comfortable in their own skin (and budget) to make local decisions and not expect NCAA rules to create one-size fits all rules.
From his early 1980s new wave hit ‘Modern Love,' David Bowie sang “…things don't really change…I'm standing in the wind… But I never wave bye-bye…..But I try, I try….”
Several increasingly outdated NCAA rules haven’t materially changed in years and are leaving many in the NCAA membership standing in the wind. The NCAA’s legislative modernization effort does reflect the NCAA membership’s intent to try and spur real change – eliminate crusty rules that generate more squeeze than juice. The first wave of modernization legislative track proposals have been adopted and are now on the books, or, more accurately, are now off the books.
Here are five proposals recently adopted by the Division I Council and now effective as part of the modernization track to bring the NCAA Manual in to the 2020s:
2021-10: Eliminate the legislated prohibition on the use of tobacco products. This adopted proposal recognizes that a prohibition on the use of tobacco is more appropriately addressed as a health and safety policy or within playing rules, as opposed to an operating bylaw in the NCAA manual that requires monitoring and enforcement oversight.
2021-11: Eliminate restrictions on endorsement of specific entities and individuals associated with prospective student-athletes. The proposal does not allow college coaches and staff to be employed by a recruiting or scouting service or an event involving prospects, but the adopted proposal does eliminate the endorsement provision that restricted coaches and staff from endorsing (e.g. social media endorsement) recruiting and scouting services. The remaining limitations (e.g., employment, consultant, advisory panels) continue to apply.
2021-12: To eliminate the content and production restrictions on video/audio recruiting materials and eliminate the restriction on express mail services. The biggest pivot from this adopted proposal is to now permit coaches to provide a prospect with personalized video/audio material provided the prospect has reached the first permissible date to receive recruiting materials. It also allows institutional discretion to use outside marketing firms to create the audio and video material to be provided to a prospect old enough to receive recruiting correspondence.
This adopted proposal also allows schools to send the audio and video material via a digital media storage device (e.g., DVD, flash drive) which had become a point of contention within Division I years ago as those “tangible” items were proliferating into something beyond simply a storage device. Lastly, schools now can send printed recruiting materials by express or priority mailing services, should they choose – a microcosm of the macro-institutional discretion and local decision-making that will be a continuous theme to similar deregulation pivots through this modernization era.
2021-13: To eliminate the general restrictions on recruiting advertisements, as specified. The primary change in direction this adopted proposal allows is for Division I schools to have more latitude to buy athletically-related recruiting ads in high school game programs and other sponsorship outlets. These permissible ad buys could include those funds going back to a high school athletics department or team as part of a fundraiser, provided the recruiting promotion or advertisement was purchased at the going rate for such ads. Such ads could not publicize or otherwise reference a particular prospect. This adopted proposal also still requires institutional camp or clinic advertisements to indicate that the camp or clinic is open to any and all entrants.
The rationale driving these particular changes noted that information related to institutions and their athletics departments is readily available in the digital age. There would be minimal, if any, recruiting advantage gained by advertising an institution's athletics program, including in recruiting publications. Further, current restrictions make it unnecessarily difficult to advertise and promote institutional, conference and NCAA events that are not related to recruiting.
2021-14: To eliminate the restriction on the presence of media during recruiting contact after a prospect has signed a National Letter of Intent or the institution's written offer of admission and/or financial aid or after the institution has received the prospective student-athlete's financial deposit in response to its offer of admission.
Currently, the presence of media during recruiting contact restriction is the only publicity restriction that applies after a prospect’s written commitment like a signing a National Letter of Intent. The elimination of the restriction will provide further clarity and consistency to the NCAA membership regarding publicity after commitment. The presence of media during recruiting contact that occurs prior to commitment would remain impermissible.
2021-15: To permit an institution to send electronic correspondence to multiple prospective student-athletes who have not signed a National Letter of Intent or the institution's written offer of admission and/or financial aid or from whom the institution has not received a financial deposit in response to its offer of admission. This proposal acknowledged that prospects often become aware of each other through other permissible recruiting activities (e.g., visits to campus). Allowing multiple prospects to participate in electronic correspondence with each other and authorized institutional staff (e.g., group text message, group email, etc.) would not pose significant publicity concerns. This approach also invites more practicality and efficiency in to the communications – communicating similar message to a group of prospects versus having to send the same message on individual basis.
Substance, Expediency, and Immediacy are the Headlines
In making these changes, the common motivator was to eliminate rules that were outdated and/or had their value overshadowed by the cost to monitor, enforce, and educate coaches, prospects, media, and others on the nuances and applicability of these rules, some longstanding, to present-day realities including digital information and social media.
One of the most significant aspects to these rule changes aren’t the rule changes themselves, but the expediency by which these came about.
These concepts had been bantered about for years within the industry, but these proposals were officially sponsored in early October 2021 and were adopted on November 17, 2021 – about six weeks later. In NCAA legislative calibrations, that is lightning fast.
Lastly, the adopted proposals have immediate effective dates which also reflects the commitment to more timely act on the legislative landscape to update the NCAA manual, eliminate the bloat, and make these changes a reality more quickly.
This pace could improve the faith within the NCAA membership that real-change can happen in real-time.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
