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.
Term-in-Ology: Recruiting Service Consultants
College athletics recruiting has picked back up in recent weeks, with prospects making campus visits and coaches going on the road to evaluate or make in-person contact with prospects. With this recent revival of recruiting activity, it’s worth noting that athletics department staff members may not endorse, serve as consultants or participate on advisory panels for any recruiting or scouting service involving prospects.
The premise being that there could be recruiting service operators with particular sway over certain prospects that, if a coach was endorsing or promoting a particular recruiting service, could result in unfair recruiting advantage.
By definition, a recruiting or scouting service includes any individual, organization, entity or segment of an entity that is primarily involved in providing information about prospects. This definition includes, but is not limited to, any service that provides information only to paid subscribers, any service that is only available to a select group of individuals (e.g., coaches), regardless of whether there is a charge associated with the service, and any service that provides information to the public free of charge; however, this definition does not include any individual, organization or entity or segment of an entity that provides information about prospects incidental to its primary purpose and is generally available to the public (e.g. news media).
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.
