What the new NCAA recruiting rules mean for players, coaches

Don’t worry. The spectacle you’ve grown to love — or hate, or both — isn’t going away.

The NCAA approved sweeping changes to college football’s recruiting model on Friday, including the ability to set up an earlier signing date for recruits. Many pieces of a comprehensive reform bundle were designed to relieve pressure on those high schoolers and their families — and also, though this isn’t exactly a stated goal, to reduce the hype that attends it all.

But the circus is just coming to town a little earlier.

That running back is still going to tug on your school’s hat — or your rival’s. That defensive back you covet is going to pull a live alligator from a bag. All of the wackiness is still in play — and will likely still be beamed live, all over everywhere — it’s just moved up a couple of months on the calendar.

When it gets final approval this summer, college football will add a December signing date to go with the first Wednesday in February. Things are going to be different. In some ways, better. Recruiting in college football has been spiraling out of control for a long time. It needed serious reform.

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And yet, much figures to remain the same.

“We’re dealing with a very entrepreneurial group,” acknowledged Bob Bowlsby, speaking mainly of college coaches — but essentially of anyone connected with the process. “There will certainly be lots of thoughts on how to gain an advantage and how to work the (new) system to optimal outcomes.”

Bowlsby, commissioner of the Big 12 and chairman of the NCAA’s Football Oversight Committee, noted the overwhelming consensus toward adding the signing date in order to allow a highly pressurized process to finish earlier. It’s a good idea — as were many of the other rules passed Friday by the NCAA’s Division I Council.

Among them:

► Adding a 10th assistant coach for FBS programs (effective January 9, 2018).

► Altering the recruiting calendar to allow for earlier official visits (now April-June for high school juniors).

► Essentially ending “satellite” summer camps by restricting them to a 10-day period on a school’s own campus, while allowing coaches “to have recruiting conversations” with players at the camps.

► Prohibiting the hire of an “individual associated with a prospect” (IAWP) either to work at camps or for a full-time position in a support staff role if the school has recruited those players during a period two years before the hiring or plans to do so two years after. This proposal raised concern among some coaches, who said it effectively prohibits the hiring of high school coaches — though they can be hired as an on-field assistant.

► Limiting schools to signing 25 players per year, ending the practice of oversigning.

The entire package is a necessary step, and long overdue. Bowlsby called it “the most comprehensive, impactful legislation in football recruiting” during his time in college athletics. Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips, chair of the NCAA’s Division I Council, called it “transformational.” Neither was really overstating anything.

The entire bundled package had something for everyone — and some things some folk really, really didn’t like. But in that regard, it’s noteworthy that the American Football Coaches Association was heavily involved in the process. During the AFCA’s annual meeting in January, members voted to support the overall bundled package.

“This is the most I’ve seen the AFCA and its board (of trustees) engaged in any initiative in my 30 years in the business of intercollegiate athletics,” Bowlsby said.

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There are very legitimate quibbles. The IAWP rule that essentially prohibits the hiring of high school coaches for off-field roles mirrors that of college basketball — where the practice of hiring people in order to gain a recruiting edge is much more prevalent. Though it’s happening now in college football, it’s hard to call it a trend.

It seems like they grabbed a hammer to kill a gnat. But … gnats multiply. With the recent proliferation of support staff sizes at larger FBS programs, there’s certainly more potential for abuse in hiring.

And that’s the thing about all of this. As with most NCAA legislation, the basic attempt is to legislate against human nature. An earlier signing period, for example, will alleviate some pressure on some recruits, yes. But it will accelerate the process, too. And it won’t eradicate the issues (or probably, even those elaborate signing ceremonies).

“I would be the first to admit this package is not perfect,” Bowlsby said. “But it is impactful in ways that move us significantly forward.”

He’s right. Most of these changes were good. There’s room for more in the future.

But while calendars can be tweaked, it in some ways that just means an earlier start. Loopholes can be closed, but others will open. As long as it’s important to lure very talented football players to campus — meaning, always — the circus will remain open for business.

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