My Thoughts on the NCAA Recruiting Rule Change

The recruiting season is in full swing! Recently, espn.com published two articles articles to discuss the recent NCAA rule changes which primarily deal with college coaches contact with prospective student-athletes. The first article published, player and family perspective; while, the second article showcased college coaches perspective on the new rules.

The rule changes were made in an effort to increase college coaches abilities to develop relationships with their prospects. However, I am wondering if this is the ideal way to develop relationships with teenagers. De-regulate the number of contacts, calls, and modes of social media? Lets delve a little further into this issue....

The full summary of the rule changes can be found on the NCAA website, but here are some of the main points:

• Coaches will be permitted to make unlimited calls and send unlimited text messages with recruits after June 15 following their sophomore year. 
• The deregulation extends to social media (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, etc.) where private messages will be allowed. 

Honestly, I believe this really brings up a bigger, social conversation about our 24-hour access to others. Before social media was the rage, people built in-person relationships with others, they had verbal communications... people actually wrote letters that could be cherished. With these new rules, we are, in my opinion, shifting (at a quicker rate) our society into one in which family is less important because people are "working" around the clock and when dialogue and communications can be taken for granted. Do you believe that stronger, more honest relationships will be formed because two individuals can text and leave messages for the other? I sometimes despise my use of text messaging. It is so difficult to "read" or gauge an individuals tone and true meaning from a text message. And let's not even discuss these young student's practice with writing logical sentences, etc. Secondly, we must remember that these prospects are merely 16 and 17 years of age! This fact is thoroughly mentioned in espn.com article which discusses the topic from the players and families perspective. It will be interesting to learn if more families/teenagers emulate the defensive strategies discussed in the article. 

Conversely, I do see the positives to having the ability to call a student on a more frequent basis. This in my mind would increase relationship-building and allow both parties to be genuine. In the past, Division I college coaches only had an allotted 1 call/month! Strategizing when to make this call was paramount!!! So for example, if a coach called a prospect and they did not answer the phone, they were out of luck! Yikes, this was very frustrating for many as we know how difficult it can be to "catch" someone when they are available to talk. 

What are your thoughts on the NCAA rule change?

How would/will you handle this if you have an eligible son?

Michelyn