Outlawing July Recruiting
The story that is tearing through the college basketball world today is that the 31 Conference Commissioners have voted 31-0 to ban July recruiting.
When I heard this I simply couldn't believe that the Commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference or any other non BCS conference would remotely think this is a good idea. Turns out, the report of a unanimous 31-0 vote is incorrect, as the Atlantic-10 Commissioner has stated that she, and a lot of others, didn't vote for this. This issue bears close watching as it would be a disaster for programs that don't have unlimited recruiting budgets.
A10 COMMISH: 'I AM AGAINST ELIMINATING JULY RECRUITING'
Thursday, October 21, 2010, 02:12 PM EST [General]
By Matt Norlander
NEW YORK — The news sweeping across the college basketball landscape today is that of 31 college conference commissioners reportedly voting 31-0 in favor of wiping out the July recruiting period.
But Bernadette McGlade, the commissioner of the Atlantic 10, said today she voted against such legislation — and she wasn't the only one.
“It wasn’t a 31-0 vote,” McGlade said at the conference's media day. “I was at the commissioner’s meeting, and it was not a unanimous vote. I don’t know what the exact numbers were, but it wasn’t unanimous."
Most coaches in the sport are against the legislation because it would force them to recruit during the season, thus taking some attention away from coaching their teams between October and March.
McGlade said there are commissioners who are seeking the legislation be reviewed, then sent to a recruiting board, who could tweak and make suggestions on what to do in July.
"Basically, the recommendation (from some commissioners) was to go to the Board of Directors, that they consider proposing legislation to eliminate the July recruiting. There have been a number of commissioners, me being one, that have directly contacted the Board in the last three weeks and said, ‘We recommend you do not sponsor this legislation. If anything, if you want to review it, send it back to the recruiting committee to review it.’”
McGlade recognized some flaws with the current recruiting calendar, but added that nixing out the most critical time of the year for evaluating recruits wouldn't necessarily solve the inherent issues.
“(I am) against eliminating July recruiting,” she said. “I think it’s like with all recruiting issues: If there’s a known problem, the best thing to do is pull back the curtains, get some transparency and try to correct the problem. The old saying, ‘You don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater’ — July recruiting provides a really great opportunity for, not only the coaches to go evaluate student-athletes, but think about the number of student-athletes, prospects, that can be in one location and have a chance to be evaluated. It’s a two-way street that’s not a perfect situation, but I think you’ve got to look at what are the ills, and then try to correct the ills, but also keep what’s good.”
Atlantic 10 coaches have spent the majority of this media day addressing the issue and pondering how they could continue to compete with BCS schools if such legislation ever took effect. Because of that, McGlade has spent the morning and afternoon discussing what did happen at the meetings, and what is likely to happen in the next week with the A10 coaches.
"I think probably everyone in a lot of the conferences are doing what I’m doing today, sort of calming the troops,” McGlade said.
The Board of Directors will meet in Indianapolis on Oct. 28, and that’s when it will decide if it should put into action legislation to knock out July recruiting.
“If that did (happen), that would go through a cycle through the next six months,” McGlade said. “So it’s not quick. But, on the 28th, they could also decide, ‘No, that’s a little drastic. Let’s send it to a recruiting committee and you look at it, find out what the problem is and bring it (the proposal) back."
McGlade wouldn't speculate or predict what will happen one week from today in Indianapolis, but she remained optimistic.
When asked if this ordeal would end up not leading to eliminating the July recruiting period, McGlade said, “That’s what I hope.”
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