Bylaw 13: Off-Campus Recruiting

Reasonable Standards Review – Division II

The NCAA has bylaws mandating regulations for coaches, administrators and student-athletes. The National Association of Athletics Compliance (NAAC) has established a set of reasonable standards for the purpose of providing guidance to NCAA member institutions. In this blog series, Spry Compliance Director Todd Hairston will review these standards and provide insight on how Spry can help institutions stay compliant and mitigate risk.

Bylaw 13- Off-Campus Recruiting

Off-campus recruiting is an absolute necessity for every athletic program, yet it presents one of the most significant areas of risk from a compliance standpoint because it affects the entire Athletic Department. The vast majority of NCAA violations stem from impermissible recruiting activities, so it comes as no surprise that there are several recommended standards that have been identified within this space. 

Below, we’ll highlight some of these standards and how Spry can assist Athletic Departments in meeting them.

Standard 

• Provide coaches with recruiting calendars at least once a year, update as needed. 
• Send reminders of dead periods in advance.
• Maintain a record of coaches certified to recruit off-campus via the D-II University Education Portal (UEP).
• Submit and approve off-campus visit requests
• Maintain detailed record of off-campus contacts (include PSA name, date of contact, location, UEP approval).

Platform Support

• SpryConnect’s Personnel Management platform will allow institutions to code each staff member according to their title and category and flag impermissible recruiting activities performed by unauthorized personnel.  
• Connect can also assist with standards by sending automated recruiting calendar reminders and alerts for upcoming dead periods through the Coaches’ Dashboard.
• Customized workflows within the SpryConnect platform can facilitate paperless, multi-step intra-department approvals for off-campus visit requests.
• All pertinent off-campus contact data can be housed within SpryConnects recruiting module creating an efficient and reliable tracking solution that meets recommended monitoring standards.

Relevant Bylaws

13.02.4.1 Contact Period. A contact period is that period of time when it is permissible for authorized athletics department staff members to make in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts and evaluations.

13.02.4.2 Evaluation Period. An evaluation period is that period of time when it is permissible for authorized athletics department staff members to be involved in off-campus activities designed to assess the academic qualifications and playing ability of prospective student-athletes. No in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts shall be made with the prospective student-athlete during an evaluation period. 

13.1.2.1.1 Off-Campus Recruiters. An institutional staff member is not permitted to recruit off campus until they have been certified on an annual basis as to knowledge of applicable recruiting rules per Bylaw 11.6.1.1. However, institutional staff members (e.g., faculty members) may contact prospective student-athletes for recruiting purposes on campus or within the locale of the institution’s main campus during the prospective student-athlete’s official visit. 

13.1.6.1 Contact With Prospective Student-Athletes Involved in Competition. Recruiting contact may not be made with a prospective student-athlete at any site prior to any athletics competition (including a noninstitutional, private 4/15/22 112 camp or clinic, but not an institutional camp or clinic) in which the prospective student-athlete is a participant on a day of competition, even if the prospective student-athlete is on an official or unofficial visit. Contact includes the passing of notes or orally relaying information to a prospective student-athlete by a third party on behalf of an institutional staff member. Contact may occur after the prospective student-athlete’s competition concludes for the day and the prospective student-athlete has been released by the appropriate authority (e.g., coach). 

Yes or No

• Question: Is it permissible for a coach to contact a PSA who is a multisport athlete, during a dead period for one of the sports for which the PSA is being recruited?
• Answer: YES, provided the PSA is being earnestly recruited in two sports, and it is a permissible recruiting period for the sport in which the recruiting coach certified to recruit.