New rule proposals for college hoops

The 2010 NCAA convention is going to be held this week in Atlanta, and one of the priorities of the meeting is to reign in and clean up recruiting in DI basketball.

We talked ad nauseam this summer about the pitfalls that go hand-in-hand with chasing the nation's top prospects, many of which will be addressed this week. (The first four below are directly related to recruiting.):

• Proposal No. 2009-99, which would prohibit institutions from hiring for a non-coaching staff position of an individual associated with a prospect for a two-year period before or after that prospect enrolls.
• Proposal No. 2009-100, which would prohibit institutions from hosting, sponsoring or conducting a nonscholastic event in its facilities or in facilities regularly used by the institution.
• Proposal No. 2009-101, which would allow men’s basketball coaches to recruit prospects during an institution’s camp or clinic.
• Proposal No. 2009-102, which would restrict institutions to hiring only enrolled students or men’s basketball coaches at institutional camps and clinics.
• Proposal No. 2009-98, which would limit the number of regular-season games to 28 (or 26 plus a multiple-team event) and establish a “staggered” preseason practice model in men’s basketball that includes an official practice start date of October 1 with increases in practice time through the current 20-hour week beginning October 15.
  
• Proposal No. 2009-97, which would change the counter status for men’s basketball student-athletes on athletically related financial aid who wish to stay at an institution after a coach’s departure but not participate in basketball. The proposal would allow student-athletes to remain on aid and graduate but not count toward financial aid team limits.
  
• Proposal No. 2009-96, which would prohibit more than two physical education credit hours from fulfilling the two-year college transfer requirements (or up to the minimum number required for degrees in the subject).

In layman's terms, what the NCAA is trying to do with the first four proposals is to eliminate package deals (99), putting a stop to AAU tournaments being hosted in the school's arenas creating a de facto recruiting visit (100), and ending the trend of hiring AAU coaches for a school's Elite Camps (101 and 102).

I do have one very specific issue regarding these proposed changes: solely allowing coaches and members of the school's student body to work at that school's basketball camps.

For college coaches, working a camp isn't just a way to make beer money a few extra bucks during the summer. Sure, extra pocket cash never hurt anyone, but the real reason guys lower on the coaching totem poll is the tremendous networking opportunities they provide. Maybe a friend gets you a gig working at the North Carolina summer camp where you impress Roy Williams enough that he offers you a spot as an administrative assistant.

Or maybe you establish a good working relationship with the next Josh Pastner, a young, hotshot assistant coach who is destined to get a head coaching job and fill out a coaching staff in the near future.

I don't need to explain networking to you, you get the point.

Don't get me wrong, I completely agree that there needs to be a rule in place that makes it illegal for college coaches to funnel money to the family and confidants of a star recruit by hiring them to coach at an Elite Camp. That loophole needs to be plugged.

I just don't think it is fair to make a blanket ruling, disallowing anyone not directly associated with the institution to work their camps.

But hey, I'm not just pontificating today. I'm problem solving. Why not make the rule be that in order to work at a college's summer camp, you have to actually be a collegiate coach of some sort? Even if your "coaching duties" consist of filling the water bottles, carrying them to practice/games/the team bus, then emptying said water bottles, your association with a university's basketball team can safely ensure that you won't be bringing along any star recruits.

I like the effort from the NCAA, but I just think that a better change can be made than the one that is currently proposed.