Significant changes to summer recruiting process around the corner

[Quality Is Job 1]

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/the-ncaa-listened-after-college-basketball-coaches-complained-about-changing-recruiting-rules/

[Cowboy]

-very interesting, I read this as Nike's EYBL event got some preferential treatment and am guessing adidas and UA are not pleased

-I wonder if SLU will try to get that jamboree event? of course, if the goal is to somewhat level the playing field, which was not mentioned, it shouldn't be on any college campus

-I do like trying to get more emphasis on high school ball and less emphasis from the shoe companies

-the question of how does this help the kids is not immediately clear to me unless you play in EYBL which it seems will continue to live, my the swoosh wields some heavy influence

[billiken_roy]

I hate aau.   No credentialed coaches, huge corporations throwing money around, high school kids traveling the world enticed with clothing and travel expenses.   My God talk about messed up messages and priorities.   

If the NCAA had any balls the entire summer would be a dark period imo.   Give the summer back to the high schools and turn up the emphasis even more on academics.   

There will be plenty of time for these kids to be NBA stars.   

 

 

[Old guy]

1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:

I hate aau.   No credentialed coaches, huge corporations throwing money around, high school kids traveling the world enticed with clothing and travel expenses.   My God talk about messed up messages and priorities.   

If the NCAA had any balls the entire summer would be a dark period imo.     

Clearly this is a situation of balls and principles versus money, marketing and PR. As is often the case money, marketing, and PR have gained the upper hand.

[Pistol]

I understand the reaction against AAU, which is certainly a flawed and easily corruptible system. However, eliminating additional periods in the summer only hurts the players. Think about how many guys are getting better exposure over the summer, and how many of them might play at small schools, geographically remote schools, or otherwise harder-to-recruit areas.

So the main changes are that June will no longer be closed off to campus recruiting and the July period (currently 3 5-day recruiting periods) will start in June and see the later July long weekends eliminated. The Peach Jam, always on the first of the three July periods, will be preserved (along with the UA and adidas events that weekend). Coaches get 2 3-day road recruiting periods in June now. This probably means the end of June team camps at colleges, being replaced by state-sanctioned events. Then there's the large camp weekend, run as a joint effort between the NCAA, NBA, and USA Basketball. The idea is to get shoe companies further away from recruits. Also, April will have 1 open weekend instead of 2 when the calendar necessitates avoiding Easter, the NCAA Tournament, and SAT/ACT test dates (2019 will have 1 open weekend, 2020 will have 2).

One of my main issues with the July evaluation periods is that events are too geographically spread out. Coaching staffs have to divide up instead of being able to run around the same city; Vegas at the end of the month has been the exception in recent years. The shoe companies should've/could've at least agreed to have their events in the same metro areas each weekend in July. It probably would've helped them win over coaches in the long run, since staffs could then travel together and meet in person every day. I guess the changes help in that regard a little bit by eliminating some weekends, but I'd still like to see the shoe companies be forced to have their events close by.

I'm not sold on a large camp weekend being favorable for anyone except lower-ranked recruits who otherwise wouldn't be at these events. I get the idea players MUCH prefer game events to camp events, and I personally think they're better for evaluations, as well. I guess it depends on how the camp weekend is structured, though, so I'll at least hold out hope that it could be all right - but the logistics of up to 2000 players at one event seems like a nightmare.

I don't see where the change saves time for coaches. One 5-day period in July is replaced by 2 3-day periods in June. It saves a little money; they're charged for the information packets provided by AAU tournament hosts that have all the player info listed.

It's unclear who will actually host the new June HS team camps. I have a lot of questions about these.

Overall, it looks like more travel and less exposure for players. That doesn't seem worth it to me, for just marginally less shoe company influence and minimal change to college coaches' travel time and budgets. There's also no barrier constructed between agents and players' families; that doesn't change at all. I also wonder if we'll see some non-sanctioned events pop up.