There is a lot going on when it comes to NCAA rules changes as they relate to football. Here is a brief summary of the most relevant points brought up today by the NCAA at the AFCA in Charlotte:
Future National Letter of Intent Signing Period Discussion
This is in the discussion phase and not yet a proposal that will be voted on.
NLI Single Signing Period: Would start with the initial signing date (e.g. December 20, 2017 for football this year) and end August 1. In other words, a player could sign an NLI at any time during that more than 7 month window.
The NLI committee will wait through a two-year cycle of the new early signing period in order to evaluate the results before convening and deciding whether to go ahead with the one extended signing period. So the earliest that this could be implemented is probably a couple of years down the road
Impact on Michigan: Most kids would sign on the first date (this year 70% of the national top 100 prospects signed on December 20). But kids could continue to sign at any time before what was then the next signing period (early February). As a result, Michigan could lock up their class even earlier than in February. Under the current system, very few kids sign after the current February signing date, so the extended time (to August 1 from April) probably won’t make a big difference. It is the current 6 week gap period that would disappear.
Proposal to Change Transfer Process
When a player wants to transfer he would officially notify his current school and the school would have five business days to enter the student’s name into the NCAA’s new transfer portal. The appearance in the portal provides transparency for other institutions that he is eligible to be recruited and schools can commence contacting the student at this time. This is a change from the current written waiver process, which is not transparent for all schools out there.
Postgraduate Transfer Financial Aid
Proposal to require institutions to provide financial aid to a postgraduate transfer for the duration of the program he enrolls in after transfer. Could be voted on in June.
This is a hot button topic when it comes to fifth year graduate transfers so I suspect it will not pass. What it means is that if a school lands a graduate transfer it must fund him for the entire program, be it one or four years. Currently, grad transfers are just on scholarship the year/season? that they are playing football. So it becomes more expensive for the school to take grad transfers. More importantly, however, is that so long as the student is attending the grad school he will count against the 85-scholarship limit, even if his eligibility is exhausted after only one season. For instance, if a kid transfers for law school (three years), he would still count towards the 85-limit even after his first year when his eligibility would run its course. He would, in fact, be counted for a total of three years. This would kill off much of the currently thriving grad transfer market and also encourage schools to create custom-tailored one-year programs just to get the kids. Ludicrous proposal.
Transfers
The NCAA Transfer Working Group is looking into (not yet a proposal to be voted on) allowing players a one-time transfer exemption, under certain conditions, whereby the prospect could transfer to another school without having to sit out a year. Conditions would include having a minimal GPA (2.6 was used in the example), being on track to graduate over four years, and the transfer being allowed to happen only during a player’s freshman or sophomore year (the NCAA has data showing that an earlier transfer date has less of a negative impact on academic performance than a later date).
Impact on Michigan: First, I stress this is only in the discussion phase and not yet a formal proposal. In fact, many outside the box ideas have been bandied about, including using a European soccer transfer fee model whereby the school a player is transferring to would pay the initial school a transfer fee (to compensate for player development costs, etc….). That won’t go through, but just trying to illustrate how early they are in this process. In any event, if it were to go through we would see a rash of transfers at schools like Michigan. Some players would transfer “up” to more elite programs while others would transfer “down” (i.e. be processed out in many cases without losing eligibility) to where they can get early playing time. This will help the big-time programs like Michigan in landing kids transferring “up” while placing kids who are not playing at Michigan at programs here they can play sooner. Of course, there is always the danger of losing a great player to another program, but all-in it would be a plus for Michigan albeit it would result in a chaotic transfer market for young players that could help lead to the doom of the sport.
Preseason Practice Model
Slight changes to the current legislation. Will be effective immediately for 2018 season once approved (it will be):
- Permit 25 on-field practice opportunities prior to first scheduled contest
- One day off from all physical activities every seven days (max of two hours film review allowed on that day) (So earliest that one can start practice is 29 days before first contest)
Preseason Practice Participant Limitation
There is a proposal in FBS to increase the number of players who can participate in preseason practice from 105 to 110. (FCS proposal would do away with the limit altogether).
This will pass to at least 110. Impact in Michigan is that more preferred walk-ons can practice in preseason and not wait until the week before the first game (which is already considered an in-season practice).
Football Staff Sizes – FBS
- Rule allowing a tenth assistant coach went into EFFECT TODAY.
- Proposal that an institution may designate up to 30 individuals who may participate in on-campus recruiting activities and written/electronic correspondence. Designated 30 (signed off by AD before first preseason practice) must include all countable coaches and grad assistants. This is VERY controversial since feedback they have gotten from schools is that prospects have contact with between 22 to 187 school representatives on a given visit. NCAA seems to think that only those actively recruiting for football would be included in the 30, but they are vague. For instance, an AD who meets with prospects and tell them how great the school and athletic department are would not be included, but if he starts talking about the football program he would be included. Same goes with academic support people and even profs. Just takes one prof to talk about how great football is to have him violate the rule if he/she is not on the list of 30. Push-back from coaches was that this is almost impossible to enforce, especially with game-day visits of over 130 kids on the same day. We will see what happens here.
- Game Day: Limit access to the team area on the sideline to 60 credentialed persons. Limit the number of headsets that can be used during a game to 15 (but they are transferrable).
Redshirting
A proposal will be voted on before the 2018 season that would permit a player to play in up to four contests within a season without using a season of competition (ie. Not burning a redshirt). This is huge and this is expected to pass. Does not matter if the redshirt season is freshman or a later year. Does not matter when the four games are played. A kid could play in just the final four games of the season (Bowl games are included in the calculation) and still preserve a year of eligibility. This will have a huge impact on Michigan. Some kids will get garbage time that they did not receive beforehand. More importantly, some kids who come on late in frosh season or who must replace injured players can step right in and play up to four games while preserving a year of eligibility.
May Evaluation Period
The current rule is that there is a period from April 15-May 31 when an institution is limited to 168 “evaluation” days (each coach on the road for a day counts as a day) to visit schools and “evaluate “ prospects. Of course, they are not allowed to recruit or meet with the prospects while at the school (which led to the now common “accidental bump and greet”). The proposed rule change does away with that restriction and defines the April 15-May 31 period as a “Recruiting Period” which allows each institution two on-campus “recruiting opportunities” (contacts and evaluations combined) per prospect. Not more than six contacts may occur per prospect (junior and senior years combined).
College Prospect Camps
Last year DI coaches were coaching at off-campus camps (i.e. satellite camps) run by DII and DIII institutions. This circumvented the rules that the NCAA had put into place eliminating satellite camps for DI programs. The NCAA has closed that loophole and will only allow DI coaches to coach at DII or DIII camps if they are on-campus events.
Official Visits
New rule going into effect this year allows for official visits from April 1 through the Sunday before the last Wednesday in June. However, such official visits cannot be in conjunction with attending the school’s camp.
More on my thoughts from the conference, for better or worse, later today.
Future National Letter of Intent Signing Period Discussion
This is in the discussion phase and not yet a proposal that will be voted on.
NLI Single Signing Period: Would start with the initial signing date (e.g. December 20, 2017 for football this year) and end August 1. In other words, a player could sign an NLI at any time during that more than 7 month window.
The NLI committee will wait through a two-year cycle of the new early signing period in order to evaluate the results before convening and deciding whether to go ahead with the one extended signing period. So the earliest that this could be implemented is probably a couple of years down the road
Impact on Michigan: Most kids would sign on the first date (this year 70% of the national top 100 prospects signed on December 20). But kids could continue to sign at any time before what was then the next signing period (early February). As a result, Michigan could lock up their class even earlier than in February. Under the current system, very few kids sign after the current February signing date, so the extended time (to August 1 from April) probably won’t make a big difference. It is the current 6 week gap period that would disappear.
Proposal to Change Transfer Process
When a player wants to transfer he would officially notify his current school and the school would have five business days to enter the student’s name into the NCAA’s new transfer portal. The appearance in the portal provides transparency for other institutions that he is eligible to be recruited and schools can commence contacting the student at this time. This is a change from the current written waiver process, which is not transparent for all schools out there.
Postgraduate Transfer Financial Aid
Proposal to require institutions to provide financial aid to a postgraduate transfer for the duration of the program he enrolls in after transfer. Could be voted on in June.
This is a hot button topic when it comes to fifth year graduate transfers so I suspect it will not pass. What it means is that if a school lands a graduate transfer it must fund him for the entire program, be it one or four years. Currently, grad transfers are just on scholarship the year/season? that they are playing football. So it becomes more expensive for the school to take grad transfers. More importantly, however, is that so long as the student is attending the grad school he will count against the 85-scholarship limit, even if his eligibility is exhausted after only one season. For instance, if a kid transfers for law school (three years), he would still count towards the 85-limit even after his first year when his eligibility would run its course. He would, in fact, be counted for a total of three years. This would kill off much of the currently thriving grad transfer market and also encourage schools to create custom-tailored one-year programs just to get the kids. Ludicrous proposal.
Transfers
The NCAA Transfer Working Group is looking into (not yet a proposal to be voted on) allowing players a one-time transfer exemption, under certain conditions, whereby the prospect could transfer to another school without having to sit out a year. Conditions would include having a minimal GPA (2.6 was used in the example), being on track to graduate over four years, and the transfer being allowed to happen only during a player’s freshman or sophomore year (the NCAA has data showing that an earlier transfer date has less of a negative impact on academic performance than a later date).
Impact on Michigan: First, I stress this is only in the discussion phase and not yet a formal proposal. In fact, many outside the box ideas have been bandied about, including using a European soccer transfer fee model whereby the school a player is transferring to would pay the initial school a transfer fee (to compensate for player development costs, etc….). That won’t go through, but just trying to illustrate how early they are in this process. In any event, if it were to go through we would see a rash of transfers at schools like Michigan. Some players would transfer “up” to more elite programs while others would transfer “down” (i.e. be processed out in many cases without losing eligibility) to where they can get early playing time. This will help the big-time programs like Michigan in landing kids transferring “up” while placing kids who are not playing at Michigan at programs here they can play sooner. Of course, there is always the danger of losing a great player to another program, but all-in it would be a plus for Michigan albeit it would result in a chaotic transfer market for young players that could help lead to the doom of the sport.
Preseason Practice Model
Slight changes to the current legislation. Will be effective immediately for 2018 season once approved (it will be):
- Permit 25 on-field practice opportunities prior to first scheduled contest
- One day off from all physical activities every seven days (max of two hours film review allowed on that day) (So earliest that one can start practice is 29 days before first contest)
Preseason Practice Participant Limitation
There is a proposal in FBS to increase the number of players who can participate in preseason practice from 105 to 110. (FCS proposal would do away with the limit altogether).
This will pass to at least 110. Impact in Michigan is that more preferred walk-ons can practice in preseason and not wait until the week before the first game (which is already considered an in-season practice).
Football Staff Sizes – FBS
- Rule allowing a tenth assistant coach went into EFFECT TODAY.
- Proposal that an institution may designate up to 30 individuals who may participate in on-campus recruiting activities and written/electronic correspondence. Designated 30 (signed off by AD before first preseason practice) must include all countable coaches and grad assistants. This is VERY controversial since feedback they have gotten from schools is that prospects have contact with between 22 to 187 school representatives on a given visit. NCAA seems to think that only those actively recruiting for football would be included in the 30, but they are vague. For instance, an AD who meets with prospects and tell them how great the school and athletic department are would not be included, but if he starts talking about the football program he would be included. Same goes with academic support people and even profs. Just takes one prof to talk about how great football is to have him violate the rule if he/she is not on the list of 30. Push-back from coaches was that this is almost impossible to enforce, especially with game-day visits of over 130 kids on the same day. We will see what happens here.
- Game Day: Limit access to the team area on the sideline to 60 credentialed persons. Limit the number of headsets that can be used during a game to 15 (but they are transferrable).
Redshirting
A proposal will be voted on before the 2018 season that would permit a player to play in up to four contests within a season without using a season of competition (ie. Not burning a redshirt). This is huge and this is expected to pass. Does not matter if the redshirt season is freshman or a later year. Does not matter when the four games are played. A kid could play in just the final four games of the season (Bowl games are included in the calculation) and still preserve a year of eligibility. This will have a huge impact on Michigan. Some kids will get garbage time that they did not receive beforehand. More importantly, some kids who come on late in frosh season or who must replace injured players can step right in and play up to four games while preserving a year of eligibility.
May Evaluation Period
The current rule is that there is a period from April 15-May 31 when an institution is limited to 168 “evaluation” days (each coach on the road for a day counts as a day) to visit schools and “evaluate “ prospects. Of course, they are not allowed to recruit or meet with the prospects while at the school (which led to the now common “accidental bump and greet”). The proposed rule change does away with that restriction and defines the April 15-May 31 period as a “Recruiting Period” which allows each institution two on-campus “recruiting opportunities” (contacts and evaluations combined) per prospect. Not more than six contacts may occur per prospect (junior and senior years combined).
College Prospect Camps
Last year DI coaches were coaching at off-campus camps (i.e. satellite camps) run by DII and DIII institutions. This circumvented the rules that the NCAA had put into place eliminating satellite camps for DI programs. The NCAA has closed that loophole and will only allow DI coaches to coach at DII or DIII camps if they are on-campus events.
Official Visits
New rule going into effect this year allows for official visits from April 1 through the Sunday before the last Wednesday in June. However, such official visits cannot be in conjunction with attending the school’s camp.
More on my thoughts from the conference, for better or worse, later today.
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