https://keepplayingbaseball.or...ng-rules-april-2023/
Pretty good read. It is hard not to get caught up in the numbers. The good thing about numbers (for me) is that I can show him the progress he is making. Here is where you were last year, here is where you are at now. Keep working hard on getting bigger, faster, stronger.
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Thanks for sharing. In theory, these look to be very promising changes but we'll have to see how it pans out in practice. As I was reading the blog, I kept thinking..."well, what about camps?". I got my answer, and I agree that camps just became 100x more valuable. What is said, not said, or body language at a camp will become very important. Those that have been through it know when a coach is gushing over a recruit. Now, there are rules about when a coach can gush over a recruit and try to lock him up and tie him down with a verbal commitment.
Fantastic news from my perspective, but how is is going to be enforced. That remains the one question that I don't have an answer for. The NCAA has a reputation for looking the other way when it serves their purposes (or the programs making the money), and when it doesn't serve their purposes they follow the letter of the law. My son's college coach got an NCAA nasty-gram because one of his teammates took a pillow from a hotel. According to the letter, they were going to cancel their entire season. Really? How about something less drastic. Eventually, the pillow made its way back to the hotel and the NCAA watchdogs were called off the case....probably investigating a non-revenue athlete throwing recycleable materials into a garbage can.
We shall see. There is hope.
DAD of 3:
Please consider the Baseball IQ. "getting smarter".
The 6th Tool! Can the 6th Tool be measured? It definitely can be evaluated.
Bob
In the big picture nothing has changed …
Nothing to do with the article itself, but I really wish they would put dates on their blog posts. Obviously this is recent but if someone doesn't know you don't know if you're reading something current or weeks/months/years old. And all of this is time sensitive material.
@RJM posted:In the big picture nothing has changed …
- Recruits can initiate communication with college coaches at any point in time
- 3rd parties can help facilitate communication times and messages to circumvent the rules and assist with recruiting dialogue between college coaches and recruits
According to the article, they can’t do that? Or do you mean that will still happen?
@Consultant posted:DAD of 3:
Please consider the Baseball IQ. "getting smarter".
The 6th Tool! Can the 6th Tool be measured? It definitely can be evaluated.
Bob
That is one thing my 2027 has. He has made comments to me that made me think, “yeah, that’s right”. Meaning, I didn’t even think about that.
No. You're misreading "current" - that was before 2023. The article says that those things CAN'T happen now:
New Communication Rules Starting April 26, 2023
- Coaches AND Players cannot initiate communication prior to August 1 of junior year (the summer before junior year for many players)
- 3rd party communication between a college coach and a high school/travel ball coach to a recruit or recruits family is now against the rules prior to August 1 of the summer before junior year
The third party communication will always go on to some extent. Whether the NCAA wants to call it illegal or not is immaterial.
True. But the way it's written, a coach should not be communicating directly with recruit before the date, because how would that happen if neither was allowed to initiate conversation? I'm sure it will happen, but it will be easier to detect.
For example, how would a kid commit earlier than junior year, if he wasn't officially able to talk to the coaches? Entirely through camps? If kids continue to commit, surely that might indicate illegal communications?
The whole reason for changes is to slow down the process.
I am not sure of the exact rule, and exactly how it works will try to find out.
I don't see why a player who attends camps often, knows the staff, not be able to committ.
Probably a lot like tampering...when guys go in the portal knowing where they are headed. It's not supposed to happen but it does.
Yes, I'm sure stuff will go on. But the rules say (this is from here https://www.ncsasports.org/bas...iting-rules-calendar):
- Effective starting June 2023, the NCAA prohibits any communication between Division 1 coaches, potential recruits, and anyone speaking on behalf of the athlete before August 1 of their junior year.
Now I'm sure a college coach can still call a travel coach and say, "tell Joe to come to our camp." BUT:
- Recruiting conversations are forbidden between recruits and college coaches during camps prior to September 1 of the athlete’s junior year of high school.
So, if an underclassman makes a public commitment to a school, everyone will know that some rule must have been broken.
So I wonder if early commitments will go away? or go underground? (but what would that mean?)
@TPM posted:The whole reason for changes is to slow down the process.
I am not sure of the exact rule, and exactly how it works will try to find out.
I don't see why a player who attends camps often, knows the staff, not be able to committ.
Kids can attend camp whenever they want. Have some connection to coaching staff, but they can't receive recruiting materials or have a conversations about it.
13.4.1.1- Recruiting materials can't be sent to an individual prior to August 1 of Junior year of HS.
13.12.1.5.2 - Recruiting conversations are not allowed to occur before September 1 of Junior year of HS.
A little unclear to me if an offer can be part of the "recruiting materials" on August 1, but it seems to be that an offer can't be extended until September 1 (or at least, can't be accepted until then because I would envision that the acceptance would be a "conversation.")
Obviously, there is a cohort of '26 and younger recruits that accepted offers prior to the rule change. So, you will see some commits and that is within the rules. But, they too can't have any two way communication outside of camps. That was the case for my '25 son who committed prior to the rule change. There was one last call with the coaching staff in April and then silence until August.
Yes, there will be some coaching staffs that break these rules, just like there were some that broke rules in the prior system. Our experience was that the vast majority played by the rules. As a parent, it would be telling to me if a coaching staff was blatantly breaking the rules (especially with a 14-15-16 yr old kid).
As for ML scouts, they fall outside the NCAAs membership so they have no authority to restrict anyone's ability to communicate with them.
Thank you for posting and citing the rules.
It's important for parents to understand the process and how it works.
Best of luck to your son!
I wanted to add my last paragraph in my post above came off as confusing.
What I probably meant was that attending camps helps build relationships. You can't talk about recruiting until it's time for that discussion. You can talk with the coach as much as you want!
Sorry for that.
