Big Ten not all too excited about new, wide-open football recruiting rules
Big Ten coaches, which already got called out for being bad at recruiting by Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, don't like the new expanded recruiting rules.
And don't think Meyer is laughing at the Big Ten wanting to keep the regulations that protects the coaches' free time and schools' budgets, because Meyer is at the forefront of fighting some of the rules that would lead to recruiting becoming an even bigger job than it is already.
In a statement sent out by the conference the Big Ten's coaches and athletic directors argued that the implementation of the proposals, of which there are 26 including some that could go into effect on July 1, should be tabled for more discussion. There were three proposals in particular the Big Ten is not pleased with.
The proposals the Big Ten are concerned about: lifting the rule requiring recruiting coordinators to come from the coaching staff that would in effect allow programs to build large non-coaching recruiting staffs (proposal 11-2), the lifting of limits on communication including text messages (proposal 13-3), and the elimination of restrictions on sending printed recruiting materials to prospects (proposal 13-5-A).
All three proposals would broaden recruiting in a huge way.
"We have serious concerns whether these proposals, as currently written, are in the best interest of high school student-athletes, their families and their coaches," the statement said. "We are also concerned about the adverse effect they would have on college coaches, administrators and university resources."
While this might look like a plea from the Big Ten not wanting to fall even further behind, say, the SEC in its recruiting madness, there appears to be some sanity in their desire to pump the breaks on making recruiting a wild, wild west situation.
If you don't think it'll make things crazy, here's a passage from Orangebloods.com on the situation, specifically regarding schools being able to build a separate support staff that can take part in almost all aspects of recruiting:
In talking with one source about the subject this weekend, I was told, "Alabama is building an army." He wasn't kidding.
While the Gators and Bulldogs each have directors of player personnel, Saban has hired four people specifically for that department alone. He also has added seven "football analysts," an "athletics relations coordinator" and a "recruiting operations coordinator."
All told, Emperor Saban has built a staff that consists of 28 soldiers for football only duty. All of them can be involved in recruiting at all times.
While it's an annual tradition to give the SEC credit for how hard it recruits and the recruiting classes those schools bring in, the Big Ten wants some reasonableness to be a part of the recruiting process, led by the coach who once dominated in the SEC.
"Bad stuff," Meyer said when asked about the changes at his signing day press conference.
"That's stuff we're going to have -- the Big Ten conference is going to meet. I'm putting together a personal letter to all the coaches in America. I disagree with most of them. I know there's some people, I would imagine not many of them were recruited who wrote those letters.
"That's my question, who comes up with that. Have they actually got in a car and went and recruited sophomores in high school and said, think about this for a second, unlimited mailings and you can mail them whenever you want? Just take a deep breath, and whoever said that put that in motion. Could you imagine what's going to be rolling into kids' driveways and fatheads and magnets. It's nonsense."
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