College basketball recruiting is receiving a facelift from the NCAA. After the FBI investigation alleging illegal payment from shoe companies to steer recruits to specific schools, the NCAA formed the Commission on College Basketball, led by Condoleezza Rice.
Per Matt Norlander from CBS Sports, the NCAA, NBA, NBA Players Association, and USA Basketball would hold “camp-type events” at the end of July that would potentially attract the top 2000+ high school players from the US, where college basketball coaches could come and scout. Seniors and juniors would comprise the vast majority of camp attendees with a select few rising sophomores. No freshmen will be invited and there will not be a shoe company presence.
Big hoops news: On Aug. 8, college basketball recruiting as we know it will officially be no more. Here are the rules scheduled to change and the overhauled calendar for 2019 (and beyond), according to sources involved in the process. https://t.co/27OBaK2Pt8
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) July 31, 2018
For July, coaches will only be able to attend one weekend of sanctioned, non-scholastic “AAU” events in the early five-day July evaluation period as opposed to three weekends. Nike’s Peach Jam and other non-scholastic tournaments fit in that one-weekend window. The consensus amongst coaches is that Nike’s Peach Jam is the best tournament for talent evaluation, which is bad news for Adidas and Under Armour because their tournaments would have to compete directly against it or against the NCAA camp event. Recruits will have to decide which non-scholastic event to attend and participate in NCAA camp event.
April recruiting will be viewed differently as coaches are now allowed to visit prospects in their homes/cities when traditionally they were not allowed to during this month. Coaches are allowed 130 days to recruit on the road and now coaches will have to choose wisely on when they want to utilize those days. May will still be a “quiet month” without any recruiting events and the last week of June will include a number of regional NCAA sponsored camps where players will play with their high school teammates.
Overall, this benefits the NCAA the most since they are able to dictate the events and take away from the shoe companies, but many critics have pointed out that many less heralded recruits will not get the visibility they once had due to coaches having to choose which non-scholastic tournament to go to as opposed to being able to attend all of them in July. Also, prominent players such as Kevin Durant have stated that camp type events don’t showcase players skills well enough as opposed to tournaments.
