It's going through. 100%. April 2017 goes into effect. WI'll not effect any commits.
The actual date will be 8/31/17 (if it passes the coaches will still be able to contact kids before their Junior year up to 8/31) after that date the coaches will not be able to have any contact with prospective student athletes until their Junior year. However, it will remain to be seen if it passes. I do believe the vast majority of the coaches do want it to pass. The only way it will affect the committed kids is that they will not have any contact with the coaches at the school they have "committed" to until their Junior year.
The NCAA should just make all sports the same - no contact until the Jr year for anyone, any sport, male of female. School risks will go down, and correspondingly no school will be able to snag the phenom Middle School athlete, but this is actually in the best interests of both parties. Kids can actually be kids again!
Agree that a change needs to be made. That said, if this sets off a mad dash with 20s and 21s, it's going to end up causing more problems than solving them for those two classes. Coaches are going to be committing those age groups right up to the end 8/31 and even poorer rush decisions will be made. They should probably start with the 2022 class: no contact until junior year and somehow "grandfather" the 20/21 class to the currently broken system. Not sure how you'd "regulate" it though. . .
Since this proposal cleared the prior committee it is very likely to be voted and accepted in April with the August cutoff (I thought would be Aug 1). Once approved the rule becomes another compliance item for schools to monitor and their compliance people to watch. every school has an NCAA compliance person and many have several on staff to keep teams and coaches out of NCAA trouble.
This will indeed cause a land grab over the summer if not start earlier. The funny thing will be to watch as club owners try to figure out what to do when they are not the gatekeeper anymore. Also, money-grab tournaments might be affected. I guess college coaches would still attend recruiting tournaments and bide their time until a player's junior year.
I do wonder what would happen if a kid sends an email to a coach prior to their junior year? Kids are not under any NCAA control.
