Monday, February 11, 2008

Did Texas, USC Commit Infractions?

While rumors have swirled that Colorado may have done something illegal in securing Darrell Scott, it appears two schools did commit infractions in pursuit of the hotshot running back.

Student-athletes from Texas (quarterback Colt McCoy, pictured with this post) and USC (quarterback Mark Sanchez) sent text messages to Scott early last week.

How do we know this happened? They were part of Thayer Evans' article last week in the New York Times. Evans was embedded with Scott leading to Wednesday's signing day.

Unless there is something we've missed in NCAA recruiting regulations, student-athletes shall not participate in telephone calls to prospective student-athletes. A text message is considered a telephone call.

We're not alone in this opinion. Neill Woelk of the Boulder Daily Camera, writing on the Scott mess, had this passage:

"And, since we're speaking of NCAA violations, the text message sent from UT quarterback Colt McCoy to Scott — witnessed by a New York Times reporter — is at least on the surface a minor violation."

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unless there is something we've missed in NCAA recruiting regulations, student-athletes shall not participate in telephone calls to prospective student-athletes. A text message is considered a telephone call.Are you sure?

NCAA rule 13.02.5.2 says, "Enrolled student-athletes or other enrolled students shall not make or participate in telephone calls to prospective student-athletes at the direction of a coaching staff member or financed by the institution or a representative of its athletics interest."

If the coach didn't ask the player to make the call or send the text message, and the player used his own phone, I don't see that as a violation of this rule. Perhaps there's another rule I'm not aware of that applies.

Anonymous said...

It is amazing how people loooooooooooooooooove to take shots at the big boys like Texas and USC without doing even the slightest bit of research.

Anonymous said...

who would read anything about Baylor or Washington St's football players texting a recruit they were after ... no one.

Anonymous said...

Wiz -

I believe the article referenced that Sanchez & Scott were friends. Given the pre-existing relationship I cant believe there is a rule against friends texting each other. And, of course, the other poster appears to have cited the text of the rule and, unless it was done at the direction of the staff - highly unlikely since SC made no effort to recruit Scott in the closing weeks - there there is no violation.

owenandbenjamin said...

The NCAA rules book is thicker than a fricken New York City phone book. You need a fricken NCAA lawyer with you 24/7 if you want to do anything related to a student athlete.

My god, it's probably an NCAA rules violation if you open a door for an NCAA athlete.

Anonymous said...

We are Penn State is correct - its only if a coach directs the kid to do this. The same issue is being investigated in regards to Tebow/Meyer and Carl moore at Florida. Supposedly Tebow called moore after winning the Heisman. No ruling yet for that case either.

Three N Out said...

I have a hard time believing that Colt McCoy met Scott and thought,

"hmmm.. I should get this guys #. He's in Cali. I'm in Austin... we could be friends! I think I'll text him."

with no direction from the coaching staff.

Anonymous said...

nyc dawg:

The same issue is being investigated in regards to Tebow/Meyer and Carl moore at Florida. Supposedly Tebow called moore after winning the Heisman. No ruling yet for that case either.

There's a huge difference in the Tebow case. Urban Meyer made the call and handed the phone to Touchdown Timmy. A clear violation.