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Changes to NCAA enforcement model, recruiting go into effect

NCAA Men's Championship Game - Kansas v Kentucky

NEW ORLEANS, LA - APRIL 02: Confetti is seen on the NCAA logo after the Kentucky Wildcats defeat the Kansas Jayhawks 67-59 in the National Championship Game of the 2012 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on April 2, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

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For many who follow college basketball, the big news coming from the NCAA on Thursday was the adjustment made to how the NCAA tournament selection committee goes about its job of filling the 68-team bracket every March.

But August 1 also marks the day in which the NCAA’s new enforcement model goes into effect. The Committee on Infractions has grown from 10 to 24 members, and more importantly head coach accountability has been enhanced.

Essentially, if an assistant coach is out committing NCAA rules violations the Committee on Infractions will (in theory) hand out harsher penalties to head coaches who in the past may have been able to get away with the “I didn’t know” excuse. With the NCAA saying that it’s their job to know everything that goes on with a program, head coaches will need to be more observant (if they haven’t been already).

“I agree that if an assistant does something wrong, it should be on the head coach,” said Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo last month. “I agree with that 100%. I’m fine with that. It’s our job, and we should be held accountable. … But I think absolutes are hard. There are some circumstances I struggle with.”

The possible penalties for a head coach who fails to do so ranges from ten percent of their team’s games (usually works out to three games) to an entire season.

“We heard members across Division I declare that we need clear, consistent and credible accountability,” Lou Anna K. Simon, Michigan State president and Executive Committee chair, said in the release. “These membership-driven changes are a great first step in our ongoing effort to improve enforcement. The changes provide tough, fair consequences that communicate to universities, coaches, student-athletes and others that rule-breaking will not be tolerated.”

This wasn’t the only change that college basketball programs will have to deal with however, as August 1 also marks the first day in which all four coaches on staff (head coach and three assistants) are allowed to be on the road recruiting at the same time. Prior to this move three of the four could be out during evaluation periods.

Don’t expect this rule to have much of an impact during the season, as programs will still have just 130 total days to use (as a staff, not per coach) in order to evaluate prospective student-athletes. Where it will come into play are during the May and July evaluation periods (April’s evaluation weekend is counted in the 130 in-season days, per NCAA rules).

Given the number of events on the grassroots circuit jammed into those four evaluation periods (the 2013-14 NCAA recruiting calendar can be viewed here), allowing all four coaches to be on the road could help alleviate some of the issues that arise due to traveling from one location to another in order to make an appearance at games involving their recruiting targets.

But on the flip side, how will programs properly balance this change with the need to work with the players currently on the roster? In July programs have two days in between evaluation periods, with a lot of that time being used for updating the status of their recruits, holding individual workouts with current players and spending time with their own families.

Already a delicate situation to maintain, it will be interesting to see how coaching staffs adjust their summer strategies when it comes to properly balancing the need to find future players with the need to develop the players already in the program.

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