NCAA Tightens Grip on Boosters, but Violations Still Murky

Believing that many of the ills of college athletics stem from outside influences, the NCAA has instituted a series of rules over the last eight years prohibiting boosters from participating in nearly any aspect of recruiting.

Once prohibited simply from handing out money and other inducements, boosters have been barred since 1983 from contacting prospects in person for recruiting purposes off campus and, since 1987, from contacting them anywhere and in any form, including by telephone and correspondence.

On the face of it, the NCAA’s message is simple: A booster--or, in the language of the NCAA manual, a representative of an institution’s athletic interests--cannot be involved in recruiting.

But whereas the message may be simple when applied to those who purchase season tickets and donate money to school booster organizations, it becomes fuzzy when applied to others in the recruiting game.

Basketball in particular, with its whirl of summer leagues and camps, has spawned a subculture of third parties who steer players to schools. For these so-called middlemen, outwardly without ties to schools, the payoff can be money or simply a chance at joining the inner circle of a certain coach or program.

“More summer camps, more leagues, more competition--more chances for these kinds of individuals to come in contact with players,” said Chuck Smrt, an NCAA director of enforcement.

And, in some cases, more boosters.

According to NCAA rules, a school can be held accountable for the actions of anyone who is known, or should be known, by a member of the school’s athletic staff to be assisting in recruiting.

Even someone who might normally be expected to advise a prospect, such as a high school or junior college coach, could, in the eyes of the NCAA, become a representative of a certain school’s interests by favoring that school in the recruiting process, Smrt said.

Armed with such a broad brush, the NCAA has attempted to deal with several cases involving schools and middlemen recently.

As part of the NCAA’s investigation of the University of Missouri basketball program, which resulted in the Tigers being put on probation last year, the NCAA Committee on Infractions concluded that Vic Adams, a Detroit basketball enthusiast with ties to various high school players in that city, had improperly served as a representative of Missouri’s interests in the recruiting of at least one player.

The NCAA was able to link Adams to the school’s recruiting efforts in large measure by showing that, at one point, he had taken a Missouri letter of intent to a prospect.

Still to be determined by the NCAA is the role of a New York City summer league coach, Richard Perry, in the recruiting of Lloyd Daniels, former New York City high school star, by the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Among 29 areas of alleged rules violations lodged against UNLV in a letter of official inquiry, the NCAA charges that Perry, who has twice been convicted on sports bribery charges, became a representative of UNLV’s interests through his role in the Rebels’ recruitment of Daniels.

According to the NCAA, Perry worked with UNLV coaches in arranging a recruiting trip to Las Vegas for Daniels in the winter of 1986, when Daniels, then a junior in high school, could not, under NCAA rules, visit UNLV at the school’s expense.

As a result, the NCAA alleges, Perry became a representative of UNLV’s interests, and UNLV is accountable for what, in the eyes of the NCAA, was a series of improper contacts, recruiting inducements and extra benefits involving Perry and Daniels.

UNLV has until June 1 to respond to the charges in the letter, and the case is expected to be heard by the infractions committee sometime this summer.

More often than not, however, NCAA investigators are frustrated in their attempts to assess the roles of middlemen in recruiting because the lines between schools and middlemen are usually murky.

The NCAA may, in fact, have done schools inclined to break the rules “a favor” by prohibiting boosters from being involved in recruiting, according to one former NCAA enforcement official, Dan Beebe, now commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference.

“Whereas before (the rules banning boosters went into effect) those schools would have been inclined to use their alums and so forth (in providing improper recruiting inducements), now they’re more creative, finding people on the outside with historically no links to the school,” Beebe said.

“Before, Booster X would be involved, and if something was provided (to a recruit improperly), the issue was apparent. Now, these schools get somebody who has known a kid since the ninth grade, who has no ties to the school and has helped the kid with an eye toward lining his own pockets later.”