Coaches/Staff
11.1.1.1 Responsibility of Head Coach. An institution's head coach is presumed to be responsible for the actions of all institutional staff members who report, directly or indirectly, to the head coach. An institution's head coach shall promote an atmosphere of compliance within his or her program and shall monitor the activities of all institutional staff members involved with the program who report, directly or indirectly, to the coach.
All coaches and staff who will engage in recruiting activities must take the NCAA recruiting exam. Previously, the compliance staff has not required volunteer coaches and staff members who are not allowed to recruit off-campus to complete the exam. However, any and all staff members who will be engaged in recruiting activities (on or off-campus) should take the NCAA recruiting exam in order to protect themselves and the university from unintentional recruiting violations.
The exam will be proctored by compliance staff in the Woodforest Bank Athletics Center lab (connected with the compliance office). Countable coaches are required by the NCAA to achieve a score of at least 80% (24/30 correct answers on the exam) before they can recruit off-campus.
Should a countable coach score below this threshold, he/she will have to wait another month before again taking the exam. During this period, the countable coach will not be permitted to recruit off-campus. As a reminder, only countable coaches are permitted to recruit off-campus under any circumstances.
To prepare and practice for the NCAA exam, please take the practice exam.
NCAA Bylaw 11.7.1.1 Countable Coach.
An institutional staff member or any other individual outside the institution (e.g., consultant, professional instructor) with whom the institution has made arrangements must count against coaching limits in the applicable sport as soon as the individual participates (in any manner) in any of the following: (Revised: 1/18/14 effective 8/1/14)
- Provides technical or tactical instruction related to the sport to a student-athlete at any time;
- Makes or assists in making tactical decisions related to the sport during on-court or on-field practice or competition; or
- Engages in any off-campus recruiting activities.
If you do not count against the institutional coaching limits for your sport, do not engage in any of the above three activities. If you are unsure, please contact compliance who will discuss with you activities for your position.
For more information, also please review the following chart.
Key Terms
Contact: A contact is any face-to-face encounter between a prospective student-athlete (PSA) or the PSAs family members and an institutional staff member or athletics representative during which any dialogue occurs in excess of an exchange of a greeting.
Evaluation: An evaluation is any off-campus activity designed to assess the academic qualifications or athletics ability of a PSA, including any visit to a PSA’s educational institution (during which no contact occurs) or the observation of a PSA participating in any practice or competition at any site.
Family Member: A family member is an individual with any of the following relationships to the prospective student-athlete: spouse, parent or legal guardian, child, sibling, grandparent, domestic partner or any individual whose close association with the prospective student-athlete is the practical equivalent of a family relationship.
Official Visit: An official visit to a member institution by a prospective student-athlete is a visit financed in whole or in part by the member institution.
Prospective Student-Athlete (PSA): A PSA is a student who has started classes for the ninth grade. In addition, a student who has not started classes for the ninth grade becomes a PSA if the institution provides such an individual (or the individual's family members or friends) any financial assistance or other benefits that the institution does not provide to prospective students generally. An individual remains a prospective student-athlete until one of the following occurs (whichever is earlier):
- The individual officially registers and enrolls in a minimum full-time program of studies and attends classes in any term of a four-year collegiate institution's regular academic year (excluding summer);
- The individual participates in a regular squad practice or competition at a four-year collegiate institution that occurs before the beginning of any term;
- The individual participates in required summer athletic activities before his or her initial full-time enrollment at the certifying institution;
- The individual officially registers, enrolls and attends classes during the certifying institution's summer term prior to his or her initial full-time enrollment at the certifying institution; or
- The individual reports to an institutional orientation session that is open to all incoming students within 14 calendar days prior to the opening day of classes of a regular academic year term.
Unofficial Visit: An unofficial visit to a member institution by a prospective student-athlete is a visit made at the prospective student-athlete's own expense.
The general rule for social media is this: “click don't type.” Coaches can like, favorite, re-tweet, etc. a post about or by a recruit or his/her school or coach. However, coaches cannot COMMENT on these posts. All communications to or concerning a recruit or his/her school or coach must be privately sent to the recruit or the coach due to NCAA legislation about publicizing recruitment. As a reminder, all NCAA legislation about when you a coach may first contact a recruit are in effect when it comes to social media direct messages.
For more information, please see this helpful Q&A.
