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Cody Zeller, the 3rd of the Zeller brothers who all went through years of recruiting by many of the national powers, is a 2011 commit to Indiana.
He has posted this blog on his family's website about some of his experiences with the NCAA recruiting rules. It is an interesting insight into a recruit's side of the recruiting process and what they think about the NCAA rules. It is worth reading!
I will also copy and paste his blog here, because he states that he will remove all the blog entires after he enrolls at Indiana, and I wonder if someone from IU might ask him to remove this post sooner.
1. One call per monthEach school can only call a recruit one time per month, but the recruit can call any of the coaches as much as they’d like. The call does not count toward the school’s one call per month if the duration of the call is less than two minutes. Schools got around this rule by making sure to end the call before two minutes so they could call again the next day or another strategy that we experienced was for the school to call and quickly say, “Hey Cody, hang up and call me back.”
2. 44 cents can add up quick
The NCAA has outlawed text messaging (thankfully), but each school can write as many letters and e-mails as they want after September 1st of the recruit’s junior year. It was not uncommon for me to get 15-20 letters a day from schools. Some schools believe that the key to winning a recruit is to send three letters a day, each day of the year. That wasn’t quite the key to my recruitment process. The letters included flyers, pictures, or sometimes just empty envelopes. The only letters that I opened were the ones from Old Dominion because they always sent sports comics.
3. Limit: Seven Visits
College coaches are limited to 7 visits per recruit. Of those visits, the college coach can only “talk” to the recruit on 3 of the 7. During those three visits the coach can come to the recruit’s house, go out to eat with them, or have a meeting at the school. When the coaches come for their other 4 visits, they can only exchange a “formal greeting.” These types of visits are often used to watch a recruit practice, condition, or lift weights. Each coach interpreted the “formal greeting” rule differently. Some coaches talked for quite a while, but others just shook my hand. When the recruit signs his letter of intent, as I did in November, the coaches from that school can visit their signee as much as they want, but “the 7 visits rule” still applies for his teammates. For example, Indiana can now see me as much as they want, but they have seen my teammates 6 times already, so they only have one visit left.
4. Official or unofficial visit?
A recruit can take as many “unofficial visits” as they wish, but are limited in the amount of “official visits”. The difference is that during an official visit the school can pay for the recruit’s expenses, such as the hotel, travel, and food. The NCAA limits each recruit to 5 “official” visits, and the visit cannot exceed 48 hours, starting from the time the recruit steps on campus. Also, the recruit cannot take any official visits until the start of their senior year- which has changed since Luke was recruited 7 years ago.
5. Tickets
During visits, the college can provide a recruit with tickets to a football or basketball game- 1 ticket for himself, plus 2 others for family or friends. A high school coach can receive a separate 2 if he or she is with the recruit. For most of the football games that we attended, the tickets were really good, but the NCAA prohibits recruits from sitting in a luxury box. Also, the schools allowed us to go out on the field before the game started, but the NCAA rules say that the recruit has to be off the field by the time of kickoff.
6. Can I get a ride?
When a recruit is on campus for an unofficial visit, the coach cannot give them a ride to anywhere off campus. During one visit, the coach had to let us out of the car at the end of the campus limits, and forced us to walk the rest of the way to our destination.
7. “I’ll come see YOU, Coach”
During the recruiting process, one college coach came and spoke to Washington Junior High School about the importance of reading. In Washington, the high school and junior high are connected. The coach was prohibited from walking into the high school to visit me, but I could walk into the junior high and exchange a “formal greeting” with him.
8. Thanksgiving?!
One college coach, who recruited all three Zellers, was also responsible for recruiting his own younger brother. Home visits are not allowed until the recruit is a senior in high school. Therefore, at one point the college coach could not go home for Thanksgiving because it would be considered a “home visit” for the recruit (his younger brother).
9. Student-Athlete or Athletic-Student?
In order to be accepted into a university, the NCAA has a scale that compares the athlete’s grade point average in high school with their SAT or ACT score. For example, I had a 3.9 GPA (not bragging but 3rd in the class), so I had to get a whopping 400 on my SAT. If an athlete got the average of 1000 on his SAT test, he could get a 2.0 GPA in high school, and still be eligible to play college basketball.
10. No Money?!
Surprisingly enough, no recruit or current player is allowed to accept cash, cars, or houses that are offered to him or his family by a university or sports agent. (Reggie Bush figured this rule out the hard way)
11. Not being able to support the family business!
There’s an NCAA rule that doesn’t allow athletes to support, be a part of the marketing, or endorse a company. Athletes can’t help promote any sort of business or organization- which means I can’t be on any company website with the exception of under the “STAFF” section. Unfortunately, this rule even applies to the family non-profit organization, DISTINXION! After I officially enroll at IU, we will have to remove all my blog posts and pictures from the website…
He has posted this blog on his family's website about some of his experiences with the NCAA recruiting rules. It is an interesting insight into a recruit's side of the recruiting process and what they think about the NCAA rules. It is worth reading!
I will also copy and paste his blog here, because he states that he will remove all the blog entires after he enrolls at Indiana, and I wonder if someone from IU might ask him to remove this post sooner.
NCAA Rules
I don’t understand how schools keep track of the NCAA rules that they have to abide by while recruiting a prospect. There are some crazy rules out there, but here are, in my opinion, 11 of the craziest rules (or our experiences with the rules) that we have encountered since Luke was being recruited as a freshman in 2001.1. One call per monthEach school can only call a recruit one time per month, but the recruit can call any of the coaches as much as they’d like. The call does not count toward the school’s one call per month if the duration of the call is less than two minutes. Schools got around this rule by making sure to end the call before two minutes so they could call again the next day or another strategy that we experienced was for the school to call and quickly say, “Hey Cody, hang up and call me back.”
2. 44 cents can add up quick
The NCAA has outlawed text messaging (thankfully), but each school can write as many letters and e-mails as they want after September 1st of the recruit’s junior year. It was not uncommon for me to get 15-20 letters a day from schools. Some schools believe that the key to winning a recruit is to send three letters a day, each day of the year. That wasn’t quite the key to my recruitment process. The letters included flyers, pictures, or sometimes just empty envelopes. The only letters that I opened were the ones from Old Dominion because they always sent sports comics.
3. Limit: Seven Visits
College coaches are limited to 7 visits per recruit. Of those visits, the college coach can only “talk” to the recruit on 3 of the 7. During those three visits the coach can come to the recruit’s house, go out to eat with them, or have a meeting at the school. When the coaches come for their other 4 visits, they can only exchange a “formal greeting.” These types of visits are often used to watch a recruit practice, condition, or lift weights. Each coach interpreted the “formal greeting” rule differently. Some coaches talked for quite a while, but others just shook my hand. When the recruit signs his letter of intent, as I did in November, the coaches from that school can visit their signee as much as they want, but “the 7 visits rule” still applies for his teammates. For example, Indiana can now see me as much as they want, but they have seen my teammates 6 times already, so they only have one visit left.
4. Official or unofficial visit?
A recruit can take as many “unofficial visits” as they wish, but are limited in the amount of “official visits”. The difference is that during an official visit the school can pay for the recruit’s expenses, such as the hotel, travel, and food. The NCAA limits each recruit to 5 “official” visits, and the visit cannot exceed 48 hours, starting from the time the recruit steps on campus. Also, the recruit cannot take any official visits until the start of their senior year- which has changed since Luke was recruited 7 years ago.
5. Tickets
During visits, the college can provide a recruit with tickets to a football or basketball game- 1 ticket for himself, plus 2 others for family or friends. A high school coach can receive a separate 2 if he or she is with the recruit. For most of the football games that we attended, the tickets were really good, but the NCAA prohibits recruits from sitting in a luxury box. Also, the schools allowed us to go out on the field before the game started, but the NCAA rules say that the recruit has to be off the field by the time of kickoff.
6. Can I get a ride?
When a recruit is on campus for an unofficial visit, the coach cannot give them a ride to anywhere off campus. During one visit, the coach had to let us out of the car at the end of the campus limits, and forced us to walk the rest of the way to our destination.
7. “I’ll come see YOU, Coach”
During the recruiting process, one college coach came and spoke to Washington Junior High School about the importance of reading. In Washington, the high school and junior high are connected. The coach was prohibited from walking into the high school to visit me, but I could walk into the junior high and exchange a “formal greeting” with him.
8. Thanksgiving?!
One college coach, who recruited all three Zellers, was also responsible for recruiting his own younger brother. Home visits are not allowed until the recruit is a senior in high school. Therefore, at one point the college coach could not go home for Thanksgiving because it would be considered a “home visit” for the recruit (his younger brother).
9. Student-Athlete or Athletic-Student?
In order to be accepted into a university, the NCAA has a scale that compares the athlete’s grade point average in high school with their SAT or ACT score. For example, I had a 3.9 GPA (not bragging but 3rd in the class), so I had to get a whopping 400 on my SAT. If an athlete got the average of 1000 on his SAT test, he could get a 2.0 GPA in high school, and still be eligible to play college basketball.
10. No Money?!
Surprisingly enough, no recruit or current player is allowed to accept cash, cars, or houses that are offered to him or his family by a university or sports agent. (Reggie Bush figured this rule out the hard way)
11. Not being able to support the family business!
There’s an NCAA rule that doesn’t allow athletes to support, be a part of the marketing, or endorse a company. Athletes can’t help promote any sort of business or organization- which means I can’t be on any company website with the exception of under the “STAFF” section. Unfortunately, this rule even applies to the family non-profit organization, DISTINXION! After I officially enroll at IU, we will have to remove all my blog posts and pictures from the website…