NCAA announces changes to college basketball recruiting

August 8, 2018

The NCAA Board of Governors and Division I Board of Directors announced a series of significant policy and legislative changes to college basketball.

According to the statement released by the NCAA, the changes we approved will:

• Provide college basketball players more freedom and flexibility to decide their future.
• Minimize the leverage of outside influences on high school recruits and college athletes.
• Add fresh perspective and independent judgment to NCAA decision-making at the highest level of policy making and in investigations and case resolution.
• Strengthen accountability and deter future rule-breaking with harsher penalties for those who break the rules.

In addition, the NCAA announced assistance toward completion of college degrees:

• Division I schools will be required to pay for tuition, fees and books for basketball players who leave school and return later to the same school to earn their degree. Former student-athletes will be eligible for financial assistance to complete their first degree if they were on scholarship and fewer than 10 years have passed since they left school. Additionally, students must have been in school for two years before leaving. Former student-athletes also must meet all the school’s admissions and financial aid requirements and must have exhausted all other funding options to be eligible, as well as meet all NCAA academic requirements.

This rule change is effective August 1, 2019.

The NCAA is establishing a fund for schools that are otherwise unable to provide financial aid for basketball players to return to school. The fund will be available to schools defined as limited-resource by the NCAA Division I Academic Performance Program.

An overview of today's changes is located here.

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