Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - NCAA’s new 5-8 rule has Division I men’s basketball programs fuming

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Wednesday, June 20, 2001
NCAA’s new 5-8 rule has Division I men’s basketball programs fuming
Changes could impact A&M-Corpus Christi
By Darrin Scheid
Caller-Times

Michelle Christenson/Caller-Times file

The NCAA’s new five-and-eight rule has many college basketball coaches angered. The new rule limits the amount of players a coach can sign.

Ronnie Arrow has one word to say about the NCAA's new five-and-eight rule.
   "Horrible. Stupid. Ludicrous. Absurd."
   That makes four words, but the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball coach and his fellow Division I peers are barely holding back the four-letter kind when talking about a new NCAA rule in effect this season. The only thing good about it, Arrow said, is that everybody has to play by it.
   The rule, passed in April 2000 by the NCAA, limits the number of players a coach can sign.
   Five is the limit for one season, and eight is the cap for a two-year period.
   Regardless of the circumstance, that's the rule. If a player gets homesick or transfers for another reason, that's tough. His spot might not be filled if it means a coach would go over the limit. If a player has a career-ending knee injury or has academic trouble, it's the same.
   Coaches in Division I, including Arrow, are dealing with it for the first time as they wrap up recruiting for next season.
   "It's obvious what the NCAA is doing. They want to stop all the turnover, stop coaches from running kids off after each season," Arrow said. "But this is extreme, and it's not good for the kids. What are there, 320 Division I schools? You might have one scholarship at each school go unfilled each season because of this. Those are 320 scholarships not given to athletes. There might be even more than 320."
   Here is why the rule - and the math - is challenging in Arrow's situation:

The Islanders have four players signed for next season, Illinois junior-college forward Derrick Murphy, California high school forward Sean Cole and San Antonio natives Travis Bailey and Thomas Bailey.

Arrow has one more scholarship remaining to fill the team's NCAA limit of 13.

If Arrow signs one more, he will reach the limit of 13 and reach the limit of players he can sign in one season.

That's not an Islanders problem for 2001-02. But the year after that, the new rule could become a problem.

Next year, A&M-CC will have three seniors, and Arrow's recruiting limit after 2001-02 will be three.

If any one of the other 10 scholarship players does not return to A&M-CC for any reason - homesickness, injury, academic problems, disagreement with the coaching staff, family problems that require a return home or even a decision to enter the NBA - that scholarship will not be filled.
   And the Islanders will go into their first year as a full NCAA Division I member shorthanded.
   "It hurts at every level, but I think it hurts worse for schools like ours than it does the really big programs," Arrow said. "Those schools at the top get whatever kids they want. We fight for the rest.
   "And you have to take chances now and then to be successful," he said. "That's just the way it is. This means that if you take a chance and it doesn't work, you're really in a bind."
   The NCAA passed the rule to stop the migration of players from school-to-school and to slow the turnover each season. The Islanders had five new players last year, and Arrow plans to have five more next season if recruiting season ends the way he plans.
   Penn State president Graham Spanier, then the chair of the Division I Board of Directors, said in April 2000 that the NCAA wanted to "send a clear message that there are going to be changes. And those must be substantive changes that return the recruiting and decision-making process to athletes, to parents, to high-school coaches, and to university coaches and administrators."
   The rule is already being challenged - unsuccessfully, so far.
   Last month, the University of Arizona appealed the rule because it lost four seniors and three underclassmen who signed with agents and decided to declare themselves eligible for the NCAA draft. The NCAA denied the appeal.
   At Texas Tech, new coach Bobby Knight appealed the rule because of the handcuff it puts on his rebuilding process. The NCAA denied that appeal in February.
   Knight's scholarship problems won't be fixed for a while.
   Four players returned from last season at Tech, and Knight has already signed the maximum of five this season. That gives Texas Tech nine scholarship players in 2001-02.
   The Red Raiders can only sign three to join the 2002-03 roster, and the team loses two seniors.
   If each player and recruit at Tech stays with the team each season, Knight will be at full strength with 13 scholarship players by Fall 2005.
   "Obviously, we don't like it, and we've tried to get a waiver without any success," Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said. "And we're not the only ones who think this rule should be changed in some way."
   Arrow said the rule is bad for big schools, small schools and everybody in between.
   Big schools such as Arizona and Texas Tech lose players to the NBA, and those scholarships might go unfilled.
   Mid-major programs are less likely than the big ones to fill a need with walk-ons, players who agree to pay their own way. Small programs will be less likely to take a risk.
   One of Arrow's close friends, Sam Houston State third-year coach Bob Marlin, has signed five players for next season.
   That team includes four seniors, but because of the rule, Marlin will only be able to replace three of them. Marlin said he already knows the Bearkats will play one scholarship short in 2002-03. That's if everybody else stays healthy, happy and eligible.
   "You can't make any mistakes in recruiting," Marlin said. ''Like Ronnie (Arrow), I have a lot of connections in junior colleges, and this makes it very hard to recruit junior-college players.
   "I can see why they wanted this rule, but I don't think the NCAA realized it would have this kind of impact," he said. "I think turnover in a program should be scrutinized by athletic directors and university presidents. This rule will probably be modified."
   Arrow said coaches taking over new programs, such as Knight at Texas Tech, are the ones who will have the hardest time because of player turnover when a coach leaves.
   At the University of North Texas, head coach Johnny Jones took over in May after former coach Vic Trilli was fired.
   Jones inherits a team that went 4-24. When he arrived, the former staff had already signed three players for next season, and Jones has signed one since.
   His program still has a chance to be at the scholarship limit of 13 each of the next two seasons, but there isn't room for error. If more than one player doesn't like the new coaching staff and decides to transfer, the Eagles will be shorthanded in 2002-03.
   "Some coaches run players off because they aren't good enough, and that's the fault of the coach for not having good judgement in the recruiting process," Jones said. "The player pays for the coach's mistake. But there are also a lot of reasons a player will decide to leave, and there isn't any protection for the coach. You can understand the purpose of this rule. But it's a little harsh."


Contact Darrin Scheid at 886-3747 or scheidd@caller.com

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