re: NCAA Enforcement Begins Attempted NIL Crackdown With Miami Inquiry

quote:

---

No, this is illegal and always has been. Boosters are not permitted to have contact with recruits in any form

---

This is wrong. And specifically goes against NIL guidance issued by the NCAA.

SOME contact between boosters and prospective student athletes is illegal.

SOME is perfectly legal.

If the contact is of a recruiting nature, it is illegal. To be of a recruiting nature, the deal would have to be structured in such a way as to require or encourage the students to sign with a particular school. As long as that is not part of the deal, the high school athlete is as free to engage in the same sorts of NIL deals as a college athlete, even with boosters. As far as the NCAA is concerned anyway.

If the contact is unrelated to college recruiting, and confined to the booster's desire to give a high school athlete an NIL deal based upon the athlete's high school accomploshments and likelihood of future celebrity, regardless of where the PSA ultimately enrolls for college, it is specifically allowed by NCAA NIL policy, as I referenced in the NCAA's official NIL Q&A reference guide above. A high school athlete can enter any of the same sort of deals as college athletes, so long as they do not constitute an inducement to sign with a particular school.

The key upon which the analysis turns is NOT whether or not the NIL benefactor is a booster. But rather whether the deal offered constitutes an inducement to sign with a particular school. That's the question that will determine whether a recruiting violation occurred or not.

I do encourage you to read the rules, and the Q&A document for yourself.