NCAA Division I Recruiting: Identifying and Mitigating Institutional Risk Associated with the Official Visit

Abstract

In 2006, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) celebrated 100 years of providing opportunities for students to participate in intercollegiate athletics. During that time intercollegiate athletics underwent tremendous transformation. Beginning as student-run endeavors on Ivy League campuses, it has now evolved into a multibillion-dollar industry within the United States. "Intercollegiate athletics is now so entrenched in American society that in 2004 the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection held two special hearings to address their concerns about the recruitment of student-athletes" (Lawrence, Merckx, & Hebert, 2008, p. 4). The concerns addressed in the hearings centered on the negative culture of the official visit (U.S. House of Representatives, 2004a; U.S. House of Representatives, 2004b). A prospective student-athlete or recruit is an individual who has begun ninth grade and has an interest in playing college sports (NCAA, 2007, p. 28). As of the first day of their senior year in high school, prospective student-athletes are allowed to take up to five official visits to college campuses (NCAA, p. 30). NCAA Division I Bylaw 13.02.15.1 states that 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" (NCAA, n.d.a.). Additionally, the Division I on-campus official visit is limited to 48 hours and is governed by over 300 bylaws that contain the words "official visit" in the NCAA Legislative Services Database ( ...