Texas A&M Coach Violating NCAA Rules?

by PB @ BON on Jul 12, 2006 9:59 AM CDT in Recruiting

It's come to our attention that a Texas A&M football coach, Van Malone, has a MySpace page. On that page, available to the public, Coach Malone, officially listed on the Texas A&M athletics website as a cornerbacks coach, has numerous "friends." Those who use MySpace know that users can list other users as friends. To do this, users simply view the profile of another user and click on the button to add them as friends.

Texas A&M Cornerbacks Coach Van Malone

What's curious in this case, though, is that among Coach Malone's listed "friends" are 16 year old high school football players.

For one example, Coach Malone is friends with Isaac Kerr, a 16 year old tailback from Richmond, Texas.

Is this a violation of NCAA rules? According to the NCAA's publication on the use of technology in recruiting, this type of communication appears to violate several of the listed rules, including using video and internet communication to solicit recruits.

Further, it is my understanding that collegiate coaches cannot contact a recruit before his junior season. The above player, Isaac Kerr, has yet to begin his junior year of play. Whether this constitutes an NCAA violation is something someone more intimately familiar with NCAA rules could determine - it's beyond my scope. But it certainly doesn't look good.

Readers: Please do not, under any circumstance, contact the Texas A&M coach or any of the players listed as friends on his website. We draw your attention to this situation, but do not, in any way, endorse or encourage you to contact, in any form, these people you do not know. Please respect their privacy.

Update [2006-7-12 12:33:13 by HornsFan]: A source intimately familiar with recruiting informs Burnt Orange Nation that there's a lot of gray area in these new personal pages and that the NCAA will probably address it in the next year or two. For now, it appears that this kind of contact is -not- a recruiting violation. In our view, it still looks bad, and if I were Mack Brown or another coach, I'd probably not want my coaches using MySpace.

--PB--

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Van Malone

Back when we were talking about NCAA violations before I told a stroy about a UT player that I knew well enough that he called me by name, we were "friendly". He lived next door to me one summer and we plyed pickup Basketball at Gregory more than a few times. He came into the restaraunt I worked at and I tried to give him free food (which I did for everyone I knew) and he refused saying he thought it might be an NCAA violation. Why is this relavent now...that player was Van Malone. I tell this story because he always seemed like a standup guy and a stickler for the rules so either this is OK or A&M has corrupted him somehow.

by billb on Jul 12, 2006 10:06 AM CDT 0 recs

The rule depends on who contacts who

If the student contacts the University first and visits/comunications/gifts are not paid for by the University, then their is no violation.

The Harbinger of Deleted Diaries

by Wells on Jul 12, 2006 10:12 AM CDT 0 recs

That was my thought too

I bet those HS players made the friend request, and Malone just accepted. It is somewhat similar to the text messaging example where the coach texts the kid and tells him to call - and though the coach solicits the call in the text, he's free to pick up since the kid is the one initiating.

by Calfan on Jul 12, 2006 12:44 PM CDT up 0 recs

Maybe

Except some of the friend comments say, "Thanks for the add, coach!"

by PB @ BON on Jul 12, 2006 12:49 PM CDT up 0 recs

could be taken as

"Thanks for the add, coach!" would imply to me that the player requested and Coach Malone accepted not the other way around.

While on the subject of Myspace and high school athletes/uberrecruits, if the over the top press conference at the CFB Hall of Fame wasn't enough look at the headline: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=10879501

by rjm on Jul 12, 2006 1:19 PM CDT up 0 recs

Or

Or I could pay attention to where the comma was and realize who was saying what.

by rjm on Jul 12, 2006 1:26 PM CDT up 0 recs

Web Site rules

Outside the Lines did a series on this. I know text messages are permissable for some reason, but emails are not. So I'm sure myspace also falls in to some grey area.

I trust Van Malone, but I'm not sure he should be trusting the advice of the Aggie compliance office, if they told him this is ok.

Web Site Information.

(I) It is permissible for a institution's web site or an athletics department staff member's personal web site to include information related to the institution's athletics programs and a hyperlink to the institution's athletics web site, provided neither the institution's web site nor the athletics department staff member's personal web site contains: *(1) information regarding prospective student-athletes, except as permitted under Bylaw 13.11.8; (2) any hyperlink to the web site of a recruiting/scouting service or a noninstitutional publication that reports primarily on the institution's athletics program; (3) recruiting videos or other audio/video materials, except as permitted under Bylaw 13.4.2.1. [References: Bylaws 13.4.1 (printed recruiting materials) and 13.4.2.1 (highlight film/videotape/audio tape)]

I'm applying to Oxford and the Sorbonne. Harvard's my safety

by EYESofBEVO on Jul 12, 2006 10:17 AM CDT 0 recs

Boy Love

Cant a man just have a relationship with a 16yr old boy, without it violating NCAA rules?

New ATM Slogans:
"Hitting on High School Sophomores via MySpace since 2004!"
"Dennis Franchione: the coaching equivalent of a Death Sentence."
"Play for A&M, where its not rape if you love it."
"Bowl Eligible in 2009, We Promise!"

by Tbone Stallone on Jul 12, 2006 11:10 AM CDT 0 recs

I thought that I recognized the name

He was the starting corner for UT, back when I was a Freshman. Lord I am getting old. Can't believe that he is coaching at atm. Guess we all have to start somewhere.

On the recruiting violation thing, while it might not be black and white right now, the situation definitely smells funny.

by Brandon 97 on Jul 12, 2006 12:33 PM CDT 0 recs

Controversy

The only real controversy is this lame website!

You blast A&M as if they are a weird school with weird traditions, and their losing seasons under Coach Franchione! And now you muster a crappy horse ass story about NCAA violations....Looks like to me you are worried about this years Thanksgiving....to me it is all gonna be BBQ Bevo before Turkey!

Gig'em Aggies....Whoop!
u_dawg@msn.com

by Ulrikinator Dawg on Aug 1, 2006 2:54 PM CDT 0 recs