NCAA Compliance
What is a booster or representative of athletic interest?
A “representative of the institution’s athletics interests” is an individual who is known (or who should have been known) by a member of the institution’s executive or athletics administration to:
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Have participated in or to be a member of an agency or organization promoting the institution’s intercollegiate athletics program;
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Have made financial contributions to the athletics department, a specific team or a member of the Spartan Club;
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Be assisting or to have been requested (by the athletic department staff) to assist in the recruitment of prospective student-athletes;
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Be assisting or to have assisted in providing benefits to enrolled student-athletes or their families; or
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Have been involved otherwise in promoting the institution’s athletic program.
Note: Once an individual is identified as such a representative, the person retains that identity indefinitely (
Bylaw 13.02.7.1)
Prospective Student-Athlete (
Bylaw 13.02.5) – A prospective student-athlete is any student who has started classes for the ninth grade. Student-athletes enrolled in prep schools or two-year colleges are prospective athletes. An individual is considered a prospect until the first day of initial college enrollment or the first day he/she reports for practice, whichever comes first. All NCAA legislation governing prospects applies until this time.
Current Student-Athlete (
Bylaw 13.02.3) – An individual becomes a student-athlete when he/she participates in an intercollegiate squad practice or contest that is under the jurisdiction of the athletics department.
Contact (
Bylaw 13.02.2) – A contact is any face-to-face encounter between a prospective student athlete or the prospective student-athlete’s relatives, guardian(s) or individual of a comparable relationship and an institutional athletics department staff member or athletics representative during which any dialog occurs in excess of an exchange of a greeting. Any such contact that is prearranged or that takes place on the grounds of the prospective student-athlete’s educational institution or at the site of an organized competition or practice involving the prospective student-athlete’s high school, preparatory school, two-year college or all-star team shall be considered a contact, regardless of the conversation that occurred.
Recruiting (
Bylaw 13.02.6) – Recruiting is any solicitation of a prospective student athlete or a prospective student-athlete’s relatives [or guardian(s)] by an institutional staff member or by a representative of the institutions athletic interests for the purpose of securing the prospective student-athlete’s enrollment and ultimate participation in the institution’s intercollegiate athletics program. Actions by staff members or athletics representatives that cause a prospective student-athlete to become a recruited prospective student-athlete at that institution are:
• Providing the prospective student-athlete with an official visit;
• Having an arranged, in-person, off-campus encounter with the prospective student-athlete or the prospective student-athlete’s relatives, guardian(s) or individual of a comparable relationship, or;
• Initiating or arranging a telephone contact with the prospective student-athlete or the prospective student-athlete’s relatives, guardian(s) or individual of a comparable relationship on more than one occasion for the purpose of recruitment.
