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Unlimited Phone Calls Stand A Good Chance of Survival

Forgotten in the NCAA’s announcement yesterday that two proposals had been suspended is that a third coming close to the 75 necessary override requests will not be touched at this time. RWG Proposal 13–3, which allows for unlimited phone calls and text messages to prospects starting June 15 prior to their senior year, is still in the override phase with two days left as of this writing. But according to CBSSports.com’s Jerry Hinnen, it might not be long for this world:

But given that the issues that forced the NCAA to try to attempt deregulation in the first place haven’t gone away (and that the communication proposal still could survive the override process, though that seems unlikely), this won’t be the last college football hears of potential changes to its recruiting rule book.

The math though says that the proposal has a good chance of succeeding. At the moment, RWG–13–3 has 56 override requests. It needs 75 to trigger the override process. 19 requests in two days is entirely possible given that most overrides are filed close to the 60-day deadline, which in this case is 5:00 PM Eastern Time on March 20. It still might be a big ask, although the proposal picked up at least eight requests yesterday alone.

The bigger problem for opponents is the override vote itself. If the Board of Directors chooses to keep the proposal as is, it will go to a week-long online vote. A five-eighths majority of the schools casting votes is needed for the override to succeed and the proposal to be defeated. Assuming every one of the 340 Division I schools votes, that requires 213 votes against the proposal.

But given that football has driven much of the public opposition to the proposal, 98 schools might be a lost cause. Those are the non-football members of Division I. Their big sport, men’s basketball, has had unlimited phone calls for close to a year now with zero complaints. Their second (in many cases) biggest sport, women’s basketball, has their own unlimited call proposal as part of a new recruiting model also passed in January and drawing just seven override requests. Other coaches may object, but at some point administrators will object to spending time and money monitoring phone calls for an increasingly small group of sports.

If the non-football subdivision votes in unison, opponents of unlimited phone calls have to come up with 213 votes out of just 242 FBS and FCS members. Of course, not all schools vote. Only 330 cast yay or nay votes on multi-year scholarships, a much more important issue that phone call regulations. If a similar number voted, opponents would need 207 votes in favor of the override.

Unless we see a massive influx of override requests in the next 30 hours or so, all it would take is an effective “get out the vote” campaign to make sure the schools in favor of the proposal cast votes. If the override comes in anywhere near 75 requests, the only way the proposal is actually defeated would be if those in favor of the proposal sit on their hands.


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