FREQUENTLY ASKED COMPLIANCE QUESTIONS
DO THESE RULES APPLY TO ME?
You are a representative of the university’s athletic interests, and therefore governed by these rules, if you have ever:
• Been a member of any organization promoting Elon Athletics;
• Are, or have been, a season ticket holder in any sport;
• Are the parent(s) or guardian(s) of a current student-athlete;
• Have ever made a donation to the athletic department, a men’s or women’s athletic team, or any friends organization;
• Have ever assisted in evaluating or recruiting prospects;
• Have ever helped to arrange or have provided employment to enrolled student-athletes, prospects or their parents and relatives;
• Participated in the Elon University Intercollegiate Athletics programs; or
• Otherwise promoted the university’s athletics program.
Once you become a representative of the university’s athletics interests, you retain this status FOREVER!
WHO IS A PROSPECTIVE STUDENT-ATHLETE?
A prospective student-athlete, commonly known as a “prospect,” is any individual who has started classes for the ninth grade. In addition, student-athletes enrolled in a preparatory school or in a two-year college are considered prospects. Ultimately, a student remains a prospect until enrolled at a four-year collegiate institution.
WHAT KIND OF CONTACT MAY I HAVE WITH A PROSPECT?
YOU MAY NOT:
• Make any recruiting contacts with prospects or their relatives. This includes telephone calls, letters, emails, text message, chat rooms and facsimiles, along with any face-to-face contact either on or off-campus;
• Assist Elon coaches by picking up transcripts, films or any other information pertaining to a prospect’s ability from the prospect’s educational institution;
• Provide financial aid or benefit of any kind (e.g., clothing, special discounts, lodging, meals, transportation, tickets, loans of money) to prospects or their relatives;
• Make contact with a prospective student-athlete or his/her parents when the prospect is on campus for an official or unofficial recruiting visit;
• Contact a prospective student-athlete to congratulate him/her on an offer of admission to Elon University;
• Provide transportation or arrange for payment of transportation costs for a prospect or his/her relatives or friends to visit campus;
• Earmark funds for specific prospects to attend an Elon summer camp;
• Employ or arrange for employment of a prospect before the completion of his/her senior year of high school. After graduation, you may employ a prospect at a rate commensurate with experience and also the going rate. This is the only exception that allows you to contact a prospect before he/she enrolls at Elon. Please contact the Compliance Office for more details;
• Provide ANYTHING to a prospect or the prospect’s family or friends without prior approval from the Compliance Office;
• Bring any guest to an alumni gathering or booster event if he/she is participating in athletics at the high school or junior college level. Your own son or daughter would be an exception, but limits to the type of interaction your son or daughter could have with coaching staff members at the event still apply.
YOU MAY:
• Forward information about prospects to the appropriate coaching staff member;
• View a prospect’s athletic contests on your own initiative, provided you do not contact the prospect or his/her parents, coach, principal or counselor in an attempt to evaluate the academic or athletic abilities of the prospect. If contact is unavoidable, only greetings may be exchanged. Additionally, you are responsible for all incurred costs or fees at a contest;
• Speak to a prospect on the telephone ONLY if the prospect initiates the call. Such a call cannot be prearranged by the athletic department. You MAY NOT have a recruiting conversation, but you may refer questions about the athletics program to the athletic department staff;
• Provide lodging, meals and transportation to coaching staff members when they are recruiting in your area;
• Join a friends group to help provide support and funding for recruiting, special trips and receptions at home and away contests; or
• Invite a team to meet with alumni or friends in a city where they play. Student-athletes may receive benefits as a team in conjunction with an away contest, which individual student-athletes may not, but such arrangements must be made through the head coach.
WHAT KIND OF INVOLVEMENT MAY I HAVE WITH ENROLLED STUDENT-ATHLETES?
YOU MAY NOT:
• Pay for or arrange for payment of room, board or any type of transportation at any time for currently enrolled student-athletes, their relatives, or their friends;
• Provide student-athletes with any sort of extra benefit, which refers to any special arrangement to provide a student-athlete or his/her relatives or friends with a benefit unavailable to the general student population;
• Provide student-athletes, their relatives or their friends with any special discount, payment arrangement (e.g., cosigning a loan), credits on a purchase (e.g. airline tickets, clothing), or services (e.g., dry cleaning, transportation);
• Allow a student-athlete to use your telephone to make free calls;
• Provide awards or gifts to student-athletes for any reason. This also prohibits honorariums for speaking engagements. All awards to student-athletes must meet all NCAA legislation and be approved by the compliance office;
• Use the name, picture or appearances of an enrolled student-athlete to advertise, recommend or promote sales or use of a commercial product or service of any kind. Any use of the name, picture or appearance of a student-athlete must receive authorization from the Compliance Office;
• Entertain student-athletes or their family and friends. The only exception to this is that YOU MAY, on an occasional basis, provide a student-athlete or team (not family members or friends) with a meal. The meal can be catered, but it must be in your home and be approved in advance by the Compliance Office.
WHAT IF I AM A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY, A RELATIVE OR A NEIGHBOR OF A PROSPECT?
The rule does not preclude you from having normal contact with friends, relatives or neighbors. However, contact for the purpose of recruiting is not permissible.
THE SOCCER TEAM IS COMING TO MY TOWN TO PLAY A LOCAL COLLEGE. MAY I TAKE THE TEAM OUT TO DINNER OR PROVIDE A MEAL FOR THEM IN MY HOME?
Yes, you could do either. It is permissible to pay the bill for a meal in a restaurant associated with an away contest. It is also permissible to provide a meal in your home. Be sure to coordinate with the head coach.
MY DAUGHTER PLAYS VOLLEYBALL AT ELON, AND I'M VISITING HER THIS WEEKEND. MAY I TAKE HER ROOMMATES, WHO ALSO PLAY VOLLEYBALL, OUT TO DINNER?
Yes. Rules regarding extra benefits refer to benefits that are not available to the general public or the general student body. It is reasonable to expect that the parents of any student would offer to take their son or daughter's roommates out to dinner.
