Re: Maine Recruit Updates: The Search for Spock
Hokydud is correct. The 50% tuition waiver for faculty dependents counts against the total allowable aid if the waiver is granted to the son or daughter of a coach who has been at the university for less than five years.
Anyone who is really curious can download the 470+ page NCAA rules and regulations manual and read it for himself. If Hokydud had done that, he would know that there is no such thing as a four-year commitment to a student-athlete. The rules are very specific that financial aid commitments can never exceed a term of one year. In fact, the rules are specific to the point that they say that a student-athlete may be told that normal procedure is for financial aid commitments to be renewed every year for four years, but they also state that he MUST be told that such renewal CANNOT be automatic.
I don't know if there is a specific NCAA rule that prohibits a coach from promising a four-year scholarship--if there is such a rule, it does not appear in the section that covers financial aid. However, the rules are clear that if a coach makes such a promise and renegs on it, the fact that the coach has reneged is NOT a matter of concern to the NCAA.
By the way, people should understand that there are lots of rules covering lots of things in the 470+ pages of the NCAA rules manual. When we first considered running color photographs in the Friends of Maine Hockey Newsletter, someone (probably Joe Roberts) said we should check with the compliance officer to make sure there wouldn't be a problem. Sure enough, there's a rule that says that printed materials used in recruiting can use four-color printing only on the front and back covers. That's why none of the inside pages have color photos.
