Package Deals in Basketball Recruiting

It's technically against NCAA regulations for a school to hire a coach as a means of securing a commitment from a particular player.

In reality, though, these package deals happen all the time. And it's usually pretty blatant.

Notable "Package Deals"

Some of the most significant -- and blatant -- recruiting package deals in recent memory:

• 2008 Final Four hero Mario Chalmers arrived at KU with his dad, Ronnie. The elder Chalmers -- a respected coach at the high school level -- served as director of basketball operations for Bill Self. As often seems to be the case in these situations, Ronnie Chalmers left KU shortly after his son.
• John Calipari's first big-time recruit at Memphis was Dajuan Wagner, a high-scoring guard from Camden, New Jersey. In order to get his name on a letter of intent, Wagner's father Milt was given a job on Calipari's staff -- despite the fact that the senior Wagner didn't have a college degree. Arthur Barclay -- Wagner's best friend -- also received a scholarship.
• Not to pick on the Jayhawks, but Chalmers wasn't the first high-profile recruit to arrive in Lawrence with an entourage. Larry Brown famously gave his ex-ABA teammate Ed Manning an assistant position as a means of recruiting Manning's son Danny -- who, like Chalmers, went on to lead the Jayhawks to a national title. The elder Manning was driving a truck for a living before landing the assistant's job.

Gregg Doyel of CBS Sportsline has several other examples from schools like Villanova, USC, Indiana and NC State.

NCAA Crackdown Looming?

Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated reports that the NCAA will be taking a long look at package deals in the months ahead.

A new three-person monitoring team has been created to monitor compliance with current rules, but they've got their work cut out for them. "We recognize there's a definite issue here, and it's been growing and developing for years," LuAnn Humphrey told Davis. "It's very difficult at times to prove that these [hires] are being done for the specific intent to secure the recruitment of a prospect.

Davis also reports that new regulations are being considered.

Latest Developments

Wall to Baylor a Done Deal?
August 29, 2008
Baylor's hiring of Dwon Clifton -- AAU coach of top-ranked 2009 prospect John Wall -- has many thinking Wall-to-Baylor is a done deal. It's also causing new scrutiny of so-called package deals at NCAA headquarters.