Big 12 Spring Meetings News: Commissioner Bob Bowlsby Indicates Desire to Revise NCAA Recruiting Rules
ByReforms to the traditions and rules of the NCAA have been a common theme this year at various conference spring meetings and it was no different at the Big 12's.
According to the Associated Press, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby proposed the NCAA give their rules on recruiting an update. For starters, he said he would like to be able to conduct initial interviews with recruits via Skype or FaceTime.
"We haven't looked at the recruiting model in its entirety for a very long time," Bowlsby said at the Big 12 annual spring meetings, held in Irving, Texas.
"[Skype and FaceTime are] just one example of an area where the world has changed and the architecture around college athletics hasn't changed with it," he said. "I think we need to constantly be reminding ourselves and each other, that there's change afoot and it's a good time to look at everything we're doing in light of modern circumstances."
Bowlsby also wants to allow recruits to make more than one official campus visit and to be able to pay expenses for parents and other family members. He said he plans to create a Big 12 task force to come up with proposed revisions for the rules on recruiting.
"[The task force would] spend time looking at the rules, thinking about the environment and beginning the process of putting an agenda together of things that we think we ought to take a good look at," Bowlsby said.
The NCAA is currently creating a new model that would give the five power conferences - the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC - more autonomy on decisions directly affecting their schools.
The Big 12 is also bringing in a record $220 million to share with its schools, the AP reported, which surpasses last year's record of $198 million.