BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 2079
AUTHOR: Torlakson
AMENDED: May 28, 2010
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 30, 2010
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lynn Lorber
SUBJECT : Recruiting student athletes.
KEY POLICY ISSUES
Should collegiate athletic recruiters be required to provide
to any student with whom he or she has had personal contact a
disclosure letter with specific information regarding
athletic scholarships?
Should the disclosure letter be provided only once a
scholarship offer has been made?
Will this disadvantage the recruitment of California student
athletes?
SUMMARY
This bill requires a collegiate athletic recruiter to provide
a written disclosure letter with specific information
regarding athletic scholarships, medical expenses, and
athletic release to any pupil or student (K-postsecondary)
with whom the recruiter has had personal contact; and
requires a scholarship offer to be made in writing within one
week of a verbal offer.
BACKGROUND
Existing law:
1) Prohibits any person from giving, offering, promising or
attempting to give money or other item of value to a
student athlete or member of the athlete's immediate
family to induce, encourage or reward a student
athlete's application, enrollment or attendance at a
public or private institution of higher education (IHE)
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to participate in intercollegiate sporting activities.
Some exceptions may be granted in accordance with
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules.
(Education Code 67360)
2) Subjects a person who violates these rules to a civil
penalty of up to $10,000, or three times the amount
given, offered or promised, whichever is greater. (EC
67360)
3) Prohibits student athletes and members of their
immediate family from soliciting or accepting money or
other item of value as an inducement, encouragement or
reward, subject to the same exceptions and penalty
listed above. (EC 67361)
The NCAA adopted bylaws that regulate recruiting,
scholarships levels, timing and methods of communications
between institutions of higher education (IHEs) and student
athletes. Rules governing Division I, II and III IHEs are
not necessarily the same across divisions. Currently, NCAA
bylaws impose a number of restrictions on student athlete
financial assistance. For example, NCAA Division 1 schools:
1) Cannot guarantee scholarships for more than one academic
year.
2) Cannot finance student health insurance if the insurance
is provided or offered to the general student body only
on an optional basis.
3) Cannot award financial aid to a student athlete that
exceeds the cost of attendance that normally is incurred
by students enrolled in a comparable program at that
institution.
4) Must include earnings from the student athlete's
employment during semester or term time to determine
whether a full grant-in-aid is reached and can only
allow $2,000 in earnings over a full grant-in-aid award,
as defined.
The 2010-11 Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athletes, and
other links on the NCAA's website, provides information about
several aspects of becoming a collegiate athlete, including
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athletically related financial aid and recruiting
regulations. Specifically:
1) Athletic scholarships in Divisions I and II are
initially awarded for up to one academic year, and may
be renewed annually for up to five years (D-I) or up to
a total of 10 semesters/15 quarters (D-II). Division
III institutions do not award athletic financial aid.
2) Athletic scholarships can be renewed, reduced, increased
or canceled from year to year for almost any reason.
3) Athletic scholarships are awarded in a variety of
amounts.
4) The total amount of financial aid a student-athlete can
receive may be limited, and may affect whether a
student-athlete may accept additional financial aid.
5) For purposes of recruitment, "contact" is defined as any
time a coach has any face-to-face contact with a student
or his or her parents off the institution's campus, and
when the coach "says more than hello."
6) "Verbal commitment" describes a college-bound student's
commitment to an institution before he or she signs a
National Letter of Intent (which is binding). Verbal
commitments are not binding on either the student or the
institution.
ANALYSIS
This bill requires a collegiate athletic recruiter to provide
a written disclosure letter with specific information
regarding athletic scholarships, medical expenses, and
athletic release to any pupil or student (K-postsecondary)
with whom the recruiter has had personal contact; and
requires a scholarship offer to be made in writing within one
week of a verbal offer. Specifically, this bill:
Scholarship offer
1) Requires, beginning July 1, 2011, any scholarship offer
made to a student athlete to be made in writing within
one week of a verbal offer.
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2) If the written offer is sent more than one year in
advance of the earliest date a student athlete is
authorized to sign an agreement, the athletic program is
required to send a subsequent letter stating whether or
not the offer is still valid, at least five months prior
to the earliest signing period.
3) Requires the initial written offer and, if applicable,
subsequent letter, to include at least all of the
following information:
a) The disclosure letter. (see below)
b) Whether or not the athletic scholarship
offer will expire and all terms of any such
expiration.
c) Whether or not the athletic program will
guarantee that the student athlete's acceptance of
the offer prior to any expiration will be honored.
d) A description of the college's policy for
awarding financial aid for summer school.
e) Whether or not the student athlete will be
guaranteed admission and full athletic
participation at an institution if a specific
academic level is achieved during the remainder of
the athlete's high school career, and a description
of any such academic level.
f) The terms and the amount of any death
benefit provided by the college in case of a
sports-related death.
4) Prohibits the provisions of this bill from being
construed to require a college to revise athletic
scholarship contracts entered into prior to the
effective date of this bill.
Disclosure letter
1) Requires, beginning July 1, 2011, a collegiate athletic
recruiter, within one week of any direct personal
contact with a student athlete, to provide to the
student in writing a disclosure letter as follows:
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a) Athletic scholarship information (up to 250
words):
i) The college's most recent cost of
attendance expenses.
ii) The portion of these expenses
prohibited, per NCAA rules, from inclusion in
a full grant-in-aid scholarship.
iii) Whether the college provides
athletic scholarships for summer school.
iv) The average monthly scholarship
payment received by students living on- and
off-campus.
b) Athletic scholarship renewals (up to 250
words):
i) The NCAA's policy on scholarship
duration.
ii) The college's policies on
scholarship renewal or non-renewal, including
circumstances in which a student athlete in
good standing suffers a temporary or permanent
sports-related injury, there is a coaching
change, or the athletic performance is deemed
to be below expectations.
c) Athletically related medical expenses (up
to 500 words):
i) The policies of the NCAA and college
on whether athletic programs are required to
pay for athletically related medical expenses.
ii) The college's policy concerning who
is required to pay for any required
athletically related insurance premiums for
student athletes who do not have such
insurance.
iii) The duration of time the college's
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athletic program continues to pay for
athletically related medical expenses after a
student athlete's eligibility expires.
iv) Whether or not an athletic program's
medical policy covers expenses associated with
attaining a second medical opinion, and
whether the program provides coverage for
services received by such a physician.
d) Athletic release (up to 250 words):
i) The policies of the NCAA and college
on whether an athletic program may refuse to
grant an athletic release to a student athlete
who wishes to transfer to another college.
2) Requires any changes to policies included in the
disclosure letter to be sent in writing to all student
athletes, as well as any athletes currently enrolled in
the institution who were recruited from the State of
California.
3) Requires, beginning July 1, 2011, each interscholastic
athletic program that recruits any student athlete to
prominently post the disclosure letter on its official
athletic Internet website.
4) Requires the recruiter to provide the above information
by directing a student athlete who has not yet entered
grade 11 to a disclosure letter posted on the
institution's website.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author, "Currently,
the NCAA prohibits scholarship contracts. The problem
occurs when a student-athlete receives a scholarship
offer from a college/university. The college/university
provide scholarship offers verbally or through the
National Letter of Intent. Unfortunately, neither
verbal offers nor the National Letter of Intent provide
all the necessary information for student-athletes to
make such an important decision. For example, most
scholarship offers do not provide information about
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summer school tuition, what majors' conflict with
practice schedules, coverage of medical expenses, or the
time commitment required for practices schedules."
2) Applies to every California student athlete . This bill
requires recruiters of any California student athlete to
put any scholarship offer in writing within one week of
making a verbal offer, and provide the disclose letter
to that student. Therefore, any institution of higher
education (IHE), whether the IHE is located in
California or elsewhere, would be required to follow the
provisions of this bill when recruiting California
students. Will this disadvantage the recruitment of
California student athletes because it establishes new
requirements relative to California students that won't
be required for the recruitment of students from other
states?
3) Verbal vs. written scholarship offers . This bill
requires any scholarship offer made to a student athlete
to be made in writing within one week of a verbal offer.
NCAA rules do not prohibit verbal offers from being
made within the allowable timeframe. However, beginning
August 1, 2010, the NCAA rules will prohibit DI colleges
from offering athletic scholarships in writing until the
student-athlete is in their senior year of high school.
Because this bill requires a verbal offer to be followed
by a written offer within one week, coupled with the new
NCAA rules, DI colleges would be prohibited from making
even a verbal offer until students are in the 12th
grade. Will this disadvantage the early recruitment of
California students?
4) Timing of disclosure . This bill requires a disclosure
letter with information about athletic scholarships to
be provided to a student within one week of personal
contact with a collegiate athletic recruiter. However,
the provision of this disclosure letter is not linked
with any offer, verbal or written, of a scholarship.
Staff recommends an amendment to require the disclosure
letter to be provided within one week of any offer of an
athletic scholarship.
5) Who is a collegiate athletic recruiter ? This bill does
not define collegiate athletic recruiter. NCAA bylaws
define "contact" as being a face-to-face conversation
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with a coach. Staff recommends an amendment to define
"collegiate athletic recruiter" or clarify that any
person who makes any offer of an athletic scholarship
must provide the disclosure letter.
6) Fiscal impact . According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, University of California (UC) and California
State University (CSU) campuses would incur costs to
develop and print the materials to be provided to each
recruit including regular updates as information
changes, developing a mailing list, record keeping,
orienting athletic recruiters to the new procedures, and
assuring compliance with the bill's requirements.
UC costs are estimated at $290,000 ongoing,
for a full-time staff person at campuses engaged in
national recruiting and a half-time person at other
campuses. Start-up costs would be somewhat higher.
CSU's ongoing costs, assuming a half-time
position per campus for 23 campuses, would be about
$575,000, again, with somewhat higher start-up
costs.
The above costs do not include potential
litigation brought by individuals challenging UC's
and CSU's compliance with the above requirements.
1) Prior and related legislation .
AB 95 (Torlakson, 2009) was very similar to
this bill, but was never heard.
SB 193 (K. Murray, 2004) would have prohibited
California IHEs from participating in any
organizations that regulates student athlete
scholarships, including the NCAA. SB 193 was held
in the Assembly Higher Education Committee.
1) Policy Arguments .
Proponents argue that there are many ways that
intercollegiate athletic programs mistreat their
student-athletes and mislead high school recruits.
College student-athletes are subject to many
injustices including being left to pay
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sports-related medical expenses, losing their
scholarships due to injury or coaching changes, and
paying thousands of dollars in education-related
expenses despite their "full" scholarships.
Opponents contend this bill is problematic in
that it attempts to change the rules and
regulations set by a national entity for one
specific group of student athletes based on where
they reside. This bill would put California in
conflict with NCAA, putting at risk the ability of
our students to participate in intercollegiate
sports. This bill requires written communications
with students contrary to new NCAA rules effective
August 1st which dictates when a written offer can
be provided to a student athlete entering their
senior year of high school.
SUPPORT
California Labor Federation
Charter Oak High School
Consumer Attorneys of California
National College Players Association
United Steelworkers, District 12 and Local #1304
Individuals
OPPOSITION
California State University
University of California
University of San Diego
University of Southern California