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Arizona Football: Rich Rodriguez’s agenda includes eliminating signing day

By Shereen Rayan

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Arizona Football coach Rich Rodriguez and Athletic Director Greg Byrne talked to the media recently about their house and the rules that they want to see changing in the NCAA.

Greg Byrne and Rich Rod spoke to media about the “Our House” campaign and spoke candidly about his thoughts on potential rule changes in College Football. Rodriguez wants to sell out Arizona Football season tickets; he asked the media, “Why not us?”

Rodriguez feels that there are enough fans and enough interest to break the ticket sales record. He wants to see a packed house, and he wants the fans to have the best experience watching the game. He is aware that winning most of the time will help. Also, selling out the Arizona football stadium will send a great message to recruits.

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Rich Rodriguez is on the coaching committee who will discuss rules and guidelines for NCAA Football. GoAZCats.com (Rivals) ‘The Sports Guys’ spoke to Coach Rod in a very candid and enjoyable conversation.

“We had a recruiting weekend this past weekend, and nearly every player in the state we wanted was there. We got another recruiting weekend coming up in a couple of weeks, and we have over 25 really really good players coming in on official visits and the reception has been outstanding,” boasted coach Rod, “I do think we’ll have if not the best, one of the best recruiting classes we have had in a very long time.” Rodriguez is not lying, he and his coaches are on target to do exactly what he said. As it stands, Arizona’s recruiting class is currently best in the Pac-12, and ranked 24th in the nation.

Rodriguez discussed one of his pet peeves with the NCAA, namely, the rules regarding text messaging or direct messaging of a player on social media. He also wants to ensure satellite camps remain an option for recruiting.

“Text messaging is now legal,” said Rodriguez, “I think they just gotta eliminate all the rules [all the rules] — they need to eliminate all the social media rules and all that, and just kind of clarify a little bit, there’s bigger problems and things to check on if somebody’s cheating than, ‘did he send him a message? Was it a direct message? Was it a Tweet? Was it a prospect or not a prospect?’ What the heck!”

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He wants to slow the process down, and thinks recruits should block coaches they don’t want to hear from on social media,”They [NCAA] have to eliminate the signing date — some kids just want to collect as many offers as they can, and some schools just want to send out as many offers as they can,” explained coach Rod, “Let’s slow down the process down by eliminating the sign date.”

Here are Rodriguez’s proposal qualifiers, he feels the rules need radical changes and hopes that the ideas don’t die in the desert somewhere like his past suggestions:

  • Get rid of signing date, let recruits sign once they start their freshman year or Let coaches sign players whenever they want.
  • Schools should only sign 25 kids (some sign 30 kids because of academic concerns, he feels that risk should be on the coach).
  • A recruit cannot sign within one or two weeks after of an evaluation or visit so that the emotional part of it is diminished.
  • If the head coach that signs the letter of intent for an athlete, and that coach is not the head coach on February 1st of a recruits senior year in high school, the recruit is free to seek other opportunities.
  • Satellite Camps are important, and they should be allowed (but if banned, it wouldn’t be the end for Arizona).

Rodriguez feels the signing day circus of announcing with their hats, and jumping out of airplanes is just going to get worse.

Here is the Rich Rodriguez and Greg Byrne “Our House” interview in full:

And, in case you missed it, here is the Arizona Football “Our House” Video..we are already excited!

As far as communicating to recruits electronically, there is no possible way to stop anyone on the internet from recruiting these young athletes, nor is it an easy task to figure out which coaches are communicating improperly. Those rules have to go because no one can police all the fans and all the coaches, and all of their direct messages.

We think it’s going to be a hard sell to get rid of signing day, but we agree something has to be done, maybe if a recruit commits on Twitter or other social media outlets, that’s as good as a signed LOI.

More wildcats: Arizona Football: No. 2 linebacker in Hawaii, Wildcats recruit Isaac Slade-Matautia

Recruiting has become as drama filled as the NFL Draft at times. The communication rules make little sense, and the young athletes should be able to pick the school they want to play for without a ton of pressure from anyone other than their parents and the school. It will be interesting to find out if Coach Rod’s proposals are heard and voted on, his progressive stance is refreshing. BearDown Coach!

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