Continued sweeping changes throughout college football appear imminent on the sport’s horizon.
Multiple sources in recent weeks tell FootballScoop that the NCAA is zeroing in on the ‘countable coaches’ rule, moving instead to de-regulate the number of allowable full-time coaches – presently at 10 assistants plus the head coach – as the nebulous roles of analysts and quality control coaches has skyrocketed across the landscape the past 15 years.
The measure is expected to be formally brought to a vote later this summer.
“I believe it will be passed,” said one NCAA Division I offensive coordinator. “I think it will be after the season like when they started the 10th assistant.
“I don’t think they’d want there to be a run on guys (coaches) right before the season starts.”
Regardless, the measure is drawing closer and closer to being expedited through the proper channels. Multiple Power 5 conferences already are in deep discussions about expanding coaching staffs, with multiple sources telling FootballScoop last week that the ACC is presently positioned to move forward with the countable coaches rule removed.
Last month, a high-ranking college football official said, “It looks like there’s going to be change in that (countable coaches rule). If you want to coach, you can coach.”
What might the recruiting impact be?
“Recruiting, there’s talk about picking a certain number of coaches, and they are the coaches who are allowed on the road,” he said. “It will probably be a select number of guys that are chosen by the head coach that can go on the road.”
There is a goal in mind, said a source, to streamline the way recruiting is handled because of the myriad layers of recruiting, with the source saying, “You talk to top recruits in the country, and each one had a better relationship with the recruiting guy than the (position) coach. He’ll say, ‘I talk to so and so, the offensive analyst or this or that.”
Instead, it will be an established group.
“The goal is to pick certain coaches to go on the road recruiting, have a couple in reserve who can go out in case they are needed, and they would have to have a reason to send them on the road,” he added.
As it relates to those increasingly likely changes, another change to the recruiting calendar also is in the potential offing.
“The recruiting space is probably going to be either dead or alive,” he said. “They’re trying to get rid of a lot of the ‘quiet’ period, the email period. It’s either a recruiting period or not a recruiting period. Now, it may go nowhere, but it’s being discussed in the (NCAA’s) Transformation Committee.”