Recruiting help

On deadline, need a quick response, if possible, since the NCAA is making me play phone tag:

Let's say a kid is being recruited D-I in FB. Goes to a camp and on the way home the recruiting coach text-messages the kid and says congratulations on earning a scholarship. Kid tells me yesterday what the text said and I want to put it in the story.

I know national signing day is the first Wed. in February, but the program sent the kid a package yesterday with the letter of intent.

Am I getting someone in trouble by printing what the text message said?

 

I believe coaches are restricted from texting kids before they sign the letter of intent.

 

Honestly, do you or should you care? He's giving you the text message. Use it.

 

I want to know if rules have been violated, that's all. For where the kid is going, it's big news here in Podunk. There's ramifications if the coach violated rules.

 

I understand you may not want to harm the kid, but if the coach is breaking rules by texting the kid, doesn't that make for another story down the road?

 

I think I'm still with Doc. Let the kid and coaches and NCAA brass worry about violations. If there is one, it's their's to deal with. Plus, you get a follow-up story.

(God, when did I become so cynical?)

 

Dammit Doc! Beat me by a minute!

 

Of course. I'd write the story for good or for worse. It's just that I got the tip yesterday and had little time to research the matter with everything else going on. The text message is in the story. Let the chips fall where they may.

 

Exactly.

 

Of course, by printing it, you're alerting your competition to the coach's violation as well. Any way to dig into this more before printing anything about the text message?

Seems like it would be a waste to put in the article as a throwaway line and give your competition a chance to dig for a story you should be working on.

Unless, of course, that's what your story is already about. I got the impression that you're writing a story about a kid who has made a verbal commitment to a big-time football school and wanted to include something like, "Jimmy Jockstrap verbally accepted a scholarship from Cheater U., and coach Back Door Shenanigans sent him a text message to congratulate him on the decision."

 

We're a weekly and the main thrust of this story, which I found out about yesterday, is Johnny Sweetheart going to Bigtime D-I University, our first major story like this in a long time.

After we go to print I can work on it more and write a follow-up for the Web site. At some point Johnny's papa was going to alert all of the media. I found out because the Johnny's head coach called me as a thank you for covering a big event he attended Saturday.

I'm just wondering if Johnny's new college coach broke rules by saying he'd earned a scholarship via text-message.

 

If the kid's a rising senior, the text messaging is fine. No contact during this time of year, but there is no limit on letters, text messages or emails. Text messaging ends Aug. 1, per the NCAA. If the kid's a rising junior, no contact outside of letters is allowed until Sept. 1.
All that said, the kid gave it to you. Print it.