NCAA rule could limit media access

It might pale in comparison to Tuesday’s bombshell report, which revealed assistant coaches and others have been charged with funneling money to prospective recruits. Still, a recent new NCAA rule could have an effect on media access for studentathletes, including the UConn men’s basketball team.

When the American Athletic Conference Media Day unfolds on Oct. 16 at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott, Jalen Adams and a couple of his UConn teammates will be there to answer questions and talk about the upcoming season.

At one point recently, however, it appeared that wasn’t going to happen at all. In fact, there was talk that few, if any, AAC teams would be bringing players to Media Day.

It all stems from new NCAA rules that are designed to help studentathletes budget their time management, but ultimately could affect how much media coverage they get.

Essentially, any day off for players is exactly that — a day off. If the team has no practice, weight-lifting session or any other teamoriented activity slated, nothing else can be scheduled for that day.

If an outlet in the Hearst Connecticut Media chain (or ESPN, or any outlet) wants to interview Adams on a day off during the season, that interview likely won’t be granted. Instead, it will have to be shoehorned into Adams’ schedule on a day the team practices — perhaps an hour between practice and his next class.

The Power Five schools adopted these new rules in July (with input from student-athletes), and the AAC — which brands itself as a “Power Six” conference — will adhere to them, as well.

It has already affected UConn. The Huskies’ unveiled their eight new players in a “Meet the New Huskies” media event on Sept. 14. That event was originally slated to happen the prior week, then on Sept. 11, then Sept. 13, and finally on Sept. 14. The event was held after an already scheduled practice so that it didn’t take up an off-day on the players’ schedules.

On Wednesday, UConn will have its annual Husky Run, where players (and possibly coach Kevin Ollie) will run a 5K through campus. The Huskies already

had a strength-conditioning scheduled for Wednesday, so the event doesn’t eat into a day off.

Team schedules have to be planned out about a month in advance. Any changes to those schedules have to be made at least 48 hours in advance, per the new rules.

It’s already causing havoc with media days. Duke and North Carolina have said that they won’t be bringing any players to ACC Media Day in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 25. That could set off a chain reaction where more — all? — ACC teams wind up not bringing any players.

Bringing players to Media Day essentially eats up two days — the day of travel to the event, and the actual day of the event. Neither can be counted as a day off, so that eats up two potential practice days in a week. Sure, the other players could practice on those days, but they’d be without their head coach and at least one or two of their top players.

UConn could, in essence, practice on Oct. 15 and have Ollie, Adams and one or two other players fly to Philadelphia afterwards. Then, after Media Day is complete on the afternoon of Oct. 16, they could fly back to Storrs and UConn could have an evening practice.

However, UConn director of basketball operations Kevin Freeman has figured out a way to make things work that week without going through such a hectic routine.

As things stand now, it appears all AAC teams will be sending players to Media Day, with the possible exception of Memphis, which is trying to figure out how to make it all work.

RIM RATTLINGS: UConn has not been implicated in any of the charges levied against assistant coaches and shoe company employees that rocked the college basketball world on Tuesday. Of course, many dominoes could still fall in a drama that could take weeks to unfold. With so much overlap in the recruiting world, and with the FBI (with subpoena power) and not the NCAA taking the lead on this investigation, it’s inevitable that other programs and players will likely be dragged into the investigation.

Members of UConn’s basketball program didn’t want to discuss on Tuesday whether they felt the Huskies might have been hurt by some of the recruiting violations alleged in the FBI’s report.