This document contains the basic information you need to know prior to participating in an NCAA-certified event.  It is important for participating coaches to visit the Certified Basketball Events and Leagues Web site frequently for updates to this information.  See:  Information on Basketball Certification Web Site Policy. 

HELPFUL INFORMATION:

• Certified Basketball Events and Leagues Main Page
• Certification Policies and Procedures.
• Contact Basketball Certification Staff. 
• List of Certified Events and Leagues.
• Online Help and "How To" Guide

PRIOR TO PARTICIPATING IN AN NCAA-CERTIFIED EVENT:
Before participating in an NCAA-certified event, all participating coaches will have to complete and be approved through the NCAA Participant Approval for Operators and Coaches administered by LexisNexis and each team will have to be registered in the NCAA Basketball Certification System (BBCS). 

• NCAA PARTICIPANT APPROVAL FOR OPERATORS AND COACHES.   All individuals who engage in coaching activities at an NCAA-certified event must be approved prior to participation through the NCAA Participant Approval Program.  NCAA coaches who are employed at an event (which are limited due to other legislative restrictions) are not required to complete this process, but all other individuals, including nonscholastic, AAU, club, high school, junior college, prep school coaches and NCAA student-athletes are required to obtain the requisite approval. 
  
  The coaches' approval process involves an application, verification of criminal background, authorization for release of information and completion of an educational component.  Information to assist the coach in preparing for the educational component (10 question test) is available with this link:  Rules Education for Coaches of Prospective Student-Athletes
  
  The entire process is completed online and takes approximately three to seven days to complete the background check. To apply:     NCAA Participant Approval Process   [Note:  If you are submitting an application, you will always need to use the New Applicant button.  The Returning Applicant button can only be utilized to check the status of a current application OR to obtain the approval number for an application that is not expired.  All individuals submitting an application will use the New Applicant button even if they have filed an application in the past.]
  
  If the applicant has questions concerning the processing of the application OR if the applicant believes that they were falsely denied an approval based on inaccurate information or a case of mistaken identity, he/she should contact the LexisNexis NCAA Support team at 866 777 1979 and e-mail: employment.support@lexisnexis.com. 
  
  The LexisNexis Participant Approval is good for a two-year period.  The "two years" is applied as the year in which the approval is granted and the following year.  The "two years" is not a literal two years from the specific date the approval was issued.  For example, if a coach receives an approval on July 3, 2007, that approval will be effective for the remainder of 2007 and will expire December 31, 2008.  LexisNexis will send an e-mail reminder when expiration is approaching.  Individuals who have a current approval, but do not remember their number can access and reprint their report by logging back in to the LexisNexis Web site with their applicant ID and password.  If additional assistance is needed, contact the LexisNexis NCAA Support team at 866 777 1979.

The Approval Verified by NCAA (previously BBCS Approved) in the Basketball Certification System is NOT an indication as to whether or not the individual actually has an approval.  Instead, this field is an indication as to whether the NCAA staff has verified that the individual is approved.  The Approval Verified by NCAA field is manually updated by NCAA staff once they have confirmed that the individual has an approval.  This is done as a courtesy to event operators to eliminate some of the work involved in verifying coaches.  If a "YES" appears, operators can allow the individual to coach without doing anything because the NCAA staff has already verified him/her.  If a "NO" appears, the individual may have an approval, but the operator will need to confirm that by checking the list of approved coaches prior to allowing him/her to participate.  BE AWARE - This is NOT an automated process.  An individual could have been approved by LexisNexis and still have an indication of NO in the BBCS.  The LexisNexis list of approved operators and coaches IS automated and once approved the individuals name will appear on the list of approved coaches available to event operators on the LexisNexis Web site. [Note: When rosters are printed or exported this column may still be titled BBCS Approved.  This is being changed so that all instances will read Approval Verified by NCAA to avoid any confusion.]

The complete policy for coaches' participation approval including restrictions is available online:  Approval of Coaches Policy.

• TEAM REGISTRATION - All teams participating at an NCAA-certified event must register online prior to reporting to participate in the event.  Coaches are expected to keep their online rosters updated. The same address and telephone number cannot be utilized for multiple athletes.  In addition, it is not an acceptable practice for prospects' coaches to substitute their own demographic information for that of the prospective student-athlete.  It is important that the prospect and his/her family retain the opportunity to exercise control over the recruiting process, so please ensure that each prospect's demographic information is submitted. PO Boxes can only be entered for athletes in very remote areas where street addresses are not utilized.  Failure to register or to submit all required information will result in the team being denied participation in all NCAA certified events and it is the operator's discretion whether entry fees are refunded. 
  
  Step-by-step instruction on how to register a team can be found with the following links:
  • Create and Manage Your User Account to Access the Basketball Certification System (BBCS)  Note:  You do not have to create a new username and password each year.  Once you have created an account, there is no need to create another one.  You can enter multiple teams AND have access to change your contact information as is necessary from year to year.
  • Team Registration Instructions  

DO NOT open the BBCS in multiple Web browsers or the team rosters will be corrupted and the data will not be recoverable.  This could prevent your team from being able to participate in an NCAA certified event because the roster will be inaccurate or you could inadvertently opt out of events preventing operators from having access to your rosters.
 

• ADJOINING STATE REQUIREMENT (MEN'S EVENTS ONLY):   Current NCAA legislation requires participants on nonscholastic men's basketball teams to reside either within the same state as the team's official address or within a geographically adjoining state, with not more than three prospects from adjoining states participating on any one team.  A prospect who is not an international prospect or a student at a boarding/preparatory school should be required to establish and maintain a legal residence for a minimum of three months prior to participating in an NCAA-certified event. Additional information regarding international athletes, boarding school and two-year college prospects, temporary change of guardianship and exceptions to the rule are include in the full policy online.  See:  Adjoining State Policy.
   
• MAKE UP OF TEAM FOR SCHEDULE RESTRICTIONS - Prospective student-athletes may participate in no more than five games over a rolling two-day period and in no more than three games on any one day per event.  This requirement is per athlete and not per team.  So, if you have an athlete that is participating on multiple teams in the same event you will need to use wisdom as to when that athlete plays for what team.  Each athlete is limited to no more than three games a day and no more than five games every two days.  Or in other words, an athlete cannot play in four games one day and one the next; nor can an athlete play in three games one day and three the next.  He/she could, however play in two games one day, three the next, and the two games the third day.  

AT REGISTRATION:

• NCAA PARTICIPANT APPROVAL FOR OPERATORS AND COACHES.   Operators are required to verify that all individuals in coaching activities have been granted the NCAA Participant Approval by LexisNexis prior to participation.  Coaches should be prepared to share their approval card from LexisNexis and present the Drivers License as proof of identity, but be aware that operators are told not to rely solely on the fact that a coach can produce an approval card.  Operators will be checking to ensure that the coach's name is on the list of approved coaches and if the name is not on the list, the individual will be denied the opportunity to coach even if the coach has a printout of their approval card.  Those issues will need to be resolved with LexisNexis.
   
• ROSTER UPDATES FOR EACH TEAM: 
  1. If all of the coaches travelling with your team do not appear on the BBCS roster, you will be asked to update it prior to participating in the event.  Event Operators do not have the ability to add coaches to a roster.
  2. You will need to identify at registration which athletes and coaches entered on the roster are reporting for participation in each event.

• YOUNGER TEAMS:  If teams are competing that are not made up of prospective student-athletes, they may or may not be required to meet the certification requirements.  See:  Non-Prospect Aged Teams if you have such teams. 

AT THE EVENT:

• SEPARATION OF NCAA COACHES:  Division I basketball coaches are prohibited from having any kind of contact, directly or indirectly, with a prospective student-athlete, the prospective student-athlete's relatives or legal guardians, the prospective student-athlete's coach or any individual associated with the prospective student-athlete during the time period in which the prospective student-athlete is participating in an event.   An event operator must take reasonable precautions to prevent impermissible contact with NCAA Division I coaches during a certified event.  See:  Minimum Precautions.  Most common, events should have a separate seating section for NCAA coaches.  Make sure that your athletes and their families know that they are not to sit in the designated NCAA coaches section and to protect the eligibility of the athlete, they should not engage in any communications with NCAA Division I coaches. 
  
• MANDATORY EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS AT EVENTS - In order for an event to be certified, all prospective student-athletes must attend a comprehensive educational session.  The session(s) must consist of an in-person or video presentation.  The distribution of printed materials to participants or coaches will not satisfy this requirement.  Further, the session(s) must address NCAA initial-eligibility standards, gambling, agents and drug use.  Your team should be prepared to attend a session at each event or risk being denied participation.  Be aware that many operators utilize the NCAA produced educational video to meet this requirement.  Even though your team has already seen the NCAA video, they are expected to attend an educational session at each event.  Repetition is often necessary for retention.   See:  Mandatory Educational Session. 

COMPLIMENTARY ITEMS/BENEFITS:

• AWARDS:  A participant may receive an award, provided the cost of the award is included in the participant's entry fee.  If participants do not directly pay an entry fee, no awards may be provided.  If provided, the cost of the awards must be covered in the entry fee.  Awards cannot be donated.  Awards may be trophies, medals or plaques, or the award may be a T-shirt.  A T-shirt may be provided as a prize in addition to the complimentary T-shirt that may be provided to all participants in the event/league.  Items of apparel other than a short- or long-sleeved T-shirt (e.g., sweatshirts, jackets, jerseys, shoes), equipment (e.g., basketballs), and/or mementos (e.g., backpacks, watches, water bottles, etc.)  may not be provided as prizes.  See:  Gifts, Awards, Inducements and Conveniences.
  
• EQUIPMENT AND APPAREL:  A prospective student-athlete who attends an NCAA certified event shall not retain any athletics equipment or apparel provided for his/her use at the event other than an event T-shirt.  All other apparel (e.g., shoes or shorts) may be retained only if the prospective student-athlete is charged the normal retail value of such items (as opposed to the event's cost in purchasing the items) and the items must be paid for separate from the event entry fee.
  
• TRANSPORTATION: Operators are prohibited from providing air or ground transportation to and/or from an event/league for participants, their coaches or relatives.  However, an operator may provide local transportation to participants between the activity site and the nearest airport, bus or train station provided that the same transportation is available to all attendees.
  
• REDUCED ENTRY FEES:  NCAA legislation requires that activity operators charge participants the same entry fee.  Operators are prohibited from granting free entry or reduced entry to select participants based on athletics ability or reputation. See:  Reduced Entry or Employment Program Requirements. 

POSSIBLE PENALTIES:

• Any team that provides false and/or misleading information in the BBCS, to the NCAA or to any certified event operators in order to satisfy any of the NCAA's demographic, residency (adjoining state), coaches approval or other legislated requirements will result in the withdrawal of the coaches' approvals for all coaches associated with that team, which will prohibit those coaches from participating in any coaching activity at any NCAA-certified event for a period of up to five years.  See:  Provision of False and Misleading Information Policy. There is no appeal program for such an action.
  
• Further, approval for participation in an NCAA-certified event could also be adversely affected if an individual fails to cooperate with the NCAA staff (including, but not limited to, the enforcement staff and Eligibility Center) in an inquiry relating to possible NCAA rules violations beyond the basketball certification rules and policies OR if the individual knowingly participates in a violation of NCAA legislation.   Failing to cooperate with the NCAA or knowingly participating in a violation of NCAA legislation will have will result in the withdrawal of the coaches' approvals for that coach, which will prohibit the coach from participating in any coaching activity at any NCAA-certified event for a period of up to five years.  Again, there would be no appeal rights for such an action.  See:  Required Cooperation and Violations of NCAA Legislation and Provision of False and Misleading Information Policy.   

FYI - DATES AVAILABLE TO DI COACHES:
Division I coaches may only attend events as outlined in Bylaw 13.1.7.8 – Basketball Evaluations and only on dates identified in the current Recruiting Calendars.

• See: Permissible Dates.