When basketball coaches change jobs.

In the spring, a head basketball coach's fancy will often turn to a change in his job. It's always in the air at that time. The unexpected firings and the resignations of head coaches due to violations and improprieties.

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It will usually involve between 30 and 75 choices out of a national work force of 325 coaches every year.

Obviously, there will be major ramifications that affect the departing head coach, the incoming head coach, and the university. The college basketball student-athletes and their concerns will often be overlooked.

One of the major factors in college basketball recruiting is choosing the head coach at the specific school. During the recruiting process, the student-athlete will usually play a large role in the decision on the head coach. When the head coach relinquishes control of the basketball program either through choice or invitation, the student-athlete's future is directly affected.

The national letter of intent is an official document that is administered by the Collegiate Commissioners Association that binds the student-athlete to the university.

The NCAA does not administer or control the stipulations of the NLI. "The letter-of-intent program, which was initiated by the former Southwest Conference, and is now handled by the Southeastern Conference office" (48 Carey, J. 2003).

"It was begun after constant haggling by the athletes during the recruiting process. The NLI binds the student-athlete and the institution to each other."

In college basketball, there are two annual time periods during the year when a student-athlete can officially declare his or her intended school. They are the early signing period the second week of November that includes a week-long period when student-athletes can officially sign with his or her desired college for the next year, and the late signing period from the beginning of April to the middle of May, including a six-week period during which the student-athlete can officially declare his or her college choice.

The current legislation states that the student-athlete must sign the national letter of intent with the institution and not for a particular sport or individual.

Should the head coach leave the program, the student-athlete is still bound to that institution. This creates a very difficult situation with the student-athlete because of the importance of the head coach in the decision-making choice during the recruiting process.

It often prods the student-athlete into looking for possible transfer to another institution. In most cases, it will cost the student-athlete a year of playing eligibility. Another situation will find the student-athlete remaining at the institution and trying to make it work, even though he may not be completely happy with his new coaching situation.

The change in job positions will affect the departing head coach, the incoming head coach, and the university in general, the college basketball student-athletes, and the alumni. The direct focus will be on the college basketball student-athletes, since this will be their time to participate intercollegiately.

Of the five parties affected, the college basketball student-athlete is the only one who has a time window. He has five total years to be involved with college athletics and four years to play intercollegiately.

There will be head-coaching changes each year. The head coaches will sometimes have an opportunity to elevate to a better position financially, prestigiously, or something he cannot reject. There are certain situations recently that have occurred negatively with head coaches that have placed college basketball student-athletes in uncomfortable situations.

There have been recent college basketball head coaching scandals resulting in dismissals with Ohio State University's Jim O'Brien, St. Bonaventure's Jan Van Breda Kolff, Georgia's Jim Harrick, Baylor's Dave Bliss, and UNLV's Bill Bayno,"(44 Bechtel. 2004).

Additionally, there was the recent national attention and negativity of the resignation of Cincinnati's Bobby Huggins for off-the-court improprieties (46 Saraceno, J. 2004).

Student-athletes at all of these institutions experienced a stunning change in head coaches due to various factors. These surprising events all occurred in the spring, except the Cincinnati situation so that the student-athletes were able to evaluate their specific situation and consider transfer situations or to remain at the current institution.

Student-athletes at all of the above-mentioned schools, except Baylor were required (if transferring to another school) to sit out for one academic year.

Student-athletes at Baylor were allowed to transfer and play immediately due to extenuating circumstances with improprieties.

The letter of intent binds the college basketball student-athlete to an institution for one full academic year while also requiring the institution to provide an athletic scholarship to the student-athlete admitted to the school. Head coaching changes forbid a student-athlete who has signed a letter of intent from immediately attending another school and playing athletically.

The current penalty requires the student-athlete to sit out for one academic year while also losing one of the five total seasons that he has been allowed to play four seasons.

The national letter of intent program is administered by the Collegiate Commissioners Association which represents over 500 colleges in over 50 NCAA Division I and Division II conferences (48 Carey, J. 2003).

The major problem in college basketball is that the student-athlete is choosing an institution primarily because of the relationship with the head coach rather than the institution. When the head coach departs, he will leave a major void for the student-athlete. To a large degree, the recruiting process will have to be duplicated with the incoming head coach and the current student-athletes.

The affected parties in the change of jobs are the departing head coach, the incoming head coach, and the university in general, the college basketball student-athlete, and the alumni.

The departing head coach is affected because he was a major reason why the student-athlete chose the current institution. Obviously, the departing head coach has to make career decisions that are best for him.

However, it is often a very difficult process because of the closeness of the head coach to student-athlete relationship. One reason that the current rule is in place (requiring a student-athlete to sit out one year with a release and two years without a release) is to prevent the departing head coach from taking recruits and players with him to his new job (48 Carey, J. 2003).

One recent example affecting an incoming recruit occurred with J.R. Giddens at the U. of Kansas with departing head Coach Roy Williams. Giddens had signed with Kansas and then with head coach Roy Williams during the early November signing period of his senior season.

In the following spring, Williams bolted for the head coaching job at his alma mater, North Carolina.

"You think he's going to be your coach and you're looking forward to playing for him and that's probably the reason you go to that college. And then he up and leaves, and it kind of hurts. I was shocked. I'm still shocked." (Giddens said (48 Carey, J. 2003).

Giddens honored his commitment and attended Kansas despite a new head coach. But, after one season, he transferred to New Mexico where he is currently sitting out for one academic year.

The incoming head coach is affected by the situation in that he has to inherit a program where the current student-athletes may have a very close and personal relationship with the departing head coach. The incoming head coach has to recruit the student-athletes while selling his new program. This is often a very difficult time for the student-athletes because of their comfort and certainty level with the departing head coach. The positive for the incoming head coach is that he or she can sell the idea that everyone has a clean slate and new start.

However, the scholarships are one year renewable by the institution and the head coach by July 1 of each preceding academic year. The new head coach will have the option to discontinue future scholarships ... --to the student-athlete.

The university in general is affected by the departure of one head coach and the arrival of a new head coach. This kind of thing can cause widespread apprehension because of the previous success and positives of the departing head coach.

The incoming head coach is under an intense microscope and has to prove himself all over again. A national and regional negative reaction can occur whenever college basketball players decide to leave school or if recruits decide not to attend the institution. It can give the university a negative public operation.

The college basketball student-athlete is the party that is most directly and drastically affected by the coaching change. He may be required to make it work with the new head coach or sacrifice one year of the possible five and sit out as a transfer to a similar institution.

If one of the five years has previously been used for academic reasons (to red shirt to improve athletically) or for medical reasons, the student-athlete will be required to lose an additional year of the five and could end up playing three or less total years of playing time.

Jim Livengood, director of athletics at the U. of Arizona, believes that players should have a certain time period to see who the new head coach is going to be. Things could end up being a better situation than before (48 Carey, J. 2003).

The parents of the student-athletes are affected because their son or daughter has to deal with one of the major reasons that was present in the original recruiting pitch.

This void will have to be either positively replaced by the incoming head coach or it could lead to negativity with the student-athlete's academic, athletic, and social experiences at the current institution. This could cause failure or for the student-athlete to transfer to a new situation.

College basketball coaches are going to change jobs due to choice or force in the occupation. No coach is ever allowed to coach every student-athlete that he or she recruited for his or her entire four-year playing career.

Because of the high impact of the head coach, however I believe that the student-athlete should have the option of exploring his personal options in either continuing at the current school or finding a new school. This is only fair to the student-athlete, who is the most important person in the process.

There must be great organization and detail by the NCAA, conferences, and institutions in this process. Whenever a head coach leaves through choice or force, any contact will be forbidden outside head coaches will be forbidden to visit with the players.

There must be a time period (possibly 30 days after) for a new head coach to be officially hired before a student-athlete will be allowed to declare his intentions to other school options. This would give the incoming head coach the opportunity to recruit the current student-athletes and get to know them.

The student-athletes would have the chance to visit with the new head coach and get to know him, should then be given the time to see how many daily things are going to be done in the new program.

There also could be a time frame of 60 days from the new head coach's official hiring to let any student-athlete decide whether he was going to transfer to another school.

This would give him ample time to make any essential personal decisions with not handicapping the incoming head coach and the program for players who will be considering leaving all spring and summer.

After this 60-day window, all student-athletes will be required to stay at their original institution for at least one semester. If the 30-day minimum time of no contact is enforced, it would still give the student-athlete an additional 30 days to officially visit at least two schools as well as make unlimited unofficial visits to other schools.

The most important person in this entire process is the college basketball student-athletes. They should be given reasons for everything without creating craziness.

By Chris Croft, Graduate Student, University of Texas-El Paso