Rules of the Game:
A guide for alumni, friends and boosters of BSC Athletics

Are you a friend, supporter, or booster of BSC Athletics?

Yes if:
• You participated in or are a member of an agency or organization which promotes BSC’s intercollegiate athletic programs
• You made financial contributions to BSC’s athletic department or to an athletic booster organization of BSC
• You are involved in promoting BSC’s athletic programs

IF YOU HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AS A BSC BOOSTER, YOU RETAIN THAT IDENTITY INDEFINITELY.

 Who is a prospective student-athlete (PSA)?

• A PSA is a student who has started classes for the ninth grade. A student who has not started ninth-grade classes becomes a prospect if the intercollegiate institution provides the individual (or the individual’s relatives or friends) with any financial assistance or other benefits.
• A PSA remains a prospect, even after signing with an intercollegiate institution, until the PSA begins classes at an intercollegiate institution or reports for a regular squad practice prior to the start of classes.
• Any student enrolled at a junior college.

What can you NOT do as a friend, supporter or booster of BSC Athletics?

• All alumni, friends and boosters are prohibited from making contact (in person, by phone, by fax, by letter, email, etc.) with a prospect, or the prospect’s family, relatives or legal guardians for the purpose of encouraging the PSA to enroll at BSC or to participate in athletics at BSC. Only a BSC coach or BSC staff member can be involved in the recruiting process of PSAs.
• The prohibition of contact with a PSA is not intended to relate to unavoidable incidental contacts with prospects by alumni, friends, or boosters. Nevertheless, it is understood that incidental contact is not prearranged by the representative or an athletics department staff member, does not take place on the grounds of the prospect’s educational institution or at the sites of organized competition and practice involving the PSA or PSA’s team, is not made for the purpose of recruitment of a PSA, and involves only normal civility.
• You cannot contact a prospect’s counselor, principal, or coach in an attempt to evaluate the athletic or academic abilities of the prospect.
• You cannot assist BSC coaches with recruiting efforts of a PSA by meeting with the recruit, providing a meal, providing free tickets to a home or away from home contest or non-athletic event.
• You cannot provide any of the following (including but not limited to): cash, loans or any other tangible items (car, clothes, jewelry, electronics/stereo equipment); special discounts or payment arrangements on loans; transportation to or from a summer job or to any other site; signing or co-signing a note for a loan; guarantee a bond; purchase post-graduate education; free or reduced-cost housing arrangements; payment or arrangements for payment of transportation for relatives or friends of relatives of a PSA; or arranging employment for a PSA’s family, friends or relatives
• You also are prohibited from providing the above to (1) a coach of a PSA (including AAU coach) and (2) a current BSC student-athlete.

What you can do as a friend, supporter or booster of BSC Athletics?
 
• If you are an established friend or neighbor of a PSA, you may have contact with him or her as long as you do not try to recruit the PSA on behalf of BSC and such contacts are not made at the direction of the BSC coaching staff
• Once a PSA has signed a scholarship to attend BSC, a booster, friend, or alumnus may have contact with the PSA to discuss summer job arrangements
• You can speak to a PSA via telephone only if the recruit initiates the conversation and the call is not for recruiting purposes. A PSA’s questions about athletics must be referred to the athletic department
• You can watch a PSA’s athletic contest on your own initiative, but you may not have contact with the PSA

Final friendly reminders:

• The actions of a friend, booster, or alumnus could jeopardize a student-athlete’s eligibility
• Boosters can incur penalties from the NCAA, such as an institution imposed disassociation, whereby BSC would be precluded from providing any athletic benefit or privilege to the disassociated booster.

Always ask before you act!

For more information, contact: 

Tyra Perry 
Assistant Athletic Director
Compliance Coordinator
Box 549041
Birmingham-Southern College
Birmingham, AL 35254
(205) 226-7741 | tperry@bsc.edu