Lexington, Ky. (July 11, 2019) - Sixty-one of the 63 women’s volleyball coaches in the Power 5 conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) have pledged to each other that they will not do camps with prospect-age recruits between August 1 and December 31 of 2019. The pledge was unanimous in the Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC and ACC, and includes seven of the nine schools in the Big 12. Additionally, nine of the ten BIG EAST programs, eight of the nine Southern Conference institutions, and one WAC school have signed the pledge as of the initial announcement.

“Pop-up camps had become a work-around of the new recruiting rules banning unofficial visits and contact until the junior year,” said AVCA President and University of Michigan Head Coach Mark Rosen. “We decided at our Big Ten meeting that we wanted to honor the spirit of the new recruiting rules designed to move the process later in the high school career of the recruits. We also felt it is important to make the primary focus of the fall season on our current student-athletes. Once we made the pledge to each other we asked other major conferences to join us. We are letting each league make their own decision, but we’re excited that so many of the top programs have taken this pledge for 2019. Our goal is to have either new legislation or more consistent interpretations on what is legal in place for future years.”

To date, the BIG EAST has joined the Power 5 group with nine of their ten coaches taking the pledge.

“As with so many things in recruiting, we found ourselves doing things because everyone else was doing it,” said Kirsten Bernthal Booth, AVCA Division I Representative and Creighton University Head Coach. “Targeted mini-camps in the middle of our season and the middle of the high school season serve no one’s interest – not college coaches, not high school coaches, and certainly not 13 and 14-year-old prospects. The BIG EAST, along with several other conferences, have proposed legislative fixes that will, hopefully, save us from ourselves in future years.”

Pop-up camps started in the fall of 2018 as a reaction to NCAA Division I legislation banning prospective volleyball players from taking unofficial visits to institutions until their junior year of high school. Contact with the coaching staff and a tour of campus are allowed as part of a camp, so coaches began to host numerous camps during the academic year, a time not normally used for traditional camps, to circumvent the new recruiting legislation. These actions led to situations where the new early recruiting restrictions were becoming irrelevant before even having a chance to impact the landscape.

“The AVCA was one of the coaches associations that advocated for changes in D-I recruiting rules,” said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer. “Our research indicated that a large majority of our membership, including high schools and club coaches, thought the system was broken. I applaud the conference representatives, many of whom are past AVCA Presidents, for their leadership in this ‘no camps’ pledge. It gives us a chance to fix the loopholes and maintain the momentum for change in this part of our industry.”

Please see below for the list of institutions that have taken the pledge. The list will be updated as more schools sign on:

ACC

Boston College

Clemson

Duke

Florida State

Georgia Tech

Louisville

Miami

NC State

North Carolina

Notre Dame

Pitt

Syracuse

Virginia

Virginia Tech

Wake Forest

Big 12

Iowa State

Kansas

Kansas State

Oklahoma

Texas

Texas Tech

West Virginia

BIG EAST

Butler

Creighton

DePaul

Georgetown

Providence

Seton Hall

St. John's

Villanova

Xavier



Big Ten

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Maryland

Michigan

Michigan State

Minnesota

Nebraska

Northwestern

Ohio State

Penn State

Purdue

Rutgers

Wisconsin

Pac-12

Arizona

Arizona State

California

Colorado

Oregon

Oregon State

Southern California

Stanford

Utah

UCLA

Washington

Washington State

SEC

Alabama

Arkansas

Auburn

Florida

Georgia

Kentucky

LSU

Mississippi State

Missouri

Ole Miss

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas A&M

Southern

ETSU

Furman

Samford

The Citadel

UNCG

UT-Chattanooga

Western Carolina

Wofford

WAC

UMKC

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About AVCA

The AVCA, with its headquarters in Lexington, Ky., is managed by Associations International. The mission of the AVCA is to advance the sport of volleyball with AVCA coaches at the epicenter of leadership, advocacy and professional development. With a membership of over 8,000 and counting, the AVCA provides a professional network for those individuals and companies dedicated to enhancing and promoting the sport. Members include collegiate, high school, club, youth and Olympic coaches, as well as volleyball club directors. The AVCA provides education to volleyball coaches, recognition of elite players and coaches, promotion of volleyball competitions throughout the world, and networking opportunities for volleyball products and services providers. Further information is available at www.avca.org.

Contact

David Portney

AVCA Director of Marketing & Communications

David.Portney@avca.org