NDSU Snakes

[SirHinn]

Why are you guys making this out to be the biggest deal in the world? It happens all the time in football. I can recall numerous athletes who have made verbal committments who have changed their mind. It also happens in college basketball as well. Verbal committments mean absolutely nothing now a days. Until your signed sealed and delivered, your free game to everyone else. Some athletes use verbals are bargaining power to other schools as well. Especially if schools with higher prestige don't recruit them until later on in the process. For example, are you going to chose Minnesota Law school over Harvard Law school just because you give them your word before you actually started? Of course your not. C'mon folks, lets get real. Thee only reason why its such a big deal is because its NDSU. Had it been Minnesota or some other d1 school, you guys would be happy for her.

Also comparing committing to marriage is absolutely ludicris. We're talking about college sports versus spending the rest of your life with someone. Let's get real.

[franklin]

Why are you guys making this out to be the biggest deal in the world?  It happens all the time in football.  I can recall numerous athletes who have made verbal committments who have changed their mind.  It also happens in college basketball as well.  Verbal committments mean absolutely nothing now a days.  Until your signed sealed and delivered, your free game to everyone else.  Some athletes use verbals are bargaining power to other schools as well.  Especially if schools with higher prestige don't recruit them until later on in the process.  For example, are you going to chose Minnesota Law school over Harvard Law school just because you give them your word before you actually started?  Of course your not.  C'mon folks, lets get real.  Thee only reason why its such a big deal is because its NDSU.  Had it been Minnesota or some other d1 school, you guys would be happy for her.

Also comparing committing to marriage is absolutely ludicris.  We're talking about college sports versus spending the rest of your life with someone.  Let's get real.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

True it does happen in other sports, yet it does not show clASS or respect. As far as it being another school I don't think this is the 1st time women hoops has delt with this. It is a bigger deal because it shows who is trying to stay local and not be big time and come up short and then come back to the local kid to save their clASS. Most of us fans like to see kids stay local -

[sultan]

The reason Sioux fans are making a big deal about this is that Amy ridiculed the Sioux coaches as being unprofessional and not classy when they didn't cheerlead for NDSU in their move to DI. The statements the coaches made are minor in comparison to the actions of Amy Ruley. She probably shouldn't be preaching to others when her behavior is totally unprofessional and "unclassy". Maybe in the future , Bison fans and the Fargo media better clean up their own yard before they start pointing fingers at other institutions. The accusations made towards our administration, our coaches and even Roger Thomas have been blown way out of proportion. The people in Fargo don't seem to understand that UND does what's best for UND, not necessarily what's best for NDSU.

[dakotadan]

Why are you guys making this out to be the biggest deal in the world?

[UND92,96]

Why are you guys making this out to be the biggest deal in the world?

[BisonMav]

This may not be all that big of a deal in the scheme of thing, but it reflects very poorly on the character of Amy Ruley.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So what exactly was said that reflects poorly on the charactor of Amy Ruley?

[Sioux-cia]

This may not be all that big of a deal in the scheme of thing, but it reflects very poorly on the character of Amy Ruley.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Character + Ann Ruley = Oxymoron

[UND-1]

So what exactly was said that reflects poorly on the charactor of Amy Ruley?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Incase you didn't read the first 20 replies: Her calling a player (notice I didn't say recruit because she had never had contact with her before Sunday night) after the player had verbally committed to a school 3 days earlier, which happens to be their in-state rival, and offering her a scholarship. That is what shows the true character of Amy Ruley. Maybe this is what is to be expected now that they think they are D1. This goes on at some major D1 universities, but most of the universities that do that type of stuff are also the ones that don't graduate players and are renegade programs. I don't think she wants to start going down that path, this is still North Dakota and stuff like that isn't looked upon very highly around here.

[BisonMav]

Incase you didn't read the first 20 replies: Her calling a player (notice I didn't say recruit because she had never had contact with her before Sunday night) after the player had verbally committed to a school 3 days earlier, which happens to be their in-state rival, and offering her a scholarship.  That is what shows the true character of Amy Ruley.  Maybe this is what is to be expected now that they think they are D1.  This goes on at some major D1 universities, but most of the universities that do that type of stuff are also the ones that don't graduate players and are renegade programs.  I don't think she wants to start going down that path, this is still North Dakota and stuff like that isn't looked upon very highly around here.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So, what exactly did she say, the other 20 posts are all word-of-mouth.

I have seen nothing that is a quote. No proof that it was even Amy Ruley.

The renegade Gophers did keep recruiting Rick Richert after he verbally committed to Arizona.

[UND-1]

[sultan]

It makes you wonder what of recruiting practices Amy Ruley followed in the past. It's a sad commentary for a Hall of "Shame", I mean Hall of Fame coach like Amy Ruley. With the track record of the Gopher coachs in the past, are you sure you want to be emulating what they have done in the past. Just because the Gopher coaches coachs have followed those standards, it's still bush league.

[BisonMav]

Take off the blinders.  Do you want Amy to come on here and admit it, is that what you need?  How many times do we have to say that members of her family are telling people?

We will just have to wait for the Forum to break the story! 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I guess blinders work both ways.

Yes, I would like to hear both sides of the story, not just what I want to hear.

[Diggler]

Didn't Blais supposedly do the same thing with Brian Canady? Brian verballed to UAA and then Blais got him to come to UND?

[sprig]

Didn't Blais supposedly do the same thing with Brian Canady?  Brian verballed to UAA and then Blais got him to come to UND?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're going to get Suze posting here

[Diggler]

That's the plan.

[Diggler]

we may not like it, but the fact that there's no rule against it says what the NCAA thinks about ....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Using how the NCAA views on the situation as an argument here probably isn't going to win you many fans.

[knowledge]

[iramurphy]

Yeah, realized that a little too late!

But here's my point: when it comes to recruits, the NCAA does everything but tell them how many times they have to chew their food on campus visits...if this was a big deal, they would recognize it and deal with it, like they have almost everything else in excrutiating detail. I know people don't like it when it happens, but it does seem to be pretty common....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why did the U of Minn. have to report the contacts from Lou Nanne with Zparise to the NCAA? That was a violation fo NCAA rules because Zach had committed to UND. Is it different because this is now D1 vs D2?

[mnbison]

Not familiar with the case, so can't answer that (not a hockey fan at all--sorry, and no offense to the vast majority of you who love the game, but I just don't get it)....I've wondered about the D1/D2 thing, but to the best of my knowledge there's no differentiation when it comes to recruiting rules....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My guess is because Lou Nanne is a supporter of the University of MN and people like that are not allowed to make visits or calls on the behalf of the school.....Now if Lou was on the coaching staff of the Gophers, then again it is my guess that it would be fine. I don't think it has anything to do with the DI vs DII thing.

Or what GCWaters said................

[iramurphy]

My guess is because Lou Nanne is a supporter of the University of MN and people like that are not allowed to make visits or calls on the behalf of the school.....Now if Lou was on the coaching staff of the Gophers, then again it is my guess that it would be fine. I don't think it has anything to do with the DI vs DII thing.

Or what GCWaters said................

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You are correct. Because of Lou's relationship with U of Mn., he was not allowed to contact any recruit who had committed. School officials also were not allowed to continue to contact Zach. Wouldn't the same rule apply to Ruley. In the long run who cares, NDSU had been recruiting Jossy before she committed to UND. So had other D1 schools. How ya gonna keep em down on the farm after they've seen UND???

[tony]

I don't think NDSU should be trying to poach UND's recruits once they've verballed. However, right now Coach Ruley isn't able to tell her side of the story.

OTOH, there is no possible way any UND fans could know the truth of this matter without talking to the recruit (which would be a serious NCAA violation) or by talking to Amy Ruley. If not, you guys are just repeating gossip and should be (but probably aren't) ashamed of yourselves.

As for hockey recruiting - the NCAA doesn't recognize verbal recruits. If they did, your recruit would have to get a release from UND to go anywhere else. That said, schools usually, but not always, respect verbal commitments.

If Ruley actually went ahead and did this, the gloves have definitely come off and the respective ADs might want to step in and put an end to this kind of thing before it gets worse.

[sultan]

It will be interesting to see if someone from the media has the guts to just ask Amy the question. Then we will have it on the record and we will see what the response from the parties involved would be. I see where Tony just wants it to go away.Tony is trying to find a loophole. None of his searching will excuse the action that took place. Nobody will ever believe that Amy wasn't aware that she had verbally committed to the Sioux.

[UND Fan]

The bottom line is that this practice happens often in Division I and is an accepted practice. After getting a verbal commitment, the school continues to recruit/babysit the athlete until the signing date to make sure he/she doesn't change her mind.

In the Upper Midwest, we (in general) normally respect other's decisions and once you give your word, it is assumed that you will keep it. Therefore, this type of behavior is somewhat foreign to us.

I do believe that it is normal practice for a coach (for a school not getting the commitment) to: 1) contact the recruit and congratulate them on making his/her decision, 2) thank him/her for considering their program and 3) tell them to call if anything happens that might cause the athlete to change their mind about their commitment. There is nothing wrong with that!

That being said, I also feel that Ruley's actions are a bit unethical. However, we better get used to it. We will likely experience a lot of this - in all sports!

[bisonguy]

.......

I do believe that it is normal practice for a coach (for a school not getting the commitment) to: 1) contact the recruit and congratulate them on making his/her decision, 2) thank him/her for considering their program and 3) tell them to call if anything happens that might cause the athlete to change their mind about their commitment.  There is nothing wrong with that!

.........

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That very well could have been the scenario that's causing all the fuss.

Ex.- "Best of luck at UND. Thanks for considering NDSU. If you decide to change your mind, there's a full ride available at NDSU."

Could that be misunderstood as an offer by a high school student?

[UNDGuy]