Friday, February 19, 2010

AAU strikes back on club residency requirements issue

In an apparent response to the new NCAA ruling limiting out-of-state players on club teams, Amateur Athletic Union officials have temporarily enacted a policy that will permit teams to include more players from out of their area.

The temporary move, allowing its sanctioned teams to have an unlimited number of members outside the state or district boundaries, is a dramatic departure from longtime AAU rules. The AAU previously restricted teams to a maximum of three players from a bordering district. A team's district is defined by the coach's residence......

"The AAU believes in residency requirements and encourages the NCAA to approve such legislation in the future," the AAU girls basketball board said in a statement. "However, we believe, that for this summer, temporarily modifying our residency requirements will facilitate improvements in the Girls' Basketball environment to coincide with the NCAA standards."


That quote indirectly says a lot. It looks like the AAU feels there should be some "free agency," so to speak, in youth athletics. And if the NCAA won't provide it, they will.

What are the implications of this ruling?

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