NCAA cancels basketball recruiting event that was scheduled for Koch Arena in July
The NCAA announced on Tuesday that it has canceled its College Basketball Academy for this summer due to safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wichita State was slated to be one of four host sites for the six-day recruiting event, bringing hundreds of high school prospects from around the Midwest region to Koch Arena in late July.
The NCAA gave no indication in its news release whether the host sites for 2020 would be offered the opportunity to play host to another event in the near future. The three other host sites were Utah, Winthrop and Connecticut.
“Every attempt was made to conduct the Academy for the benefit of the prospective student-athletes and college basketball coaches, who attend for evaluation purposes, but the current circumstances could not ensure health and safety for those attending,” NCAA senior vice president Dan Gavitt said in the release.
The academies were created last summer and featured hundreds of high school prospects from all over the region playing in scrimmages and going through drills conducted by past and present college and high school coaches.
They also offered classes for players and their parents or guardians to receive social media advice and learn skills geared toward preparing them for the recruiting process, academic eligibility and life on campus.
As long as the prospect had registered through the NCAA Eligibility Center, the NCAA paid for the travel expenses for each player and one parent or guardian.
The academies were created in response to suggestions from the federal government’s Commission on College Basketball following the bribery and corruption scandals recently in recruiting.
But in their debut last summer, the academies struggled to attract the caliber of recruits that high-major college coaches wanted to see. There is optimism among some coaches, however, that the academies will flourish in coming years as the NCAA continues to build them up and their stature grows.
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