When Mark Richt played at Miami in its pre-championship days, it was derisively known as "Suntan U" -- the knock being that all someone could achieve there was a golden glow.
Both the school's academic and athletic profiles have vastly improved in the years between Richt's graduation (1982) and his return as head football coach last December.
But as it relates to recruiting, a major issue remains: People still want suntans.
Especially if they're free of charge.
Because it is a high-visibility program surrounded by warm weather, beaches and palm trees, UM has always attracted talented out-of-state recruits. It's not uncommon for some, especially in colder climates, to feign interest in the Hurricanes with the hopes of scoring a free winter vacation.
During official visits, a recruits' meals, transportation, lodging and entertainment activities are paid for by the school, and each school is allowed a limited amount of visitors per year. Starting now, coaches will have to gauge the intentions of a recruit's family, not just the player himself.
The NCAA approved a rule that allows two parents or legal guardians to receive the same benefits as the student-athlete on an official visit. Proposal 2015-52, which takes effect Aug. 1, means that Miami will also spring for Mom and Dad's trips to South Beach, surf n' turf dinners on Key Biscayne and overnight stays in a ritzy Coconut Grove hotel with views of Biscayne Bay.
The heart of the issue: According to NCAA regulations, programs are allowed a limited number of official visitors (56 in football, an average of 12 per year in basketball), so Miami can't afford to bring on any five-star and his family who wants a free vacation. Even before the rule passed, coaches at "destination resort" schools -- Hawaii, to name one other example -- had occasional trouble determining who might be playing them for fools.
Hurricanes men's basketball coach Jim Larranaga recalled hosting an unnamed recruit and his mother, who paid her own way. At the end of what Larranaga thought was a promising tour, she flat-out told the coach that her son "can't come here."
"I said, 'Why not?'" Larranaga said.
"She said, 'It's too far (from home). I never wanted him to come here.'"
He asked why, then, would they accept an offer to take an official visit?
He'll never forget her response:
"Are you kidding? A free weekend in Miami?"
Annoyed as he was, Larranaga calmly explained to her how she was making things more difficult for him and his coaching staff by being so inconsiderate. She didn't seem to care and Larranaga chalked it up to a learning experience.
"Every time you have a recruit in, you (learn) why they chose you or didn't choose you," said Larranaga, who like Richt spoke to The Palm Beach Post this week at the ACC's spring meetings. "All that feedback helps you develop a strategy -- why it's working, why it isn't working."
Rarely does a recruit wind up signing with a school without taking an official visit, Richt said, and in most cases, the player has paid his own way "usually more than once." If the parents or guardians have accompanied the player on a so-called unofficial visit, that's a strong signal the family is taking a school seriously.
Now, it's harder to read the clues if a top-tier kid from a snowbound state wants to bring his family to UM out of the blue. The key, Richt said, is building strong enough relationships with recruits to ensure it doesn't happen often.
"It's a whole lot different when you have a relationship going," he said, "instead of two weeks before (signing day) and they say, 'Hey man, I want to come visit you,' and there's been no contact or very little response. You know you're not in it."
There are few absolute answers, though. If the player is good enough, it might be worth overlooking that kind of red flag.
"If you think you have legitimate shot," Richt said, "you bring him in."
