It seems like anything and everything can fall under the umbrella of recruiting violations these days, and hip-hop icon Drake is learning that the hard way.
According to a report by The Sporting News on Wednesday, the “Take Care” rapper was recently issued a cease-and-desist letter by the University of Kentucky for committing and NCAA violation. His heinous offense? Posing for pictures with Wildcat recruits at a Big Blue Madness event back in April.
Per the SN report:
The school’s compliance office self-reported the impermissible contact between Drake and three recruits on April 27, according to a letter obtained by Sporting News’ Kami Mattioli as part of an open records request.
The irony is that the university actually took some fairly exorbitant measures to ensure that the rapper would not engage in any illicit contact with recruits that night.
According to the details in the letter, Drake and his management team arrived at Rupp Arena prior to the event’s tipoff and were advised that “NCAA rules prohibited the institution from arranging contact between him and the PSAs as this would be an NCAA violation.” After informing the three recruits in town for Big Blue Madness that they were not allowed to have contact with Drake, athletic directors went as far as trying to coordinate who would be in the hallways to ensure that they did not cross paths.
But the plan fell apart at the seams when Drake headed to the Kentucky locker room to say goodbye to head coach John Calipari and ran into shooting guard commit Charles Matthews who asked for a picture.
Big Blue Madness was Crazy!!!' Loved It! pic.twitter.com/F65u44Pxo3
— Team Matthews (@nichole0335) October 18, 2014
And just like that, a Level III violation had apparently been committed. Kentucky was forced to self-report the infraction and sent Drake a cease-and-desist letter “directing him to refrain from conversations with prospects or taking photos with prospects when that conversation or photo occurs outside the parameters established by the NCAA.”
The good news is that the recruits in question had already committed to the university so the episode shouldn’t come back to bite either side, provided that the rapper avoids partaking in such reckless and malicious picture-posing with student-athletes in the future.
Coach Calipari himself addressed the issue Wednesday on Twitter, downplaying it as a non-issue.
Just so everyone knows, my dear friend @Drake took pics with fans as well as a couple guys as as he was leaving the arena after Madness.
— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) July 22, 2015
There are no issues with @Drake and UK, and Drake is and always will be a part of our Big Blue family. I hope to see him on campus soon.
— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) July 22, 2015
Drake has been known to hang around the Kentucky locker room in the past, and hopefully he exercises more prudence in future Wildcat interactions.
Now we’re just waiting on Meek Mill to tweet that Drake doesn’t write his own cease-and-desist letters.
H/T theScore
