Written by In The Bleachers | 18 April 2007

In this age of fast paced recruiting, a coach will find anyway to drop a line to a recruit, whether it be a hand written letter or a text message to ask how the he is doing today. Text messaging is a quick way to say hi, keep their school fresh in the recruits mind, and at the same time skirt the NCAA's limitations on contact with recruits. Well an NCAA committee (I believe the one that suggested the change and then rechange of the clock rule) has come to a conclusion that it is a good idea to ban the use of text messaging for recruiting purposes. This is not an official rule yet, but it is on its way to being one.

This week, the organization's Division I Management Council approved the proposal, submitted by members of the Ivy league, and forwarded it to the Division I Board of Directors for consideration at their April 26 meeting in Indianapolis.

This will come to a shock to some coaches like Pete Carroll, who on signing day tried to persuade Marvin Austin to USC by telling him Joe McKnight was in going to spurn LSU for the Trojans. But to old timers like Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno, this will have no impact because as JoePa once said; he doesn't even know how to download a jar of peanut butter. My question is this to the NCAA: How can an organization who has problems enforcing boosters giving benefits to players illegally expect to police something like this text message ban? Will they ask each coach, assistant coach, and recruiting coordinator to turn in their cell phone bills each month. Then proceed to check ever number that was text messaged during that month. This seems like beating your head against a brick wall. I hope that the NCAA thinks this ban and how to enforce it through before making it a rule, or a year later we will hear about them reversing this rule just like the ever so dreaded clock changes.

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