I jumped for joy (no, really, I jumped up and down like a schoolboy) when I read this little snippet about some changes to NCAA basketball recruiting rules. It’s a very big deal for those of use who constantly bemoan how silly the NCAA rules are and how hard they must be to follow or enforce. So, this is kind of what’s on the table.
Juniors will get to start making official visits after the national title game. Coaches will have some more leeway in when they are allowed to go evaluate recruits, and they are considering deregulating the sorts of communications that coaches and players can have.
It’s the deregulation that is such a big deal for me. When that rule is altered, no one is going to have to read anymore silly stories about how some coach accidentally sent a text to the wrong number, it happened to be a recruit, and then he had to report to his compliance office, and then some poor office drone had to go through some crazy reporting procedure for something stupid like a text message.
Finally, I think the NCAA has figured out that if they aren’t so insane about things like this then they won’t have to constantly bring negative press to college sports. Maybe, just maybe, the NCAA realized it was its own worst enemy.
For the coaches, I hope this makes their lives much easier. It’s already difficult to be a college basketball coach. It already means you work long hours and have to travel a bunch. At least, this can take some of the headaches out of it so that the coaches can, you know, coach.
The Board of Directors are supposed to see this proposal in October. Let’s hope they just pass it right through so we can be done with all the silly antics.
