NCAA To Coaches: No Txt 4 U

For the past several seasons, text messaging recruits has been college coaches preferred method for contacting potential players because it didn't fall under any pesky NCAA regulations. Unlike telephone calls (which are strictly controlled) and other forms of contact, there was no limit on the number of text messages a coaching staff could sent to a recruit.

It appears the NCAA is now about to close that loophole:

An NCAA committee has approved a measure banning the use of text messaging in recruiting, potentially closing a loophole that has been used by coaches since the technology became widespread.

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. (ESPN.com)

The idea behind the telephone calling restrictions was to allow high school students to have something of a normal life, but the text message floods can actually cost a kid a fortune as well. Some teens were reporting cell phone bills of several hundred dollars per month from coaches inundating them with text messages, and the continual texting during daytime school hours can't be something that was helping athletes focus on their classes. If anything, this move by the NCAA is probably a year or two too late - everyone has known this was a giant gaping hole in the rules for a while.