Last of the NCAA recruiting rule changes may also go down in flames
Yesterday we learned that 2 of the 3 new NCAA rule changes were being put on indefinite hold due to their unpopularity amongst member institutions, especially B1G schools. These defeated rules dealt with who could recruit (basically anybody) and what they could send (basically anything), but the rule pertaining to quantities of texts/phone calls a recruit could receive was, astoundingly, left alive.
Yesterday's news here: http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/ncaa-recruiting-rule-changes-probably-dead
Well, it looks like it was only given a few extra days to live:
Once again,, institutions are telling the NCAA their new rules suck. Assuming the override is succcessful, the winners will be the recruits (and the coaches who realized the rule was crazy). The losers include cell phone providers, whoever drafts NCAA rules, and creepy text-happy coaches.
Between yesterday and today, it feels like Arab Spring Part 2, just on an athletic level.
Too bad for those call centers in India. Employment would have skyrocketed.
I am picturing an Indian national in a New Delhi call center, phoning a recruit and introducing himself, in think Punjab acccent, as Les Miles.
This is great news if it happens. Players lose their private lives all too quickly without it happening when they are sophomores in high school.
How could it ever have seemed like it was going to benefit recruits to be bombarded with 75 letters a day calling them "ballers"?
Butterfield: What happened to Roger? I almost didn't recognize you.
I'm real confused. Sometimes I get the "old" Butterfield (Roger) and sometimes I get the "new" Butterfield (Lloyd). Today i got the old one but I'm not sure why.
EDIT: And now after hitting refresh I got the even newer picture and i have NO idea what that is.
Looks to be a chocolate doughnut, that unfortunately has set itself on fire.
Lloyd was a placeholder until I could find something a tad more original, but apparently with my tire fire being mistaken for a flambe'd chocolate donut, I guess I should keep looking.
I think a donut flambé is definitely avatar-worthy. I was disappointed to learn that it was a tire.
Recently I've lost the swagger and confidence that is a Sterling imposter pre-requisite. At this point, I felt a tire fire more accurately reflected my self worth.
Hopefully Roger will return at some point in the future when I'm worthy.
I'm sure Roger is somewhere in that tire fire ready to flirt with Joan as soon as he gets out.
Thanks for the support. I hope to get back to excessive drinking, smoking, and feasting on red meat soon. A couple Michigan hoops wins this weekend would definitely speed up the process.
goodness.
On the one hand, the ammount of time and energy needed to police these things seems like a waste. On the other hand, the last thing teenage recruits need is more attention and sucking up.
+1 for the Arab Spring reference. Let's go people of Syria!
the NCAA would implement rules without asking their largest members first is just dizzying. i am not saying that the NCAA should be saying "hey, bama, what do you think we should do?" but at least something along the lines of a panel that they run things past that says "you know, this is kind of a dumb rule about the texts, nice try, but here are about 20 other things wrong with this sport right now, why don't you work on those? kthxbye."
The last thing recruits need is to be bombarded 24/7. These kids need lives and time for homework, too.
Here was the specific football exception:
"13.1.3.1.21 Exception -- Football. In football, one telephone call to an individual (or the individual's relatives or legal guardians) may be made from April 15 through May 31 of the individual's junior year in high school. Additional telephone calls to an individual (or the individual's relatives or legal guardians) may not be made before September 1 of the beginning of the individual's senior year in high school. Thereafter, such telephone contact is limited to once per week outside a contact period, but may be made at the institution's discretion during a contact period."
The word's "at the institution's discretion" were a little disconcerting when read in conjunction with things like being allowed to have dedicated staffs to do things like this. I cannot imagine that level of distraction for anyone, especially a kid still trying to get through high school. It is nice to see schools voting in a manner which takes the well-being of the student into consideration. It was difficult not to see a scenario in which, for a surprisingly many, ceaseless contact with a school would have simply become noise, even demotivating for students.