Panel recommends NCAA recruiting ban on text messages

INDIANAPOLIS -- Coaches have spent the last several years upgrading their gadgets and learning the new tricks of recruiting. Now it may be time to turn back the clock.

The NCAA Division I management council has recommended a ban on all electronically transmitted correspondence, including text messages, between coaches and recruits. E-mails and faxes would be exempt from the new rule but would be limited by current NCAA guidelines.

Unlike restrictions on phone calls and in-person visits, there are no coach limits on text messaging.

The Board of Directors must still pass the legislation, and if approved at its April 26 meeting, the ban would take effect in August. Typically, the board passes such recommendations, but if it's delayed or rejected, coaches would revert to their previous policy of no limits.

"I think student-athletes wanted to see this eliminated for their own sanity," said Kate Hickey, the management council's chairwoman whose term is about to expire. "And to get rid of some of these bills."

The Student-Athlete Advisory Council, which represents college athletes, complained during this week's meetings that the number of text messages had become intrusive and costly.

Hickey, an associate athletic director at Rutgers, expects the proposal to pass next week.

"I think it all depends on whether there's communication between coaches and athletic directors and then, ultimately, the board members over the next week," she said. "I think some of the coaches on our staff are going to say 'Great, we can continue to recruit the way we always have.' Others, I think, will say 'I can't believe this.' "

For some coaches, the changes could become problematic.

Before this week's vote, Santa Clara coach Kerry Keating, a former UCLA assistant, said coaches need to contact recruits through modern means -- the same way teenagers often chat with friends and family -- to build relationships.

The NCAA was concerned that unlimited text messages created a loophole that permitted coaches to send a message asking recruits to call them -- calls that would violate NCAA rules if the coach made the call.

Dealing with the rapid technological advances has become tricky for the NCAA.

Because it normally takes at least one year to pass a rule, new features and devices sometimes appear in the marketplace faster than the NCAA can regulate. So the management council took the unconventional route by passing a broader measure over its usually more specific ones.