The NCAA Really is Clueless

I honestly have never been able to figure out why the NCAA is completely incapable of nuance. The powers that be in Indianopolis are set to hand down another edict, this one a complete ban on the use of text messaging by coaches during the recruiting process.

Now, I understand the concerns, the text messaging bills some recruit might get saddled with as well as the concern that coaches are using it as a loophole. Then again I also have to ask why the NCAA who is staffed and run by administrators who are allegedly smarter than the rest of us cannot come up with a reasonable solution which is not just an outright ban? Why is these folks are wholly inept when it comes to setting up some kind of framework with addresses the actual problem while at the same time cuts down on abuses?

The answer lies in enforcement and given the nature of text messaging it would be very difficult to track who is doing what without some level of reporting from the recruits themselves. Then again, why not allow the recruits to make that decision and cut off these coaches if it is overwhelming and if the coaches do not desists give them an option to report the coach to the NCAA for failing to back off. The logical fallacy I find in what the NCAA is trying to do is they are assuming that the coaches hold all the cards in these relationships when in reality it is quite the opposite. If a player asks a coach to stop messaging him and that coach refuses then that recruit should remove that school from consideration. In other words, the recruits can dictate the terms of communication because any recruiter worth a grain of sand is not going to do anything which upsets the relationship with the recruit. And I know this kind of self policing makes the regulation heavy NCAA a little queasy but I also think it is how it should work.

Also, let me point out that there is no way on this green earth that the NCAA found a majority of student athletes who told them they wanted text messaging done away with. There is a reason they all have cell phones and text messaging options, because it is a preferred method of communication. I think this is even more of the case when they are dealing with coaches because to one extent it permits communication that can be answered when it is more convenient for the recruit and allows them to drop a quick answer back to the coach.

In short the NCAA would rather throw a huge blanket on it rather than actually issue some common sense guidelines. It really does not get more asinine than that.