COMMENTARY

NCAA phones it in on unlimited calls

— The NCAA remains spineless, fearful that if it raises its voice beyond a whisper to the national football powers, the top programs will secede. They’ll form their own superdivision. The right solution in restoring some control over recruiting practices running amok is right in front of its face. Instead, the NCAA is opting for a strategy that only puts its mission of protecting the “student-athlete” in greater conflict.

This summer, the NCAA will grant head coaches unlimited phone calls and text messages to high school recruits. They can reach them as much as they choose - even during class. Doesn’t the image of a top-rated offensive lineman getting a text from his courters in the middle of English class reek of hypocrisy?

Such policy only makes a ruthlessly incorrigible process worse. The right legislation for the NCAAwould be having an early signing period in August for football similar to what it does in basketball. It would greatly benefit those players who’ve made their decisions the summer before their senior seasons, sparing them constant harassment from competing coaches hoping they can get them to “flip” their commitment.

Giving coaches unlimited contact to those recruits through phone conversations and text messages only heightens that pestering.

Big-time programs like Alabama, Florida, LSU, Southern Cal, Texas, Georgia and Ohio State don’t want an early signing period. They want to be free to heavily recruit anyone they choose until the very last minute, even if he made an oral commitment elsewhere. Their argument is that due to the greater sheer numbers of football recruiting classes as opposed to basketball, coaches need more time for evaluation.

But it has created an environment in which programs must now babysit their early commitments for months ahead of National Signing Day.

When the day comes when Nick Saban, Les Miles and Urban Meyer start losing a few of their top recruits to last-minute poachers, you might see a little more movement toward an early signing period six months ahead of the customary first week in February date.

But until the NCAA develops the backbone necessary to make it clear there’s a right way and a wrong way to conduct the business of college football, there’s no motivation for the member institutions to properly regulate their conduct.

Meyer already has become the most prominent voice in Big Ten football - more than the conference commissioner.

And he has been on the job just 15 months.

He didn’t poach as many recruits from conference teams this season, but Meyer didn’t win many friends when he called out the other Big Ten programs for not working harder in upgrading their recruiting to a higher national level.

“When you see 11 of the top SEC teams are in the top 25, that’s something we need to continue to work on and improve,” Meyer told WBNS-FM, 97.1, in Columbus, Ohio, this week.

Meyer plans on addressing his concerns about Big Ten recruiting when the coaches convene in suburban Chicago on Monday. He’s politicking. The Big Ten’s a one team football league - the Buckeyes and everybody else. Meyer is worried that the Big Ten’s poor competitive reputation the past decade could negatively affect the Buckeyes’ chances of playing for the national championship, even with the new four-team playoff beginning in 2014.

There’s always room for recruiting improvement, but how does putting no restraints on coaches bugging recruits on their cell phones make an already polluted situation better?

It doesn’t. It just makes the process even slimier.

Sports, Pages 24 on 02/10/2013

Upcoming Events