Return To Sender: NCAA Bans Coaches From Texting Recruits

The NCAA BOD approved legislation yesterday by a vote of 13-3 to ban text messaging on cell phones by coaches to recruits, effective August 1 (Mult., 4/27). NCAA VP/Division I David Berst said, “We had a dilemma where student-athletes were expressing extreme concern about texting. A lot of the student-athletes didn’t appreciate the volume of the texts.” In St. Paul, Ray Richardson reports several coaches committees “tried in January to get the management council to consider a limited form of texting,” but Berst said that the BOD saw “no ‘workable solution’ for an alternative.” The ban does not include e-mails or faxes (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 4/27). Berst added that the BOD “isn’t closing the door” on texting, but any changes would have to go through “normal legislative procedures” (USA TODAY, 4/27).

COLLEGE BASEBALL: USA TODAY’s Jack Carey notes the BOD also ruled baseball players will “no longer be able to transfer from one school to another without sitting out a year,” and teams that fall below an APR score of 900 “will have their playing schedules reduced” by 10%. Players must be academically certified for the fall term in order to play that spring. Teams will continue to offer a maximum of 11.7 scholarships, but each player will now receive a “minimum of the equivalent of 33% of a grant-in-aid.” Also, no more than 27 players can be on scholarship, a change from the previous unlimited number (USA TODAY, 4/27).