Recruiting Changes on the horizon

Call this "the Willie Williams Reform Bill".
Well, we knew it was coming, and it is almost here. Some level of overhaul to the recruiting system. Here is a story highlighting the recommendations of the NCAA Management Council, sent to the NCAA board of directors for approval. The highlights include:

1. No more private jets. Only commerical airlines using coach class fares. .....Already the schools not near airports are complaining, like Florida and UGAg.

Florida, for example, has a regional airport in Gainesville with a limited number of incoming flights. If it can't use private transportation, a number of recruits will have to fly into Jacksonville and cover the final 75 minutes to the campus by car. The same is true at Georgia, which will have to bring more of its recruits through Atlanta.

"It probably means that we'll have to restructure our entire recruiting weekend," Florida coach Ron Zook said. "If a prospect plays basketball on Friday night, the first commercial flight he can get is Saturday morning. By the time he gets to our campus, all of the academic orientation will be over."

2. Member institutions must develop written policies for recruiting visits that must be approved by the school's president or chancellor. These policies must prohibit the use of alcohol, sex and drugs in recruiting.... Ok, no sex parties, no clubbing, no pot smoke-outs. Come on guys, where's your spirit? What on earth will they do at Colorado?

3. Institutions must use standard vehicles to transport prospects on official visits. No limousines or specialized vehicles may be used....... In other words, we will see a massive drop in the use of the term "bling bling" during recruiting trips.

4. Prospects and their parents or legal guardians must be housed in standard lodging without special accessories (hot tubs, etc.) and be offered standard meals comparable to those offered on campus...... OHHHH MMYYYY GGOOOSSSHHHH!!!!! Gailey better lobby to upgrade Brittain dining hall quick. Are you kidding me? Recruits don't get to eat lobster and Filet Mignon all weekend? Heck, this alone will reduce the number of official visits kids will want to take.

5. Only current student-athletes or students designated to conduct campus visits for all prospective students may serve as hosts. Hosting organizations sponsored by the athletics department will be eliminated....... Code for no "babe patrols". All the schools have 'em. You know what I'm talking about. Man, recruiting visits are going to be just plain boring for a lot of guys. Better mind you, but boring. Well they can probably squeeze around this one through "designated students" - just have to find the babe engineers.

6. Institutions cannot develop personalized recruiting aids, such as personalized jerseys and personalized audio/video/scoreboard presentations. Recruits can still visit the locker room before and after the game.............. You know, like when Coach K takes potential McDonalds All-American recruits into Cameron with the lights off and the place is empty. The scoreboard lights up with your name. Then a spotlight shines to the end of the bench, where a Duke jersey has your name on it. Then Coach K says - "that will be your spot, can't you see it? That's where you will toil in individual mediocrity, wondering how your potential was wasted. Can't you see it? You will go on to have a mediocre journeyman NBA career, never win NBA championships, but the Duke TEAM will win, and I will get ALL the credit. And you will be able to say I was your coach. Isn't that something you want to be a part of?".

Of course having said all that, this version of the same article points out that names on scoreboards were common for George O'Leary at GT:

Schools are banned from handing out personalized jerseys or using audio and video scoreboard presentations featuring the player, something new UCF coach George O'Leary says he did often while at Georgia Tech. "A lot of people do that," he said. "You do it at night, in the stadium. That's pretty prevalent at most places."
But O'Leary doesn't have a beef adjusting to any of the reforms -- as long as everyone else does, too.

"It's like anything else," he said. "We're making rules for the 2 or 5 percent that break them."