Jan 13th, 2008
NCAA Coaches Now Banned from Sending Text Messages to Recruits
In a landslide victory Saturday, NCAA Division I coaches overwhelmingly voted to ban the use of text messages in recruiting athletes.
Designed to rein-in overzealous coaching staffs in their use of new technology to recruit potential student-athletes, the ban passed by margin of more than 3-1, with more than 78 percent of the votes being cast in favor of the ban.
According to the official NCAA News announcement about the new ban, Kerry Kenny (the vice chair of the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee), urged coaches to vote against text-message contact of potential recruits claiming that “text messaging between prospective student-athletes and coaches was intrusive, unprofessional and expensive.”
The vote was held at the annual convention of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, conducted this year in Nashville, Tenn. from January 10-14.
Given how many teenagers have cell phones today and how pervasive text messaging is in their lives, this sounds like a no brainer idea to me.
Good job, coaches.
