My take: I agree that teams need more than 11.7 scholarships, especially because of the demands on pitchers when schools play two doubleheaders on weekends plus midweek games, but that won't happen for financial reasons.
College coaches can now offer 10 or 20 percent scholarships to incoming freshmen with vague promises of more money in later seasons.There's absolutely no guarantee that players will make it to their sophomore season because coaches can run them off the team by not renewing the scholarship, leaving players with few options.
I believe it was basketball coach Abe Lemons who said, "Doctors bury their mistakes. Mine stay on scholarship for four years." I'll consider letting coaches offer 20 percent scholarships (but no less) if they'll guarantee players at least that much money for all four years.
The other hot-button issue these days involves text messaging. Thirty-four schools want to override a decision by the Board of Directors to limit electronic correspondence to recruits to e-mail and faxes -- with zero texting. The measure approved in April and effective Aug. 1 will end a text-messaging frenzy that costs athletes time and money because of cellphone charges.
The USA Today story says coaches see a need for regulation but they regard texting as a part of the current culture.
The board meets again Aug. 9. If it doesn't rescind the rules, all 326 Division I schools will vote during the NCAA convention in January, and a five-eighths majority will be needed to override.
Again, I have minimal sympathy for coaches because of the expense to student-athletes. My compromise would be to allow coaches to text an athlete for up to a week after receiving a text message from that athlete; an athlete who goes longer without communicating with the coach likely isn't interested in the school.
Admittedly, the rule would be complicated to administrate. But at least blatant violations -- multiple texting a month after last hearing from a prospect -- would be easy for schools and the NCAA to spot via phone bills.
