NCAA rule works against coaches

It's typical, really.

We scream and shout about accountability for college football coaches, about how they should do a better job of evaluating athletes and getting to know the players they are bringing into our communities.

Then the NCAA passes the Saban Rule.

That is not the real name. Instead it's a rule with dashes and dots, another of those NCAA by-laws that makes some sense until you examine its ramifications.

The nickname for this rule refers to Nick Saban, the Alabama coach who was accused last spring of “bumping” into potential recruits which is not allowed during the spring evaluation period.

So what did the NCAA do? Take the head coaches out of the mix.

And which league sponsored the legislation? The SEC, of course, where Saban and Urban Meyer were beating the recruiting brains out of some of the other coaches in the league because they were taking full advantage of the spring evaluation period.

I asked Saban point-blank earlier this week on an SEC conference call if the

legislation was aimed at him.

“I'd rather not answer that,” he said. “Everyone can make their own assumptions about that.”

I also brought up this point, the one that bothers me the most. If we're asking coaches to be more accountable when it comes to the players they are recruiting, why take an evaluation period away from the men who are going to be making the final decisions on which players will receive scholarship offers?

“I don't think there is any question about it,” Saban said. “I think it’s ridiculous that we’re doing what we’re doing. When you're talking about developing relationships and knowing players and meeting guidance counselors and talking to principals and all those kind of things, I think we're putting ourselves at a tremendous disadvantage in terms of evaluation. I think we’ve really limited ourselves by what we’ve done, and I totally disagree with it.”

A quick primer for those of you who didn't know there was such a thing as the spring evaluation — it is from April 15 to May 30. Under the old rule seven coaches could be on the road for four weeks during that stretch talking to coaches and other school officials and watching players practice. The assistants can still go out but the head coaches have to find other things to do with their springs.

“I'm going to give a lot more speeches in May,” said new Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora.

This comes at a particularly tough time for new head coaches like Fedora and Arkansas' Bobby Petrino who are just getting started in new states.

“I don't really like it,” said Petrino. “Your evaluation process is slowed down.”

Coaches will use the wonders of technology such as phones that can take and transmit videos of players back to the campus so the head coach can see them. Think about how ridiculous that is for a minute.

But the question is this — if you ask almost any coach he'll say he enjoyed getting out in the spring but that it had become difficult to obey the rules. Is that the truth or is it that enough coaches got tired of being outworked that they decided to chain the hardest-working coaches to their desks?

“I don’t want to sound like a jerk,” Pete Carroll, the Southern Cal coach, said, “but other coaches are just lazy.”

Coaches who think the rule is a good idea use the argument that their appearances at a high school turned into a circus with kids and adults alike wanting autographs and pictures taken. Which meant that on occasion one of those kids might be a potential recruit. It would seem to me the answer would be to allow accidental bumps with recruits because it is something that is not enforceable. Instead, the NCAA basically said that too many stop signs are being run so let's outlaw driving.

“I can live with this rule,” said Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt. “You end up doing a lot of stopping and signing on the campuses. A lot of time is wasted.”

But a lot of evaluating doesn't happen.

“It kind of bothers me,” Meyer said. “I wanted the interaction with the principal and guidance counselors and coaches. I enjoyed it.”

But since he wasn't in the majority, there will be a lot less mileage on his car. This is the second straight year the NCAA has enacted a rule that will impact the relationships coaches have with the players they are recruiting after the text messaging ban last year.

It makes you wonder what kind of message is being sent.

“We will be accountable in terms of character,” Saban said.

And the coaches should be. They just shouldn't be undercut in their efforts to make the right calls.