NCAA bans messaging

College coaches will have to go back to recruiting the old-fashioned way.

By a 13-3 vote, the NCAA board of directors approved a ban Thursday to eliminate all text messages from coaches to recruits, beginning in August.

The move comes a week after the NCAA’s management council recommended the ban, which also eliminates communications through other electronic means such as video phones, video conferencing and message boards on social networking websites.

The Student-Athlete Advisory Council had complained that text messaging was too costly and so intrusive that it sometimes bordered on harassment. “We heard anecdotal stories of someone waking up and having 52 text messages,” Division I Vice President David Berst said on a conference call.

E-mails and faxes are still permissible and subject to current NCAA guidelines, which include some time periods that prohibit coaches from contacting recruits in any form. A recruit can still text message a college coach, but the coach is not allowed to respond.

The board also approved a package intended to help increase graduation rates among baseball players.

Among the measures that will take effect in August 2008 are:

* Requiring transfers to sit out one year before regaining their eligibility -- which is already the rule in other sports.

* Teams that fall under the NCAA’s new cutline to determine academic progress, a score of 900, could face a 10% reduction in games and practices. Teams could lose up to six games from the current 56-game schedule and 13 of 132 practices.