Living in the age of new and ever progressing technology seems like a wonderful thing for most people throughout the world.  Take for example the new Apple iPhone.  Is it a phone?  Is it a computer? Is it a…er…what is it?  A touch screen telephone with an mp3 player, a camera, and the internet to go along with many other exciting features has brought the cell phone era to a whole new level.  It fits dozens of things into the palm of your hand. 

In recent months the NCAA has been grappling with such technological advances like text messaging, which is not all that new.  However, as it seems right now, technology is moving way to fast for the NCAA.  The NCAA football handbook alone is a solid 256 pages. 

Yes, you heard it right, 256 pages, and that’s only for one sport.  Some may say it is absurd.  Others may find it a relief to know that the NCAA is trying its absolute best to keep the game fair.  However, the technology now afforded to many up and coming athletes and there future coaches has hastened the growth of the rule book for all NCAA sports. 

In the classic days of college football a coach had a telephone or the postal service to keep tabs on their recruits.  But with the innovations of the modern day, they now have unlimited resources.  Perhaps some should hire a P.I. to make sure their recruit isn’t
”cheating on them” by talking with other schools once they have verbally committed.  That may sound over the top, but is that in the rule book?  It should be. 

Resources such as the internet and cell phones have revolutionized the way a coach can contact a recruit, or even find a recruit.  Things such as YouTube, which has thousands of videos ranging from a talking hand to an old lady’s birthday party, is another way that coaches can see video of future prospects.  They can contact these players in dozens of ways ranging from writing a letter to, of course, a text message.  A simple E-Mail could ruin a coaches’ and a school’s reputation if they hit reply one too many times.  A scandal in college sports is like one in the White House.  When, in fact, a simple mistake of misused or misunderstood technology was the culprit. 

Because the innovations of the past decade or two are still in their infancy in the collegiate sports world, many are unfamiliar with the rules and regulations that bind them.  This includes coaches and players.  In a single year a coach must find time for spring and fall camps, a four or five month season, and recruiting and promotional trips as well as summer camps.  And in the middle of all of this they must find time to review a two or three hundred page handbook? 

One might say that the NCAA is not adapting to the times or is over compensating for the amount of options that coaches and players have in their communication.  Someone else might say that the technology is putting a damper on the world of collegiate athletics.  That is why they have a committee to create and amend these rules.  All 256 pages of them.