College basketball coaches, as a general rule, have about as much self-control as the young men they recruit, which is to say more or less that of a drunken frat boy. (See Exhibit A: Knight, Bobby.)
So it comes as no surprise that the NCAA in its wisdom (another commodity in short supply) had decided to prohibit hoops coaches from text messaging recruits in the wake of repeated complaints from the young men that their suitors were not only nagging them non-stop but also running up their cell-phone bills.
Nor does it come as a surprise that the coaches are all in a snit about the prohibition, not because the complaints are unfounded, mind you, but because they insist that their need to compete for the best teenage basketball talent trumps such trivial matters as privacy and, given the backgrounds of so many recruits, poverty.
Their "cause" will get a formal airing today, according to this morning's New York Times, which writes:
Now, in an unusual move, representatives from the N.C.A.A.'s Division I members are expected to revisit the issue Saturday at their annual convention after 34 of the 329 colleges asked for an override vote. To reverse the ban, at least five-eighths of the delegates in attendance would have to approve it.
The issue has turned into an unlikely battle of the generations. In one corner are college coaches and athletic directors making a passionate pitch for the right to use a 21st-century technology. "I'm sorry, it's 2008," said Christine Plonsky, the women's athletic director at Texas. "Face up."
In the other corner are college and high school students asking for a little more respect.
"What kind of relationship can you build in 160 characters?" asked Kerry Kenny, the incoming chair of the N.C.A.A.'s Division I Student Athlete Advisory Committee, referring to the maximum length of a text message.
One need not be a Luddite to appreciate the desire of a teen-age basketball player to have his or her cell phone and minutes available primarily to peers as opposed to the incessantly parasitic world of college recruiters. And there is certainly no shortage of other opportunities for coaches to plead their cases to these young people.
In other contexts, society is rapidly recognizing the need to place limits on the texting phenomenon, first and foremost, when people are behind the wheel. One survey showed that nearly 90% of the public favors banning that dangerous practice. (And how many of the coaches' messages are sent/received while they and/or their would-be players are driving?)
Whose best interests will win out? It will be interesting to see how today's vote to reverse the ban goes.
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