Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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murphy's Law dan murphy responsible for showing each possible recruit as much digital, thumb-pumping love as the next team to keep him interested in a scholarship offer. "You think they're busy now?" ESPN recruiting analyst Tom Luginbill said. "They better buy waterproof cell phones because they're going to be using them in the shower." The NCAA provides a couple of safety harnesses for the assistants though. Non-contact periods still occasionally give coaches time to, you know, coach. The new rules also allow for a non-coaching staff member to take over the title of recruiting manager. The doors have been opened to create fully loaded player personnel and scouting departments separate from the coaching staff for the colleges that can afford it. That means part-time employees or work-study students could soon be plugged into Facebook and cell phones sending out dozens of messages a day to the next crop of high school talent on behalf of the assistants. There are no such provisions for the 17- and 18-year-old athletes who will inevitably carry the load by answering this new, limitless stream of messages — not even an early signing day option to pull their mouths away from the fire hose a few months earlier. "There's going to be a lot more on the plates of the [prospective] studentathletes, and I don't know how good that is," head coach Brian Kelly said. Stanford coach David Shaw was less diplomatic. He called the change "deplorable," adding to the list of descrip- tions from high school coaches that includes "crazy," "really unfair" and "out of control." When you take away the stop signs it makes life easier for the police. Not so much for the driver who gets jackknifed by a Mack truck on his way through the intersection. Hyperbole? Maybe, but a recruit's mailbox won't look that much different than a car wreck when it's loaded up with phone records and promotional materials from an already incessant wave of suitors. The NCAA decision makers worried that changing the mailing rules might provide an unfair advantage for athletic departments with deep pockets. They decided no matter what they did they couldn't level the playing field for the hundreds of Division I schools that have made varying levels of commitment to the success of their athletic programs. The edge in recruiting will no longer tilt toward the coaches and programs willing to break the rules versus those that aren't. It now goes to the team willing to shell out to send a cardboard cutout of each potential recruit wearing their school's colors to his front porch. Instead of basing the integrity of competition on fair play and following rules, the NCAA board members decided to let the playing field be dictated by money. At least they're consistent. ✦ Dan Murphy has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2011. He can be reached at dmurphy@blueandgold.com