NCAA's new rules are downright nutso
Posted: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 6:12 PM
Filed Under:
New rules, NCAA
Ever read something, rub your eyes, re-read it and then just shake your head? (Don’t count this blog.)
This ESPN Insider column from Jay Bilas fits that description perfectly.
For those who don’t have an Insider account, here’s the gist: Bilas breaks down the new NCAA rules for men’s hoops, summed up perfectly with the headline “New NCAA rules: The Good, the Bad, the Goofy.” Are they ever.
Kevin C. Cox/Getty |
Eric Gordon went to Indiana for one season before jumping to the NBA.
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First, the good:
Bilas likes the new proposal to allow unlimited phone calls to recruits during contact periods (as does Sporting News columnist Mike DeCourcy). In an age of Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, caller ID and answering machines, recruits screen their contact with prospective schools. The NCAA doesn’t need to oversee. (This would add an interesting twist to the Kelvin Sampson violations, who was, in Bilas’ words, crucified for making essentially one extra phone call a week.)
“Soft” recruiting doesn’t bother him either. Just because a prospect like Eric Gordon gives an oral commitment to Illinois doesn’t mean he shouldn’t keep his options open, yet Gordon and Sampson were grilled when he went to Indiana. Austin Rivers is doing the same thing right now. He’s got a “soft” commitment to Florida, but is still interested in going to Duke. Unless they’ve signed something binding, recruits are fair game.
Schools can no longer establish conditions on letters of intent, which annoys Bilas. He thinks players’ futures should be tied to coaches, not to schools, because that’s who they sign with. But schools can no longer release players under certain conditions.
Now, the absurd:
Anyone camped under the basket won’t be able to draw a charge. But, unlike the NBA’s method of using an arc designating the non-charge area, the NCAA says refs should use an “imaginary box” that stretches from the front and side of the ring, to the front of the backboard that prevents a “secondary defender” from establishing initial legal guarding position.
Clear as mud, right?
Basically, defenders can’t draw a charge with any part of their body in that “box,” but can do around the “box.” I’m sure this won’t cause any outcry toward the refs and any of their calls.
But even worse is this rule. Take it away Jay.
There is a new rule in college basketball that could force a player of limited skill to the free throw line during a game. A new rule states that when a player is injured and unable to shoot his free throws, the opposing coach will get to select the new shooter among the four remaining players in the game. But if the foul that led to the injury is flagrant or intentional, the new rule states that the opposing coach may select any uniformed player on the opposing team to shoot the free throws.
Go ahead, rub your eyes and re-read that grab. Now shake your head. You read it correctly.
The rules committee thought teams were gaining an unfair advantage because players were “faking” injuries, so they are gonna let opposing coaches pick who goes to the foul line? In Twitter terms, WTF?
I can’t wait to see the first time a scrub is pulled off the bench to shoot some crucial free throws. That’s one rule that’ll go over real well with … no one.
