NCAA's new rule just doesn't fly

Suddenly the remoteness of Athens, Ga., and Clemson, S.C., is a potential liability when it comes to recruiting athletes.

In its haste to curb some of the luxury excesses that have become too commonplace in collegiate recruiting, the NCAA unreasonably cut off a lifeline to many of the finest college towns in the nation by eliminating the use of private airplanes for recruiting visits.

Now one of the most widespread and reasonable modern-day conveniences has been outlawed. That's good news for the major airlines as they try to avoid bankruptcy. That is bad news for schools such as Georgia and Clemson, which don't have multiple commercial flights a day coming to their college towns.

And it's bad news for the players, who will soon learn that "coach class" has nothing to do with learning the playbook.

"It really affects schools very differently," said Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, whose school is at least 45 minutes from the Roanoke, Va., airport. "Getting to Blacksburg or to Atlanta is much different. These rules are supposed to make things equal for everybody. In that particular part, they made it unequal."

In its never-ending and mostly hopeless quest to legislate morality in collegiate athletics, the NCAA's sweeping changes in recruiting guidelines crossed the line into excessive on the transportation issue. By trying to make some things better, it ended up making other things worse.

"The NCAA once again had a wonderful knee-jerk reaction," said Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey. "People are making these decisions without input from a lot of football coaches."

The NCAA felt compelled to quash the excesses of the official recruiting visits in the wake of two high-profile scandals. A slew of allegations involving abusive behavior toward women by Colorado players shined the light on the way sex is sometimes used and tacitly condoned to lure blue-chip athletes.

Then there is incoming Miami linebacker Willie Williams, who was admitted despite a lengthy history of unlawful conduct that includes two separate incidents while on an official recruiting visit to Florida. Williams pleaded no contest to a felony count of setting off fire extinguishers in his hotel and a misdemeanor battery charge for hugging a woman without her consent.

"I think we jumped the gun a little bit to make something happen," Clemson coach Tommy Bowden said of the proposals that will become recruiting law in

August. "We changed a whole system based on two instances."

Rightly fearing that some of the luxury presentations on these visits were doing less to illustrate the on-campus experience and more to foster a sense of entitlement among coddled athletes, the NCAA hastily drafted a laundry list of recruiting visit no-nos.

"I've gotten to the point where if that's what it takes to get 'em, that's not the kind of guy I really want anyway," Gailey said.

Said Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe: "I do think sometimes it can be absurd the things you do to bring kids to your school."

Private planes are not one of those absurdities. A private plane simply allows every campus to be roughly an hour away from almost any recruit.

Pilots hopscotch around a state's landing strips and bring players to school and back quickly so they can spend more time making the important determination of which place is better for them. And they are chaperoned from door to door.

Now schools and players will be at the mercy of the commercial airlines and their unreliable schedules.

The NCAA is mandating that a teenager must navigate post-9/11 major airports and meet a coach who will then have to drive him another hour or so to campus. It's a waste of valuable time, and it's irresponsible.

"You put a 17-year-old kid on an airplane for the first time and have him land in Atlanta airport, sometimes that's not a great situation to go through," said Mississippi coach Tommy Tuberville.

"Especially since we can't even get a coach to the gate to pick him up."

This isn't about fostering entitlements and an unhealthy celebrity status. Private transportation simple entitles the kids to equal access to make informed decisions.

The NCAA needs to rethink this restriction so that the only coach these recruits need to worry about is the one with the whistle.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.