NCAA launches recruitment reform talks

INDIANAPOLIS, March 29 (UPI) -- The National Collegiate Athletic Association's 17-member Task Force on Recruiting launched its first meeting Monday to enact emergency legislation by August.

Coaches, especially football coaches, who do the most recruiting, are apprehensive, the Indianapolis Star said Monday.

Purdue football coach Joe Tiller said it was a subject of conversation at a recent gathering of coaches.

"Everyone said the same thing -- this is really being ramrodded through," Tiller said. "It may be the shortest legislative study in NCAA history."

In contrast, the NCAA's system of academic incentives and disincentives, expected to be voted on next month, is more complicated but will have taken two years to formulate and pass.

Among the problems the panel will review are allegations by eight women who accused Colorado football players or recruits of sexual assault since 1997. A prosecutor in the state said she thinks the school uses sex and alcohol to entice recruits.

Alabama State football coach L.C. Cole was also fired in December after an internal investigation charged he paid for strippers for recruits.