NCAA talking about rules to protect 7th-graders in basketball recruiting

It has come to this in college basketball: The NCAA is weighing whether to officially designate seventh- and eighth-graders as "prospective student-athletes."

The move, backed by the new Championships/Sports Management Cabinet, is intended to help insulate youngsters from recruiters by limiting the contacts by coaches at some camps and clinics. It's also intended to limit contact by e-mail, letters and phone calls, according to Joan Cronan, women's athletic director at Tennessee and a member of the management cabinet.

"The whole idea was to eliminate unappropriate recruiting," said Cronan, also president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. "Some of the real early commitments made people stop and think how early should we be recruiting. … It's more to protect (young athletes)." FULL STORY