[Tuck4Bama]

A few tech-savvy college football coaches probably fired off a text similar to the one above (Great, now contacting recruits will take forever) on Saturday afternoon when they learned -- possibly by text message -- that the NCAA had upheld its ban on texting recruits. An override vote, originally spearheaded by the American Football Coaches Association, barely made it to the floor at the NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tenn. When the issue finally came up for a vote, only 21.3 percent of Division I members supported the override.

So what's a coach to do? A year ago, coaches still could only call once a week, but they could text to their hearts' content. And what did many of those text messages say? "Call me." But with their BlackBerrys holstered since Aug. 1, how do coaches get their message to recruits?

Tyler Love, a Birmingham, Ala., offensive tackle who has committed to Alabama, said after the ban, he noticed e-mail from coaches came more steadily. Love said he does not get e-mail on his mobile phone, but teammates and friends who do seem to get e-mails regularly from coaches. That may ultimately be the simplest solution as well as the target of the next piece of NCAA legislation. Coaches may gently suggest to recruits that instead of upgrading their mobile plan to include unlimited text, they upgrade to unlimited data. The NCAA allows unlimited e-mail contact, and to a recruit with a Sidekick and a souped-up plan, a text and an e-mail look essentially the same (though it would be far more entertaining to learn whether Texas coach Mack Brown or USC coach Pete Carroll uses the phrase "LOL" to save space in a 160-character text). For coaches and their flying thumbs of fury, sending an e-mail might be easier than sending a text. On a BlackBerry it takes one fewer click to send an e-mail than a text.

With texting outlawed, coaches turn to e-mail; notes - Monday January 14, 2008 1:59PM