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Some of the rules were basically clarifications of existing rules and took effect immediately. Others will progress through the NCAA legislative process with possible implementation next spring or summer.

The immediate change broadens the definition of who is a recruited student-athlete in men's basketball to include anyone who has received recruiting materials or had any recruiting contact with a coaching staff member, whether initiated by athlete or coach. This also includes athletes who have been asked to attend an institutional camp or enroll at an institution.

This is important since other new rules also attempt to rein in payments to people associated with prospective student-athletes. It's become more and more common for people associated with potential basketball players--such as advisors, coaches, and family members--to make requests of college coaches looking to recruit that player.

Although NCAA rules prevent coaches from paying people directly for access to potential student-athletes, these people have been able to be paid normal rates for things like working at summer camps and scouting services. Coaches sometimes feel forced into hiring these people in order to have a shot at a prospect, while worried about the ethics of such arrangements.

"It's never been voiced to me, but there's an unwritten rule: You want my kid, you pay the price," University of Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel told ESPN. "You just know it because people have that reputation, and the problem is, if you don't do it, someone else will."

Virginia Tech Head Coach Seth Greenburg is even more blunt.

"It's legalized extortion," Greenburg told ESPN. "And what happens is you end up prostituting your value system because it affects your livelihood. If you're in the next-to-last year of a $1 million contract, what are you going to do? It's risk and reward."

So to keep a level playing field, the NCAA has specifically banned schools from paying anyone associated with a prospect for:
* Working at camps or clinics
* Consulting work
* Recruiting service subscriptions
* Non-coaching staff positions with the program.

The new rules also bar coaches from making donations to non-profit associations, such as a youth basketball program, associated with a prospect, and coaches cannot call 1-900 numbers, which often carry a premium toll charge, to contact recruits. The Board of Directors also recommended that coaches be suspended from both regular season and tournament games for violating these rules in addition to other more traditional penalties.

"[This] provides a bright line for our coaches in respect to the acts and conduct that are now prohibited," Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said in a teleconference.

University of Memphis Coach Josh Pastner agrees that the new rules will keep everyone working from the same set of guidelines. He told the Memphis Commercial-Appeal:

"I believe the more you can take out gray area, the better," Pastner said. "When there's gray area, everything becomes interpretation."

The recruiting reform package also contains a set of proposals that will now enter the NCAA legislative process, beginning with an opportunity for schools to provide their comments and input. While the intent of reducing the flow of money in recruiting is similar to the changes already put into place, these proposals have some broader effects that have concerned some coaches.

The proposals include one that would prohibit a school from hiring a person associated with a prospect to a non-coaching position for two years before and after the prospect enrolls. This would mean a school would have to chose between hiring the person associated with the recruit or recruiting the player himself.

In the Philadelphia News, Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Hewitt questioned the need to separate the hiring and recruiting decisions.

"Is it really unethical, is it really wrong if a kid feels comfortable with a guy that he wants that guy around and that school thinks he's qualified enough to hire him," Hewitt asked. This summer, Hewitt had a position open and he kept it open. Why? "I was waiting to see if somebody came up to me who was qualified and who could have a player come with him. I was going to hire that person. By the end of the summer, nobody materialized." Hewitt eventually hired one of his former players. "Getting players is a big part of the job," Hewitt said. "If that guy can bring a player with him, I'm hiring him. Why is that wrong?"

Another proposal addresses summer camps and would allow schools to only hire staff members and enrolled student-athletes to work its camps. In addition to the practical concern of finding enough coaches to work their camps, this one hits home for a lot of coaches who worked their way up the coaching career ladder through their involvement with other coaches' summer camps.

"When I was just getting started, Mike Krzyzewski told me to work camps to get my foot in the door," Capel told ESPN . "If we couldn't work camps, my father never would have been a head coach, so I don't think you can eliminate that across the board."

Roy Williams told the Wall Street Journal that he's not sure what to think of limiting camp employment.

"I mean, we've got three coaches that I can think of off the top of my head that have been working North Carolina's basketball camp for over 35 years. Each one of those guys, we've never gotten a prospect from. But who knows what they're going to have next year? So I think it's a shame that you have to be concerned about those areas."

Another proposal would allow recruiting activities during institutional camp, while another would bar Division I schools from hosting nonscholastic basketball events in their facilities. These proposals will likely face an initial vote by the Division I Legislative Council in January with the earliest chance for a final vote coming in April.

Ultimately though, the question becomes whether any set of rules can change the behaviors behind the actions. There's a lot of money at stake for both the college coaches and programs and the people associated with the high school players. While a solid, well-understood, set of rules is vital to keeping a level playing field, can they really keep the dark side of recruiting at bay?

Again, Williams isn't sure.

"I don't know if it's going to help or not. You make rules, and so what happens? The people who are doing it legitimately and ethically, they're going to follow the rules, and the people that weren't following the old rules, what makes you think they're going to follow the new rules?"