Panel says recruiting too lavish

League commissioners say top recruits are too often treated like celebrities.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- A panel of league commissioners were unanimous: They'd like to see an end to the days of lavish recruiting trips where top recruits are treated more like rock stars than high school kids.
"We have got to step back and take away these celebrity issues with these kids," Sun Belt Conference Commission Wright Waters said. "They are put on a pedestal, and when they step on campus, that pedestal isn't there anymore."
Waters, Mike Slive (Southeastern Conference), Jon Steinbrecher (Ohio Valley Conference) and Robert Vowels Jr. (Southwestern Athletic Conference) spoke in a question-and-answer session Sunday with members of the Alabama Sportswriters Association.
Among the topics were misbehaving coaches, recruiting practices and the recently revamped Bowl Championship Series.
How recruits get treated became a prominent issue with recent events at Colorado.
In May, a university panel found football player-hosts "felt pressured to impress recruits and resorted to providing alcohol, drugs and sex, including visits to strip clubs and the hiring of strippers."
"With Colorado, it made us think about what we are doing on these official visits," Slive said. "We are treating these 18-year-olds as celebrities, and I don't think that is right."
Coaching problems
Colorado coach Gary Barnett spent four months on suspension for comments that included saying he would have backed a player who was accused of assaulting an athletics department worker in 2001.
This state also, of course, had its own black eye when Alabama football coach Mike Price was fired last May for behavior that included a visit to a topless club. Slive said he emphasizes the standards of behavior with new SEC coaches.
"Each one of these events causes us to step back and think about what that really means," he said. "An individual getting in trouble is just that. At our new coaches conference, we talk to them about it being a privilege to be in the SEC, but there are also constraints that go with it. You have a very visible status, and you have an obligation to adhere to those standards."
About the new, five-game BCS system to determine a national championship, Slive said an NFL-style playoffs "just isn't something that is on the table at the present time. This is just a checkpoint in a marathon, though."
Waters also favored the change, which will provide schools from smaller conferences a better chance to reach the big payout games since there will be two more BCS teams.
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