Will rule changes in college basketball make a difference?

AS THE COLLEGE basketball season begins, the never-ending debate about recruiting continues. There are bad guys with bad intentions. There are good guys caught in a bad situation who have to make choices they would rather not make. There are good guys who refuse to play the game and end up as former coaches.

The situation is getting better. It is getting worse.

Winning matters so much that otherwise well-intentioned people have to play a game in which they would prefer not to participate.

Whatever the reality, the perception is not good. One prominent college coach is convinced it is much more perception than reality. Another prominent coach is for anything that can change a culture he dislikes. A third coach, at a mid-major, sort of shakes his head at all of it, knowing none of the talk is about him or his school, but it is all about the basketball superpowers that usually get most of the high seeds in March.

Late last month, the Division I board of directors passed several emergency rules that will have an immediate impact on recruiting. The first task force to consider rules for one sport was formed in June 2008. The group, consisting of NCAA enforcement reps that solicited opinions of college coaches and conference commissioners, made several significant recommendations that are now in effect:

* No more package deals where somebody close to a player gets hired to a staff position in what is perceived as a quid pro quo.

* No more payments to summer-league teams with prospects.

* No subscribing to recruiting services that really aren't services at all, but ways for an outsider with access to a prospect to get paid in return for giving a school a chance to recruit that prospect.

* No one but members of a campus community or a team's players can be hired to work summer camps, as a way to stop payments to somebody close to a prospect. (This is almost certainly going to be amended as there simply would not be enough people to work these camps and working camps is how aspiring coaches get into the pipeline).

There is more, but that is the essence of it. Other changes will be voted on in January and likely pass because they have the backing of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and conference commissioners. They would be enacted in April.

Is this going to end the corruption? No. Cheaters will cheat. Could it make it tougher? Maybe. Is it necessary? Depends upon whom you ask.