MONTGOMERY, Ala. - A panel of league commissioners was unanimous: They'd like to see an end to the days of lavish recruiting trips where top prospects are treated like rock stars.
"We have got to step back and take away these celebrity issues with these kids," Sun Belt Conference commissioner Wright Waters said. "They are put on a pedestal, and when they step on campus, that pedestal isn't there anymore."
Waters, Mike Slive (SEC), Jon Steinbrecher (Ohio Valley Conference) and Robert Vowels Jr. (Southwestern Athletic Conference) spoke Sunday with members of the Alabama Sportswriters Association.
Among the topics were misbehaving coaches, recruiting practices and the recently revamped BCS.
"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."
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 athletic department worker in 2001. And Alabama had its own black eye when Crimson Tide coach Mike Price was fired in May 2003 for behavior that included a visit to a topless club.
"Each one of these events causes us to step back," 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."
Replacement for Huggins
Cincinnati's top assistant will coach the Bearcats during the indefinite suspension of Bob Huggins after his arrest for drunken driving. Dan Peters will "have total authority with no outside interference to run the basketball program," athletic director Bob Goin said.
Huggins was placed on indefinite, paid suspension after his arrest. The report said Huggins failed a sobriety test and had vomit on the inside of his car.
PROVIDENCE: Guard Ryan Gomes withdrew his name from the NBA draft and will return for his senior season. Gomes emerged as one of the nation's top players last season and was voted a first-team All-American after leading the Friars in scoring, rebounding and steals.
TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN: Assistant Robert Davenport was promoted to coach at the Division I independent school, which was 14-14 last season.
USF sailing coach resigns
Stephanie Doyle, South Florida's sailing coach since 2000, will leave the program July 1, the school announced. The Bulls won four SAISA championships under Doyle.
