The 2009 offseason will be memorable for many things: John Calipari, Rick Pitino, Derrick Rose, Renardo Sidney. But more than anything, this felt like the offseason where all the little recruiting tricks coaches and agents and AAU reps had been accumulating over the years finally got exposed in a big way. From pricey roster packets to hiring AAU reps for camp counselor gigs to the creation of "recruiting information services" made up of agent types who embargo all access to a player unless a coach is willing to pay a subscription fee -- in 2009, all of this stuff got exposed on a pretty widespread basis. It was an education, to say the least.

The NCAA received a lesson, too, and yesterday, after months (even years) of stories about a variety of teet-suckling player representatives, the Board of Governors put that lesson into action.

Yesterday, the NCAA provided support for measures that would prevent coaches from hiring a player's representatives for a temporary gig at a summer camp. The meaures would also prevent coaches from hiring a player's high school or summer league coach to a full-time staff position in order to lock down a player's commitment. Lastly, it would prevent coaches from donating money to AAU programs weakly disguised as "nonprofits."

These proposals (they're not rules yetl; they still require approval from the Legislative Council in January, but that's likely a procedural formality) are awesome. They strike at the heart of three of the most unethical and widespread recruiting practices, and even more than that, they provide hope for the future. Today it's the nonprofits restriction. Tomorrow, the NCAA could regulate against any subscription recruiting service that also manages players' access. And so on. The ground is paved for future work, and the road already looks pretty nice.

The problem, of course, is that college coaches and AAU sleazers are really good at finding new loopholes and exploiting them. (I guess these would be potholes in the road, but let's just drop the stupid road metaphor, huh?) As Seth Davis points out today, the whole reason college coaches even started hiring AAU guys as camp counselors is because the NCAA made a rule against playing (rather profitable, in their day) exhibitions against AAU teams. It's impossible to keep these folks totally at bay; the NCAA just isn't big enough or judicious enough to anticipate future problems in time to prevent them. And it likely never will be.

For now, though, the NCAA deserves credit for its attempts at reform. These proposals won't change everything, and they won't stop the flow of money from college coaches to AAU leechers anytime soon. But they do send a message that the NCAA isn't allergic to change. In the post-Myles Brand era, that's a welcome transmission.

Related: NCAA Rules and Regs, Recruiting