The thumbs of Colorado football coach Dan Hawkins will get a rest beginning next August.

Hawkins and his assistants use text messaging as a regular part of their recruiting routine. Hawkins was particularly adept at the process, regularly tapping out missives to recruits.

But Thursday's decision by the NCAA board of directors to eliminate text messages from coaches to recruits will take that element out of the recruiting loop — at least for now.

"You know me, I'm one of those guys that if they tell you that you're only going to play two quarters, I get ready to play two quarters instead of four," Hawkins said. "I do wish some kind of compromise could have been reached, but you play by the rules they set."

Of course, that also is a concern. Every rule established by the NCAA means another one that can be broken by unethical coaching staffs.

"It could be very similar to phone calls," Hawkins said. "That's a hard deal to accurately track all the time. You would hope that people will follow the rule, but I don't know how easy it will be to enforce."

Hawkins said he saw both sides of the issue.

One major factor used by the board to enact the ban was the cost to recruits. The NCAA's Student-Athlete Advisory Council complained that text messaging was a financial burden on some athletes, and so intrusive that it sometimes bordered on harassment.

"I understand the nature of that," Hawkins said. "You have kids who get bombarded by text messages and they don't have a (cell phone) plan that accepts that. So, they get charged an inordinate amount of money.

"And, you get kids who get so many while they're in school that they're distracted. I understand those things. But unless you are involved in the teenage culture, I don't think people can totally grasp how widespread text messaging is. It's embedded into their lives."

But, Hawkins also said he still occasionally runs into a recruit who doesn't use a cell phone.

"If a kid does not have a cell phone or text messaging, he's at a severe disadvantage in the recruiting process," Hawkins said. "Maybe that evens the playing field in that regard."

The NCAA did leave open the possibility of revisiting the legislation as early as next year. Hawkins said he believes some kind of compromise could be reached.

"I would hope they'll look at it again," Hawkins said. "That mode of communication is so prevalent among a certain age group of people that I hope they'll look at it closely.

"It is an effective means of communication. In many respects, it's a lot less intrusive than a phone call."

Compromise legislation could include limiting the number of messages that could be sent, much like the NCAA currently limits the number of phone calls a coach can make to a recruit.

Another possibility could be banning text messaging during school hours, or banning it during certain recruiting "dead periods."