Longtime newspaper readers out there, may recall an old double-panel comic strip called "There Oughta be a Law." It was a humorous take on the incongruities, even the hypocrisies, in life.

Which has me to wondering how it can be OK for Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie to pursue and get a verbal commitment from an eighth-grader last week and a ninth-grader earlier this week.

We hear about all kinds of rules and policies regarding college athletes working, and contact allowed between college coaches and legitimate high school recruits, and inappropriate team mascots – you name it – so how can this be all right? College coaches hanging around grammar school gyms (even figuratively) with designs on precocious athletes? Just on the face of it, it sounds creepy even if the verbal commitment isn't binding and technically, pointless (although the more subtle effect is to emotionally tie the kid and his family to an institution).

A USA Today story took on the issue today and a blog entry on The Big Lead pointed out that Gillispie didn’t invent the practice of cozying up to athletes barely in junior high and blamed several parties – the Internet, the recruiting tip-sheet crowd, AAU coaches, shoe companies and finally, the college coaches who can’t help themselves because of competitive pressures. And so my point is that that’s where the oversight from umbrella organizations should come in -- to help these desperate competition-stricken college coaches because they simply can’t help themselves.

The NCAA returned our phone call on this and a spokeswoman -- without specifically addressing the Gillispie situation -- explained that that organization prohibits active recruitment of young athletes until the student begins the ninth grade. Obviously, there's a huge difference between non-binding verbal commitments and binding letters of intent. The NCAA puts its weight behind the letters of intent. Those can't be signed until the student is a high school junior. The gray area of contact regarding pre-ninth graders can come about when it's the student that initiates contact with the insitution.

Meanwhile, one of our favorite sports pundits, songwriter Ryan Parker, opined on the issue in his own satirical fashion.