Looks like the stupid NCAA rule change limiting the length of media guides to 208 pages has finally started getting noticed.

In the rough and tumble Big 12, Missouri is always looking for an edge to impress recruits.

The Tigers thought they had found one with a mammoth 614-page football media guide – unofficially, the largest in the nation – that is mailed to prospective student athletes. But now the NCAA is taking it away with an edict that colleges trim their media guides to a maximum of 208 pages for next school year.

The new rule has sports information directors across the country scrambling to decide what will make the cut when a hundred or more pages in some current guides must be scrapped. And many of them aren’t happy.

“Our football coaching staff believes putting together a first-class book helps sell the program,” said Chad Moller, Missouri’s director of media relations for athletics. “Now we will have to find other creative ways to make our book stand out from the crowd.”

Schools such as Nebraska and Georgia are faced with the prospect of cutting their football guides in half before the start of next season. Publications go to print this summer.

The article is filled with complaints about how records and information will be cut. Of course, I made that observation a month ago. Catch up, you slackers.

There is still the potential positive of forcing schools to do a better job of utilizing their websites as a repository and database of school records, information and history.

You want another prediction of how schools will get around this? An enclosed CD in the media guide with all the stats, history, records, photos and more. Digitize it, baby.