The NCAA has quickly filled the loophole that allowed schools to hold Midnight Madness earlier that the official start of the season.The emergency legislation, passed Thursday, is designed to close a loophole in a previous rule that allowed coaches to have two hours of individual instruction before the official start of the season. Some coaches took advantage of that this year and decided to hold Midnight Madness a week earlier than the season's official start date. The new guidelines take effect next season.Kentucky and Illinois were the highest profile programs that exploited the loophole. Many people felt that it gave those schools a recruiting advantage. Most programs bring in potential recruits to Midnight Madness to get starry-eyed over the atmosphere.
It worked in Kentucky's case: prized big man Daniel Orton signed immediately after the Wildcats' Big Blue Madness.
The new rule takes effect next season.
