This week on the Double-A Zone:

• Are recruiting budgets out of hand?  Listen to what NCAA President Myles Brand has to say.

• Last month a 14-year-old hockey player, who had yet to attend a high school class, verbally committed to play hockey at a Division I program. Earlier this summer, the most outstanding player of the NCAA men's volleyball championship announced he was forgoing his final year of eligibility to play professionally in South Korea. Why do similar decisions by basketball player make national news and stories like these fall through the cracks?

• It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, but Bob Knight was on the cusp of a trend when he cited eighth grader Damon Bailey as a future top-prospect in 1986. Now, young athletes don't have to wait for a coach to set them apart. Web sites like Yahoo's Rivals.com and Fox's Scout.com have created an entire industry around athlete rankings.  What do you think about the rise of ranking Web sites?

• We want to win now. This is a phrase that is often uttered in the scope of intercollegiate athletics, especially when it relates to the high-profile sports, like college football. And new coaches are usually brought on board with this short term goal in mind. But really, how fair is it to expect new coaches to have immediate success, and when they do, how much of the credit should they really get?

• In the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav, we were able to catch up with Jim Miller, the director of athletics at New Orleans. When we taped the interview late Wednesday afternoon, Miller was driving back to New Orleans for the first time since evacuating the city over the weekend.  Here what Miller has to say about the massive storm.