Go to Joe Butler's Metro Index football camp in past years and you might have seen a dozen or more Division I college coaches scouting high school players at the camp.

Next month, Butler will run his camp for the 28th year and a couple hundred players might attend one of the two sessions at the UPMC facility on the South Side. But in terms of Division I college coaches, the place will be like a ghost town.

A new NCAA rule prohibits Division I coaches from attending Butler's camp, and any others like it around the country. Coaches also can't attend high school "combines" that have become popular in recent years.

The new rule has been met with varying opinions from college coaches, camp directors and high school coaches. Some of the college coaches like it, some don't and some are indifferent. Camp directors don't like it because they claim it prevents players from being discovered.

Butler believes it will hurt marginal Division I prospects who aren't well-publicized.

But the rule actually was crafted and proposed to the NCAA by the American Football Coaches Association.

"The rule came out of our [college] assistant coaches committee," said Grant Teaff, former Baylor University coach and now executive director of the AFCA. "So this was primarily done at the request of the coaches. ... But I can't remember any legislation that we've been heavily involved with where there has been 100 percent agreement."

High school players can still attend a college camp on a college campus, and the coaches at that university can still watch those players. Also coaches from small colleges (Division II or lower) can still attend the camps and combines.

The combines and camps such as Metro Index did everything from teaching techniques, to putting players through drills and tests such as the 40-yard dash. College coaches would eyeball players and evaluate their athletic ability. Players at the camps and combines do not wear pads or helmets.

But as West Virginia assistant coach Doc Holliday said, "We've all seen a heck of a lot of players who can run fast and jump high at these camps and combines, but they can't play dead."

Many of the combines are run by shoe companies or scouting services on the Internet. The NCAA, along with the AFCA, claims one of the reasons for the new rule is because they don't want football recruiting to head in the direction of basketball recruiting, where AAU coaches, "street agents" and even shoe companies have become major influences in the recruiting process.

Holliday, an assistant at Florida last year, said many of the Gators assistant coaches were attending combines just about every weekend in the spring.

In reality, the college coaches were their own worst enemies. They couldn't stay away from the camps and combines because it became a case of keeping up with the Joneses.

"Frankly, it became 'Can you top this?' " Teaff said. "If this coach was at a combine, why wasn't so and so? Then some of the athletes were being told, 'OK, so and so coach is going to be here. You need to come.' Our coaches just got fed up with it."

Nike, which was the first shoe company to get into the basketball camp business, has been running football combines in 16 cities across the country this spring and summer, including one March 2 in Pittsburgh. Scout.com, an Internet scouting and recruiting news service, runs 12 combines around the country, including one March 30 in Pittsburgh. High school players could attend the Nike and scout.com combines free of charge.

Some coaches don't like the NCAA's new rule because they believe the camps and combines were helpful in finding possible recruits. Coaches could watch a large number of players at one site.

"I could go either way on this rule," said Pitt assistant head coach Greg Gattuso, who recruits Western Pennsylvania for the Panthers. "I actually liked [camps and combines]. I enjoyed going to see kids move around and seeing them in person. I think for coaches who wanted to work extra in recruiting, they were awesome.

"I think in some ways, these camps elevated some players who might not have been really that great of a player. The camps and combines are really like playing tag and running track. They're not playing football. My thing was to use the camps and combines to complement your other evaluations like film."

Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley has recruited Western Pennsylvania for years and is in favor of the new rule.

"The feeling among a lot of coaches was that the [camps and combines] caused them to be on the road recruiting even more," Bradley said. "It just never stopped."

Bradley has attended Metro Index and similar camps many times over the years.

"This new rule isn't going to affect me at all," Bradley said. "I'd rather see all of this recruiting get back in the hands of the high school coaches and the schools. No matter what a kid did at a camp, I still wanted to see a kid play the game of football, whether on film or in person. I still want to talk to the high school coach, the faculty members at a school. A lot of times football is more than just playing in shorts.

"Go look at the Hall of Fame. We all know there are guys in there who wouldn't have tested well. Look at [Penn State linebacker] Sean Lee now. He wasn't going to blow you away with his 40 time, but he was a player, a competitor."

But some colleges started recruiting a player based almost solely on how he performed at a camp or a combine.

For example, a year ago Greensburg Central Catholic receiver-defensive back Chris Hayden-Martin had scholarship offers from only Akron and Toledo until he attended a combine in New Jersey last spring. He did so well at the combine that he got offers from Pitt, Boston College, Alabama and Louisville, among others shortly thereafter. Some of the schools offered him based on the combine.

Hayden-Martin made a verbal commitment to Pitt last spring but eventually signed with Boston College.

Butler and those who run some of the camps don't like the NCAA's new rule because "it's going to hurt some players," Butler said. But he also said the high-profile players recruited by big colleges won't be affected.

Of course, he also knows the absence of Division I college coaches might hurt player attendance at his camps, which also will hurt his livelihood. Players pay $180 to attend one of Metro Index's two-day sessions. Butler had 600 players for the two sessions of his camp last year.

He is unsure how many players he will get this year because the camp is still a few weeks away. "We always get a lot of late signups," Butler said. "But this isn't about money. I just feel like I helped a lot of kids over the years."

But as Holliday pointed out, "The bottom line is that if a kid is a football player, with the Internet and everything else, there is so much information out there that he'll be found."

And it's not like college scholarships won't be used. If player A goes undiscovered, his scholarship will go to someone else.

Gateway coach Terry Smith said the new rule means the marginal Division I prospect will just have to work a little harder in becoming known. He might have to make sure he sends out highlight tapes to colleges, or attends a few college camps during the summer. The new rule will probably help colleges attract more players to their summer camps.

But Butler believes his camp is still valuable because it is more of a teaching camp with high school coaches from around the area working it. He also said the camp is still valuable for him to be an intermediary with colleges.

"I've talked to a number of coaches who have said 'We're really going to need your help more than ever this year,' " Butler said. "They can't go to camps, so they're lost in trying to find some players. They've said, 'We need you more than ever in Pennsylvania.' "