Leading off today: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that athletic associations can enforce limits on recruiting athletes without violating free-speech rights.

   The unanimous ruling involves a dispute between the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association and Brentwood Academy near Nashville. The school challenged a rule of the TSSAA, which governs high school sports in the state, barring schools from contacting prospective students about their sports programs.

   The court said "hard-sell tactics directed at middle school students could lead to exploitation, distort competition between high school teams and foster an environment in which athletics are prized more highly than academics."

   Brentwood argued that the rule violated its free-speech rights, even though it voluntarily joined the association. The dispute began with a letter that Brentwood's football coach sent to a dozen eighth-graders in 1997, encouraging them to attend spring training at Brentwood. The students already had registered to attend the school in the fall.

   Justice John Paul Stevens compared the case to one in which the court upheld a state bar association's limits on solicitations by lawyers. "The dangers of undue influence that exist when a lawyer chases an ambulance are also present when a high school coach contacts an eighth grader," Stevens said.

   The court had already heard the case in 2001 when it ruled by 5-4 in favor of Brentwood, saying the athletic association acted in a quasi-governmental capacity and could be sued. A federal appeals court later ruled in favor of the school, saying the letter amounts to protected speech under the First Amendment.

   The NCAA, the National School Boards Association and the National Federation of State High School Associations backed the Tennessee athletic association.

   Yahoo! buys Rivals.com: In a move that bolsters Yahoo!’s visibility with sports fans, the company announced an agreement to acquire Rivals.com, which specializes in college and high school athletics

and recruiting.

   Financial terms weren't disclosed, but the deal is believed to be in the $100 million range.

   Rivals, based in Brentwood, Tenn., is a network of more than 150 individual Web sites attracting around 2 million fans each month. Yahoo! has been bolstering its content, licensing material recently from ABC, CBS and Fox. Among sports sites, only ESPN.com attracts more monthly visitors.

   Rivals.com syndicates content to various sites, including Yahoo! rivals AOL and SI.com.

   Earlier this year, CBS Corp. bought the MaxPreps online high school sports network.

   NCAA admits it overreacted: Live updates of NCAA events are permitted as long as they are limited to scores and time remaining, the governing body said in the aftermath of a controversy related to blogging at the Division I baseball tournament.

   Brian Bennett, a reporter for The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., was ejected from the pressbox for filing live Internet updates during play.

   NCAA spokesman Bob Williams said Bennett was asked repeatedly not to blog play-by-play reports because it violated NCAA policy as a "live representation" of the game. On Wednesday, however, Williams said the NCAA had issued incorrect information.

   "In fact, in-game updates to include score and time remaining in competition are permissible by any media entity whether credentialed or not," Williams said.

   Extra points: Dan Hodack, 126-84-2 in 22 seasons, is out as the Windsor varsity football coach, replaced by assistant coach Tim Hogan, the Press & Sun-Bulletin reported Thursday. The Black Knights won five Section 4 titles with Hodack in charge. . . . Jesse Ferris, 26, has been appointed boys basketball coach at Elmira Free Academy in place of John Miller, who resigned after going 73-39 in five seasons. Ferris has been the junior varsity coach the past three seasons.

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