Coaches were allowed back on the recruiting trail Monday. But the most important phone numbers to gather in late July weren't the recruits' digits, but rather those needed to contact fellow Division I coaches via cell phones.

The fallout over Friday's ruling in favor of the NCAA in the 2-in-4 exempted tournament lawsuit left the majority of D-I schools needing at least one game on next season's slate. And, with coaches all over the country watching the Class of 2003, filling the 2002-03 schedule became priority No. 1. Most schools were leaving a game open on the schedule, waiting for a possible favorable ruling and chance to play in exempted tournaments.

Instead, a federal judge in Columbus, Ohio, denied the preliminary injunction. The 2-in-4 rule remains in effect and limits schools to two exempted tournaments -- those events that count as only one game on the schedule but can include two, three or four games -- every four seasons, and the same tourney only once in four seasons. The judge put off at least for a year ruling on the permanent injunction to see if these tournaments really do fold because of the rule.

"This is a tough week to get this done with every coach traveling," South Carolina coach Dave Odom said. "It's going to be hard to get a yes or a no. We're all under the gun to get our schedules done, for the ticket people, the sports information directors, the arena, everyone. I took my schedule with me in case I see another coach or need to make a phone call on it."

In South Carolina's case, Odom had one game available before the ruling and it was to open the Gamecocks new on-campus arena. But he couldn't get it scheduled -- a home-and-home series -- while everyone else waited to see what would happen with the lawsuit. He's now actively trying to get a marquee team that is willing to take on a road game, not to mention open a new arena. It's a game on national TV, likely ESPN, but it's not an easy get in late July.

"It's hard to do this, this late in the summer and try to get an attractive game," Odom said. "I had to tell everyone to be patient, but this is an important game for us and we can make a quick decision. Having to do it this week makes it even more complicated."

As for the tournaments, the events hit hardest by the ruling are likely the three in Las Vegas. Organizer Chris Spencer said he will have to work hard to find teams to fill the fields, and the odds are he'll likely only have one eight- or four-team tourney, if any at all. Rick Giles of the Gazelle Group had to fill three tourneys -- the season-opening four-team Coaches vs. Cancer, the eight-team BCA Classic and the 16-team Guardians Classic, where the four winners of home sites meet in Kansas City.

Giles has the dates at Madison Square Garden (Nov. 14-15), ESPN locked up to show the games, and said he owes it to all parties to provide marquee teams. But he doesn't have four teams that have an exemption. Only Syracuse was grandfathered into the field (more on that in a minute).

But Giles does the attractiveness of MSG, New York City and the stage of being the first teams playing on television to open the 2002-03 college basketball season. That's enough to convince Alabama coach Mark Gottfried, Texas coach Rick Barnes and possibly Marquette's Tom Crean or Oklahoma's Kelvin Sampson to join Syracuse for a one- or two-day event with single games spread over two days. All of these coaches were willing to take their one remaining game to New York and play a neutral site game. The CVC was trying to match Texas point T.J. Ford and Alabama point Mo Williams in exempted tourney and could do the same under this format.

"I'll play one game on a neutral site because it's a good opportunity to play a game like that," Gottfried said. "Villanova, UMass and N.C. State want home-and-homes, but I'd rather play that one game. I've already got Ohio State (in Springfield in the Tipoff Classic), at Utah, Providence, Xavier and St. Bonaventure. Adding a game at Madison Square Garden would be perfect."

Syracuse signed all of its exempted contracts prior to October, 1998, which allowed the Orangemen to still play in the 2002 CVC. The same is true for Kansas, Kentucky and Indiana. All three schools will play in their third straight exempted tournaments this fall. Kentucky was in the CVC in 2000, the NABC Classic in 2001 and will be in the Maui Invitational in 2002. Kansas was in CVC in 2000, Maui in 2001 and will be in the Preseason NIT in 2002. Indiana was in the Preseason NIT in 2000, the Great Alaska Shootout in 2001 and will be in Maui in 2002. The four-year cycle of this rule began with the 2000-01 season and ends with the 2003-04 season.

But a few other schools didn't get all three contracts signed before '98, creating openings in what were filled tournaments.

Illinois signed to play in the Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks, Alaska, prior to '98 but didn't sign to play in Las Vegas for the 2001 season because that tournament didn't exist prior to last season. Illinois played in the Maui in 2000, Las Vegas in 2001 and thus can't play in Fairbanks in 2002. That leaves the Fairbanks tourney looking to find a replacement for Illinois to go along with the other seven teams (Fairbanks, Bradley, Green Bay, Nebraska, New Mexico State, Weber State and Santa Barbara).

The Great Alaska Shootout is OK, though, for this season. Wyoming, which was a late replacement for UNLV in the Preseason NIT last season, was in the Hawaii-Pacific tourney in 1999-2000, not 2000-01, which means the Cowboys haven't used their two exemptions yet. The Cowboys will join Anchorage, Charleston, Loyola-Marymount, Oklahoma State, Villanova and Michigan State in November.

Peter Sauer, the athletic director of the University of the Virgin Islands, was hoping to add two marquee teams to his Paradise Jam had the ruling been in his favor. Instead, he says he'll keep his tourney at six teams with Michigan, Kansas State, BYU, Toledo, St. Bonaventure and Virginia Tech -- a field that will give one up-and-coming team from a high-major conference a chance to win three games.

"But this is a setback for college basketball because there could be limited opportunities to play big games out of conference on a neutral court if these tourneys fold," said South Florida coach Seth Greenberg, who added that he needs two games. "We're a program that doesn't have guaranteed money to play games, so we've got to do home-and-home games and look for neutral site games every year."

Odom said he likes his team to play in an exempted tourney every other year, and will continue with that plan. But Marquette coach Tom Crean, like Greenberg, is worried about some of these tourneys folding and preventing the teams from high major conferences that aren't the first choice from getting into a tourney. Marquette won the Great Alaska Shootout last season by beating Tennessee, Indiana and Gonzaga to start the season.

"That made a huge difference in our season to have three games like that on a neutral court," Marquette coach Tom Crean said. "We're a school that needs to play 16 home games (to pay the bills), so we can't pass these tourneys up. I'm hoping that in a year, everyone will be able to play in these type of games and the judge will review it again."

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.