The NCAA is probing Tennessee’s football recruiting practices, according to several prep prospects, their family members and high school administrators, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Much of the investigation is centered on the use of recruiting “hostesses” who have helped the program convince prep prospects to choose Tennessee by befriending prep prospects and attending their high school games, according to the report. Because the hostesses are considered an extension of the university, it could be considered a violation of NCAA rules if they helped recruit prospective athletes off campus.

Tennessee Athletic Director Mike Hamilton confirmed the school was being investigated but declined to address the allegations in the report. “Typically, we do not comment on inquires that are in progress,” he said, according to the newspaper.

Tennessee has committed at least six secondary NCAA violations — unintended violations of rules not deemed to have given the school an unfair competitive or recruiting advantage — since Lane Kiffin took over as coach.

The NCAA appears to be strongly interested in Tennessee’s use of hostesses — students who are part of a university group that hosts prospective students on campus visits, including athletes. It was not clear whether the university sent the hostesses to visit the football players, the newspaper reported.

In one case, hostesses traveled nearly 200 miles to attend a football game at James F. Byrnes High School in Duncan, S.C., one of the nation’s best high school football programs, where at least three potential Tennessee recruits were playing, according to the report.

Marcus Lattimore, a running back who had made an unofficial visit to Tennessee but was not interested in attending the school, said the hostesses brought signs, including one that read, “Come to Tennessee,” according to the report.

Two of Lattimore’s high school teammates, Brandon Willis and Corey Miller, have orally committed to Tennessee. Lattimore said the hostesses were “real pretty, real nice and just real cool” and thinks they had “a lot″ of influence in his teammates making oral commitments, according to the report.

“I haven’t seen no other schools do that,” Lattimore said, according to the report. “It’s crazy.”

Gary Willis, Brandon Willis’ father, said the NCAA had interviewed his son about the hostesses’ visit to the game, according to The Times. Gary Willis said the girls met his son at Tennessee’s football camp last summer and told him they would be attending one of his games. He also said the trip was not arranged by Tennessee coaches or staff.

NCAA officials have visited with four prospects and are scheduled to visit two others this week, according to the report.

After suffering two concussions in a three-week span, Philadelphia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook said he’s concerned about his future in the NFL and beyond.

“I’m worried about it,” Westbrook said on HBO’s Joe Buck Live on Tuesday. “Concussions have been all over the headlines and all over the papers, and it has been on the top of my mind since the Redskins game on the 26th of October.”

The 30-year-old Westbrook has missed three straight games.

“I′m very concerned just because there is not a lot of data that says in 10 years or 20 years you′ll be fine if you had too many concussions,” he said in the interview. “I′m worried about that, and, hopefully, next time I go out there I don’t have to worry about it anymore.

“That’s my biggest concern. How am I going to be when I’m 50 or when I’m 60? Will I have all these brain diseases and will I have a problem remembering things? … Now, I’m trying to get myself together with the help of the doctors as well as coach [Andy] Reid and the training staff. Now, the most important thing is to get 100 percent healthy — and not play football … until I’m 100 percent healthy.”

On Monday, Eagles coach Reid said both DeSean Jackson (also out after a concussion) and Westbrook would return to practice this week and neither has been ruled out for Sunday’s game.

Westbrook said he hopes to play Sunday against the New York Giants. He said his practice time Wednesday will be on a limited basis.

“My kikil every week since I’ve been out is to get back and play, so I’m going to do everything that I can to get back out there and play this week,” he said in the interview. “I’m going to start practicing, but of course you have to take things slow, and if you have any setbacks, you have to fall back a little bit. We′ll see how it goes.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Federal legislation that could lead to a college football playoff tournament will move a step closer to reality on Wednesday in a hearing before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection will consider a bill that would allow the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to prohibit any bowl game from calling itself a “national championship” unless the game is “the final game of a single elimination post-season playoff system.” The subcommittee is expected to vote on the proposal on Wednesday after a line-by-line consideration of the bill.

“With everything going on in the country, I can’t believe that Congress is wasting time and spending taxpayers′ money on football,” Bill Hancock, the BCS executive director, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “We feel strongly that managing of college sports is best left to the people in higher education.”

Written and sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), the bill is a direct attack on the BCS and, if enacted, would bring the long simmering controversy over the BCS to an end. In a legislative process that is long and can be tortuous, the hearing is a significant step. This is the furthest any bill on the BCS controversy has ever progressed on Capitol Hill.

At a hearing on the BCS issue in May, Barton demanded a playoff and warned BCS officials that if “they sit on their hands and yawn, this legislation could end up on the President’s desk for his signature.” This week’s development, according to a spokesman for the committee, is Barton’s response to the BCS’s refusal to consider a playoff.

Wednesday′s hearing is known as a “markup,” a procedure that allows any committee member to propose amendments to the bill, followed by committee action on the amendments. The procedure is frequently used to iron out technical problems in the bill’s language and to provide a forum for compromises among committee members on substantive issues.

Barton’s bill is supported by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), the chairman of the subcommittee. If the subcommittee approves the bill, it will move to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, where Barton enjoys some leverage as the ranking Republican. The next steps would be a vote on the floor of the House, passage by the Senate, and approval by President Barack Obama. Obama has said in numerous interviews on ESPN and on “60 Minutes″ that he supports a playoff system.

The bill would give the FTC the authority to regulate the college football postseason with the power to obtain injunctions and to assess huge fines against any organization that promotes a “national championship game.”

If enacted into law, the rule would become effective for the 2011 college football season and would affect bowl games played late in 2011 and in January of 2012.

“We’re pleased that Congressman Barton’s bill is moving forward because it will require the BCS to choose — either make college football’s championship a competitively earned honor or admit that it’s currently the equivalent of being elected homecoming king,” said Matthew Sanderson, a founder of Playoff PAC, a political action committee aimed at electing members of Congress who favor a playoff system.

Lester Munson is a senior writer for ESPN.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.