To Tweet Or Not To Tweet

[knapplc]

I don't think Knapp's comparison was intended to compare the two on a criminal scale. Naturally, when thinking of NCAA actions, Penn St. is recent enough to quickly come to mind....

My hope for sanity on this board remains. Thank you.

 

[Count 'Bility]

My hope for sanity on this board remains. Thank you.

 

[HuskerShark]

How not surprising that you, again, didn't get that. Stop while you're behind.

My bad, misread that. You're right. No analogy is 1:1, but the one you chose is like 2187491259327965:1 soooooooo..... yeah.....

It doesn't matter. The degree of difference is irrelevant.

Just keep focusing on the fact that it's not the same. Ignore the actual point being made.

Okay, I'll do that and you can keep acting like you're God's gift to the world. Or in your case, the Primordial Soup's gift to the world.

The point is that tweeting and talking to recruits is a retarded rule to have in the first place, and second, the enforcement of that rule is literally impossible. I understand the point that you're trying to make because the NCAA is ridiculous with how they handle things, but the simple fact that EVERY SINGLE FAN BASE has fans who tweet and "friend" recruits makes it impossible to enforce.

 

[knapplc]

You continue to fail to see the forest for the trees. The NCAA is stupid and arbitrary and it is always good advice to tell someone not to put themselves or this school in their crosshairs. None of your protestations eliminate that reality. Every compliance officer of every school agrees with me, but you just keep believing what you want to believe.

 

[sd'sker]

You continue to fail to see the forest for the trees. The NCAA is stupid and arbitrary and it is always good advice to tell someone not to put themselves or this school in their crosshairs. None of your protestations eliminate that reality.

what reality? the reality is that schools have gotten caught for this, except with players instead of fans, and nothing happened.

Every compliance officer of every school agrees with me, but you just keep believing what you want to believe.

you are aware of the position of every compliance officer of every school?

 

[Count 'Bility]

I really enjoyed Collin Cowherd's "NCAA's wheel of sanctions".

 

[knapplc]

You continue to fail to see the forest for the trees. The NCAA is stupid and arbitrary and it is always good advice to tell someone not to put themselves or this school in their crosshairs. None of your protestations eliminate that reality.

what reality? the reality is that schools have gotten caught for this, except with players instead of fans, and nothing happened.

Every compliance officer of every school agrees with me, but you just keep believing what you want to believe.

you are aware of the position of every compliance officer of every school?

You're really arguing that it's OK for fans to tweet recruits? Really? I want to be sure about this.

 

[sd'sker]

You continue to fail to see the forest for the trees. The NCAA is stupid and arbitrary and it is always good advice to tell someone not to put themselves or this school in their crosshairs. None of your protestations eliminate that reality.

what reality? the reality is that schools have gotten caught for this, except with players instead of fans, and nothing happened.

Every compliance officer of every school agrees with me, but you just keep believing what you want to believe.

you are aware of the position of every compliance officer of every school?

You're really arguing that it's OK for fans to tweet recruits? Really? I want to be sure about this.

i do not see what is wrong with two people tweeting each other.

 

[knapplc]

Since I'm clearly not very smart when it comes to these things, I emailed a few Compliance Officers from some colleges around the country so they could educate stupid old me about this subject.

Here's what I emailed them:

Hello,
I have a general question that does not apply to a specific situation. In general, is it permissible for fans to interact with non-signed recruits via twitter, Facebook, or any other social media?

Thank you for your time.

knapplc

Here are the first few responses.

Beyond all probability, these compliance officers agreed with me. Huh.



knapplc,

Thanks for your email. NCAA rules do not allow for fans to interact on behalf of a university to recruits in any method – in person or via any type of social media. The only people who would be permitted to contact prospects for purposes of recruiting them to an institution are specific staff members, and the methods of communication are pretty limited in scope. Our office would recommend that you support the program by using social media to promote the program as a whole – e.g., retweeting posts from the @beaverathletics twitter page, “liking” things on the OSU Athletics Facebook page. But any individual outreach to prospects is considered recruiting and is not allowed.

I hope this clears things up. Thank you for requesting some more information on this topic. Our office appreciates fans who ask!

Cheers,

Jackie

Jackie (Babich) Carney

Director of Compliance

Oregon State University

jacqueline.carney@oregonstate.edu



knapplc,

Thank you for the email, it is definitely a hot topic question with the popularity of social media. It is not permissible for fans to interact with any prospective student-athletes (signed or unsigned) via any social media. There is a good run down regarding the applicable NCAA legislation and how it applies to a fan’s use of social media in this article:

http://www.cornnatio...nteraction-is-a

Please let me know if you have any questions.

-Jonathan

Jonathan Bateman | Compliance Coordinator

University of Nebraska Athletics

One Memorial Stadium, Lincoln, NE 68588-0219



No. That would not be permissible. Further, fans may not interact with “signed” recruits until they arrive for practice or class at Baylor.

Thanks for your question.

Chad

____________________________________

Chad Jackson

Senior Associate AD for Compliance

Baylor University



Hi knapplc –

In general, if you are considered a booster or a representative of athletics interests, it is NOT permissible for fans to interact with prospective student-athletes via Twitter, Facebook or any other form of social media.

Please let me know if you would like more detailed information.

Thank you for checking.

Marielle

Marielle A. vanGelder

Associate Director of Athletics/NCAA Rules Education & Compliance Services

Phone: (860) 486-1211

Fax: (860) 486-2245

marielle.vangelder@uconn.edu



knapplc.

Non-signed prospects, who have not been accepted to an institution and paid an acceptance deposit, such as the housing deposit at Appalachian which holds your spot should not be contacted by outside entities from an institution in an effort to recruit them to attend Appalachian. This applies to Boosters, or as the NCAA refers to them as Athletic Interests. Not all boosters or fans are aware of this prohibition, so they use social media to encourage prospects to attend an institution. That is how the NCAA rules read right now. If that will change with the changes they are making to the rule book at present remains to be seen. It is not easy for a compliance office to monitor all forms of social media, but a compliance office can send cease and desist letters or tweets I guess in an effort to stop this type of behavior.

I hope this response helps you and if there are any issues or concerns you may have that apply to Appalachian State University Athletics, I would hope you would share them with the compliance office.

Sincerely,

Barbara A. Green

Director of Compliance

APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY-ATHLETICS

425 Jack Branch Drive

Boone, NC 28608

www.GoASU.com

Email: greenba@appstate.edu



Since Ms. Green appeared to be concerned that this might be an issue affecting App State, I emailed her back explaining this discussion a bit. Her response to that email:

Boosters and fans can be rabid. Guess I will never be unemployed. Most institutions website speak to the fan do’s and dont’s. You may want to find one that might address this and send it to him. This was a good chat because now I know I need to add that to our brochure and website. You could send it to the compliance office at Nebraska and they could tweet him to stop the behavior . Just thinking out of the box. If he won’t listen to you, he might listen to them.

Thanks,

BG



*** This is from the Missouri Compliance officer. I'm impressed with how quickly these folks responded, since I'm sure it was a busy day for them.

Hi knapplc-

Thank you reaching out to our office. We have some basic information on our website that I think will answer your question: http://www.mutigers....etworking.html. Please let me know if this is helpful or if there is additional information I can provide.

Andrea

Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S™III, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone



knapplc,

Thank you for contacting me regarding your question below.

According to NCAA rules, any comment from a general fan to a prospect that is written to persuade or entice a recruit to attend a certain university could be deemed a recruiting violation of NCAA rules as all recruiting must be done by the coaches assigned to do so by the university.

A booster is not permitted to recruit on behalf of the institution and determining whether someone is a booster can be far reaching according to NCAA rules and the definition of a booster.

I hope this answers your question below. If I can be of further assistance, please let me know. Thanks

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Randy Krahulik

Assistant AD for Compliance

Kansas Athletics

1651 Naismith Dr.

Lawrence, KS 66045



knapplc,

NCAA legislation prohibits any fan or booster of an institution from recruiting/contacting prospects on behalf of an institution. Not only does this prohibition include in-person contacts, but it also extends to contacting or interacting with prospects via Twitter, Facebook, email, or any other electronic avenue.

Jeff Norris

Compliance Coordinator/Recruiting & Education

Kansas State University

1800 College Ave. Suite 143

Manhattan, KS 66502



knapplc –

Great question and thank you for inquiring. The NCAA expressly prohibits fans (boosters) from communicating with prospects on behalf of an institution. The NCAA has given institutions notice that they are responsible for the actions of its booster. In fact, at the point that an institution becomes aware of an occurrence, institutions are required to ask fans that have communicated with a prospect for the purposes of recruitment to cease and desist further communication.

Please let me know if you have further questions.

Guns Up!

Chad Mandrell

Recruiting Coordinator

Texas Tech University

Athletics Compliance



Here's the full list of schools I emailed. I think it's pretty cool that the Nebraska Compliance Officer was the first to respond (my responses above aren't in order received). It tells me we take this stuff pretty seriously at Nebraska.

Oklahoma

Nebraska - Responded

Ohio State

Boise St. - Responded

Clemson - Responded

Florida State

Colorado - Responded

Florida Atlantic

Stanford

Duke

UConn - Responded

Baylor - Responded

New Mexico State

Oregon State - Responded

Appalachian State - Responded

Kansas - Responded

Kansas State - Responded

Iowa State - Responded

Missouri - Responded

Oklahoma State - Responded

Texas Tech - Responded

Texas A&M - Responded

Illinois

 

[jsneb83]

Wait, you signed those emails as knapplc?

 

[knapplc]

Wait, you signed those emails as knapplc?

Yes. This is exactly what I sent to them:

Hello,
I have a general question that does not apply to a specific situation. In general, is it permissible for fans to interact with non-signed recruits via twitter, Facebook, or any other social media?

Thank you for your time.

knapplc

 

[Count 'Bility]

Of course Nebraska responded the quickest......

Nebraska compliance officer: "Oh Knapp?, i know him. He's that pleasant old guy that's always taking pictures of the stadium. I better get back to him on this"

 

[sd'sker]

i can not believe you did that. i should have clarified; i understand that it is against ncaa rules, however vague they may be. i, personally, do not understand why it is wrong. i wonder where it stops. their definition of 'booster' and 'athletic interests' are overly broad to the point of incomprehension.

now you should find whether or not the ncaa has targeted schools or fans for fans tweeting at recruits.

 

[knapplc]

i can not believe you did that.

It's like you don't even know me.

Sometimes I wonder where our relationship is headed.

 

[jsneb83]

i can not believe you did that. i should have clarified; i understand that it is against ncaa rules, however vague they may be. i, personally, do not understand why it is wrong. i wonder where it stops. their definition of 'booster' and 'athletic interests' are overly broad to the point of incomprehension.

now you should find whether or not the ncaa has targeted schools or fans for fans tweeting at recruits.

Well according to the dictionary, a "booster" is an enthusiastic promoter, or a person or thing that supports, assists, or increases power or effectiveness. According to those definitions, a fan sounds like a booster to me.