To Tweet Or Not To Tweet

[Army_Allen]

No, that's the NCAA's argument.

I'm glad to hear that. Because I don't think I've ever read one of your posts with such a weak argument---on any topic. I actually agree that tweeting a recruit is a terrible idea, and I don't think fans should do it. That said, I don't think the NCAA has provided any guidelines or rules specific to tweets. The link in your post above is to a compliance officer, right? Not an NCAA source.

I hope the NCAA acts to clarify this issue in the coming year. The problem is only going to get worse.

Those compliance officers linked to NCAA rulebooks. You should read what they've said.

And the argument isn't weak at all, inasmuchas I'm simply repeating what the NCAA has said. And again, they don't have to define specifically which method or mode of contact you use. Contact is contact whether that's at a party or via twitter.

Why would they have to write a specific rule specifically discussing twitter?

If contact is contact then the yelling the recruits name at a game while wearing Nebraska gear is endorsing it as well. Same with the autographs. Just like the guy in the hotdog costume yelling that the hotdog place has good food.

 

[knapplc]

You're parsing words, Allen, but no matter how badly you try to wriggle around it, it's still a violation. "Contact is contact" in the context I said that meant encouraging a recruit to go to your school whether that's via twitter or at a party, not asking for an autograph vs. asking them to go to your school.

I know you want this to be legal by NCAA rules. It's not.

 

[knapplc]

Why would they have to write a specific rule specifically discussing twitter?

Because there is a difference between tweeting at someone showing excitement about them possibly coming to your school (which happens routinely) and calling a recruit at their home to try to talk them into coming (which should NEVER happen: http://blogs.ajc.com...logs_recruiting).

Twitter is so prevalent and so many recruits are interacting with fans on Twitter, the NCAA should bifurcate the rules. Otherwise, it looks like they don't care about the millions of fan interactions that are happening each day. If they don't fix the rules, school compliance departments are going to spend a crazy amount of time reporting this (or be subject to violations for not reporting). Its not efficient.

The example you gave doesn't in any way say that twitter contact is different than phone contact, nor does it say that one is OK and the other is not. Both are not OK, and every Compliance officer I've received a response from says this.

The confusion here stems from wanting this not to be true. That's not a sufficient argument for it not to be true. It is true. You aren't allowed to do it. End of story.

 

[QMany]

Why would they have to write a specific rule specifically discussing twitter?

Because there is a difference between tweeting at someone showing excitement about them possibly coming to your school (which happens routinely) and calling a recruit at their home to try to talk them into coming (which should NEVER happen: http://blogs.ajc.com...logs_recruiting).

Twitter is so prevalent and so many recruits are interacting with fans on Twitter, the NCAA should bifurcate the rules. Otherwise, it looks like they don't care about the millions of fan interactions that are happening each day. If they don't fix the rules, school compliance departments are going to spend a crazy amount of time reporting this (or be subject to violations for not reporting). Its not efficient.

The example you gave doesn't in any way say that twitter contact is different than phone contact, nor does it say that one is OK and the other is not. Both are not OK, and every Compliance officer I've received a response from says this.

The confusion here stems from wanting this not to be true. That's not a sufficient argument for it not to be true. It is true. You aren't allowed to do it. End of story.

I was not trying to say there is a difference in the two by the rules, but an inherent difference in those to types of contact in real-life. Recruits interact with fans on Twitter all the damn time. No fan should ever call a recruit on their home phone. Get that?

But Knapplc said END OF STORY so everyone go home.

 

[knapplc]

There isn't a difference between the two by the rules. Show me where it says in the NCAA bylaws that contact via telephone is different than contact via twitter.

 

[Creighton Duke]

I get what you're saying Knap, but tbh, it's for the most part cool just getting to know the recruits better than just their name and jersey number. Just think of how friggen nuts the Peters' bros. Twitters woulda been. I've followed the Huskers since I was young young young... I remember watching the 97 championship game at like 5 or 6 while my brother was born and that was crazy and cool and new in itself, but I never knew anything about the players. So for me and why I do tweet them (current,recruits,former) is because one, it's pretty sweet getting to say, "Hey look, Ahman Green is following me on twitter!". And two, you learn that really, they're college kids just like myself who happen to play for my favorite team and that people I idolized growing up like the things I do.

People don't make twitters if they didn't want people to follow, retweet and have quick conversations with people, that's the intent. But if people quiet the hell down about the creeper sh#t (I mean if that case, whoever got my tweets musta went super creeper on me to read all a normal non-famous dudes tweets lol), I won't tweet recruits any longer as I don't want to add to any reason for the NCAA to jump on us. Although I feel that the rules with Tweeting recruits from fans will change before long.

This whole "justification" for beeing so into the Twitter scene is the prime example of the, for back of a better word, strangeness that goes on with people and Twitter. You've harbored these little kid fantasies about being friends with the guys on the 1997 team and you're now getting off to Ahman FREAKING Green following YOU, Army Allen on Twitter. I mean, I don't even know what to think about it other than...well...yeah...

Thanks for making my argument for me, though! :thumbs

 

[Count 'Bility]

This thread is the biggest bunch of post count-paddin bullsh#t i have ever witnessed.

 

[QMany]

There isn't a difference between the two by the rules. Show me where it says in the NCAA bylaws that contact via telephone is different than contact via twitter.

There is not.

Twitter is so prevalent and so many recruits are interacting with fans on Twitter, the NCAA should bifurcate the rules. Otherwise, it looks like they don't care about the millions of fan interactions that are happening each day. If they don't fix the rules, school compliance departments are going to spend a crazy amount of time reporting this (or be subject to violations for not reporting). Its not efficient.

Should ... if they don't. You know, because they are the same now and they should be different.

 

[knapplc]

Why should they be different? Encouraging a recruit to join your school is illegal whether it's done in person or via twitter. There's no reason to make a new rule specifically for twitter. Contact is against the rules. That covers twitter.

 

[knapplc]

This thread is the biggest bunch of post count-paddin bullsh#t i have ever witnessed.

This post is post-padding. We're having a legit conversation here. If you don't like the conversation, or don't understand it, then move on. But it has zero to do with post-padding. It's actually quite a serious topic.

Further, anyone who gives a sh#t about how many posts they have is an idiot. We have members with 10 posts who speak more wisdom than members with 1,000 posts. Post-count is irrelevant to anything. At all.

 

[QMany]

Why should they be different? Encouraging a recruit to join your school is illegal whether it's done in person or via twitter. There's no reason to make a new rule specifically for twitter. Contact is against the rules. That covers twitter.

First, I think there is an inherent difference in the types of "contact." I think society feels the same way. Most recruits are having interactions with random fans over Twitter. Society has deemed it "ok" to mention people you don't actually know on Twitter. That is how things are now. It is not the same as finding a recruits home phone number, posing as a news reporter, and then trying to persuade a recruit to come to your school. Just a wee bit difference. One is commonplace, the other is frowned upon, like masturbating on an airplane.

Second, as I mentioned. It is leading to some grave inefficiencies in the compliance departments (if in fact they are doing their job like they are supposed to be doing). Knapplc on HuskerBoard or anyone else is not going to put a dent into the amount of mentions recruits are getting or the interactions they are having. It is only going to get more prevelant. The NCAA should do something about it so they are not wasting school compliance departments or their time anymore. Either come out with a statement saying its not OK, change the rule and tailor it to Twitter, or just keep on not doing a damned thing. I think I know which one would be the correct choice.

 

[ADS]

This thread is the biggest bunch of post count-paddin bullsh#t i have ever witnessed.

 

[Count 'Bility]

This thread is the biggest bunch of post count-paddin bullsh#t i have ever witnessed.

This post is post-padding. We're having a legit conversation here. If you don't like the conversation, or don't understand it, then move on. But it has zero to do with post-padding. It's actually quite a serious topic.

Further, anyone who gives a sh#t about how many posts they have is an idiot. We have members with 10 posts who speak more wisdom than members with 1,000 posts. Post-count is irrelevant to anything. At all.

And bam.

Just tryin to lighten the mood a little. It was gettin hot in here.

 

[knapplc]

Why should they be different? Encouraging a recruit to join your school is illegal whether it's done in person or via twitter. There's no reason to make a new rule specifically for twitter. Contact is against the rules. That covers twitter.

First, I think there is an inherent difference in the types of "contact." I think society feels the same way. Most recruits are having interactions with random fans over Twitter. Society has deemed it "ok" to mention people you don't actually know on Twitter. That is how things are now. It is not the same as finding a recruits home phone number, posing as a news reporter, and then trying to persuade a recruit to come to your school. Just a wee bit difference. One is commonplace, the other is frowned upon, like masturbating on an airplane.

Second, as I mentioned. It is leading to some grave inefficiencies in the compliance departments (if in fact they are doing their job like they are supposed to be doing). Knapplc on HuskerBoard or anyone else is not going to put a dent into the amount of mentions recruits are getting or the interactions they are having. It is only going to get more prevelant. The NCAA should do something about it so they are not wasting school compliance departments or their time anymore. Either come out with a statement saying its not OK, change the rule and tailor it to Twitter, or just keep on not doing a damned thing. I think I know which one would be the correct choice.

I imagine they will do something about it, by picking a school to make an example of and enforcing the existing rule.

Further, we're talking about very different animals here, and I'm not sure how that matters to this conversation. There's a difference between mentioning someone's name on twitter and using their twitter handle in a message directed at them. One is not a violation, the other is. One would not go to the mentioned player, the other would. Nobody has ever said it's against the rules to talk about recruits, you just can't talk at them.

And we have another entirely different animal brought into this conversation which doesn't belong at all with this nimrod who called up the recruit making the recruit think he was a member of the press. Not sure what that has to do with this situation, because at the root of this conversation is Army_Allen's contact with some of our recruits, and while what he did was still in violation, it wasn't in the same galaxy as what that guy did.

Finally, the NCAA has come out with a statement saying it is not OK. It's referenced by several of the Compliance officers who responded to my emails, and one even included the relevant portions in his email and helpfully highlighted them (I underlined them when I posted his email).

EDIT - This is a good read:

http://michiganhockey.net/compliance/

As is this:

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/watch-that-tweet-n-c-a-a-colleges-wrestle-with-social-media-recruiting-rules/

So the NCAA isn't entirely asleep at the wheel. They are taking notice and they are watching. They are also arbitrary and they're also slow to respond/react, but then... it's the NCAA.

 

[Army_Allen]

I get what you're saying Knap, but tbh, it's for the most part cool just getting to know the recruits better than just their name and jersey number. Just think of how friggen nuts the Peters' bros. Twitters woulda been. I've followed the Huskers since I was young young young... I remember watching the 97 championship game at like 5 or 6 while my brother was born and that was crazy and cool and new in itself, but I never knew anything about the players. So for me and why I do tweet them (current,recruits,former) is because one, it's pretty sweet getting to say, "Hey look, Ahman Green is following me on twitter!". And two, you learn that really, they're college kids just like myself who happen to play for my favorite team and that people I idolized growing up like the things I do.

People don't make twitters if they didn't want people to follow, retweet and have quick conversations with people, that's the intent. But if people quiet the hell down aboutd the creeper sh#t (I mean if that case, whoever got my tweets musta went super creeper on me to read all a normal non-famous dudes tweets lol), I won't tweet recruits any longer as I don't want to add to any reason for the NCAA to jump on us. Although I feel that the rules with Tweeting recruits from fans will change before long.

This whole "justification" for beeing so into the Twitter scene is the prime example of the, for back of a better word, strangeness that goes on with people and Twitter. You've harbored these little kid fantasies about being friends with the guys on the 1997 team and you're now getting off to Ahman FREAKING Green following YOU, Army Allen on Twitter. I mean, I don't even know what to think about it other than...well...yeah...

Thanks for making my argument for me, though! :thumbs

I'm getting off to it? Holy f#*k some people are f'ing retarded I swear. It's impossible to have an intelligible conversation with just about anyone on a message board because of people like yourself that jump at the chance to say some f'd up sh#t that in all reality has no bearing on you. It is cool that the dude follows me on twitter, I don't get whats weird about that.