Twitter Usage

[javadoc]

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/07/what_to_do_about_social_media.html

Quote from article: "A new era of NCAA enforcement was ushered in last month. The NCAA has mined the social media accounts of athletes in recent years for potential violations, but only now has the clear message been sent that schools must really pay attention, too."


http://www.ibleedcrimsonred.com/2011/07/ncaa-tries-tackling-twitter-and.html
That one is from 2011, but most of the provisions spoken of would still be in effect, methinks.


http://michiganhockey.net/compliance/
Don't see a date on that one, but it says many of the same things.


And a good summary article with future recommendations:
http://harvardjsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Blohm.pdf


Now, an angle that I have not seen addressed. It seems that earlier this year, the NCAA was prepared to change the rulebook to remove some recruiting proscriptions. The one that interests me is that the NCAA was going to allow some recruiting activities (including contacting recruits) to be performed by non-coaching staff. That is currently forbidden.

The rule changes have hit a snag:

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/05/ncaa_prepares_for_latest_try_a.html

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...icially-backs-off-of-two-new-recruiting-rules

So now it comes home. As I read it:

1. Boosters are forbidden from recruiting, via social media or otherwise
2. Non-coaching staff are not permitted to recruit either

Yet we have Mr. White organizing the Twitter Army - encouraging people to become boosters according to current NCAA rules, and violate the rules in the process.

Now I know that there is the crowd that says "you can't police it" and I am not going to change anyone's mind who is already firm on that position, but I want to reiterate that counting on a rulemaking body not to enforce its own rules is a dumb position to take in any walk of life.

Aren't you even a little bit concerned that we have an Athletic Department representative organizing and encouraging the activity? This is not an amorphous, undirected horde of SEC fanatics. Are other schools doing it this way?

I wonder what our own AD would say if we contacted them. Does the compliance department know what is going on?

 

[texascpa]

Mr. White isn't recruiting. He's asking others to. That doesn't look to be against the rules to me.

 

[Marroniac]

Sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. I'm not worried about consequences here.

 

[javadoc]

Mr. White isn't recruiting. He's asking others to. That doesn't look to be against the rules to me.

That is a distinction without a difference before the law, methinks.

 

[Libero2]

If I understand you correctly, you want White to stop saying "Twitter army, blow up (Insert recruits name here) Kids a baller we want in Orange!" And you want him to start saying "Man oh man, (insert recruits name here) is ballin out, would be great to see him in Orange!"

Thus sending out the twitter army without saying twitter army attack.

Frankly if that's the way to do it to avoid issues, then it needs to be done. I am much more of the mindset, it's unpolicable on the whole, but it's a whole lot easier to go check on the recruiting coordinator of a new ACC school like Cuse and make sure they are in accordance with policy than it is to double check the twitter accounts of an SEC team.

 

[orangenauburn]

#ck the NCAA

Twitter away #cusenation

 

[javadoc]

If I understand you correctly, you want White to stop saying "Twitter army, blow up (Insert recruits name here) Kids a baller we want in Orange!" And you want him to start saying "Man oh man, (insert recruits name here) is ballin out, would be great to see him in Orange!"

Thus sending out the twitter army without saying twitter army attack.

I think that any attempt to circumvent the rules through cleverness should be regarded as too clever by half.

Given the way that the rules currently stand, I think White should not be contacting recruits at all. He shouldn't be dispatching the horde (it must be noted, as it is germane here, that the horde seems significantly to be of our staff's making), directly or indirectly. He shouldn't be recruiting, e.g. posting a picture of an apple on our field. Our coaches can use Twitter etc. but only through private messages.

I'm not sure what to do about it going forward, and if the rules make sense. There was a proposal in the Harvard paper I linked that suggested we drop the distinction between different forms of written communication. If so, then it would be kosher to have someone dig up a kid's home address through public records and then have everyone snail-mail the kid at home, assuming that general fans are to communicate.

 

[BlackKnight76]

White never specifically mentions recruits by name. He skates around it. If the NCAA wants to go tweet by tweet and try to decide who is a booster and not, what accounts are real people associated with whatever school, etc etc, more power to them. At the end of the day this is the online version of a person on the street yelling to a recruit "hey you should come to Syracuse" or wherever. Random townie high schooler X isn't paying KJ Williams or buying AJ Long's cousin a car.

 

[jekelish]

Yeah, it seems to me that he and our other coaches avoid telling people to recruit anyone. They basically say stuff like "I always liked the state of PA!" and hope that fans will pick up what they're putting down.

It's all code really, with the hopes that our fans will be smart enough to figure them out and show some love where needed.

 

[javadoc]

...At the end of the day this is the online version of a person on the street yelling to a recruit "hey you should come to Syracuse" or wherever.

Except that the contact is not accidental, it's willful. A better analogy would be going to a gym where a kid is known to work out so that you can say hello, and pitch your school.

 

[Toga]

Cam Newton

 

[javadoc]

It's all code really, with the hopes that our fans will be smart enough to figure them out and show some love where needed.

Translation: I really never told people to break the rules, although I crafted my message carefully to achieve that. I'm clean.

 

[jekelish]

Translation: I really never told people to break the rules, although I crafted my message carefully to achieve that. I'm clean.

Basically, yeah. But what he and McDonald are doing right now seem to be perfectly legal within the constraints of the NCAA thanks to the wording. Until the NCAA cracks down and tells coaches and recruiters they can't interact with fans at all on Twitter, then I say they should keep doing what they're doing. Right now it's legal as far as I can tell.

 

[javadoc]

Basically, yeah. But what he and McDonald are doing right now seem to be perfectly legal within the constraints of the NCAA thanks to the wording. Until the NCAA cracks down and tells coaches and recruiters they can't interact with fans at all on Twitter, then I say they should keep doing what they're doing. Right now it's legal as far as I can tell.

Genuine question then: why are athletic departments' compliance offices telling people not to do it?

For the record, I think that NCAA regulators would indeed regard some of White's activity as recruiting, even if a player is not mentioned by name.

 

[PhatOrange]

I'm not worried at all because every school and their fans are doing it. You cant possibly know whos a booster or not just like black knight said.

White is not breaking any rules either.

 

[jekelish]

Genuine question then: why are athletic departments' compliance offices telling people not to do it?

For the record, I think that NCAA regulators would indeed regard some of White's activity as recruiting, even if a player is not mentioned by name.

I was going to say "well clearly he must be operating within the rules or else the SU compliance office would have cracked down" but then I remembered this is the same staff that has had people tweet the full names of commits before they are ever signed, so who knows.

 

[DocFlanders]

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/07/what_to_do_about_social_media.html

Quote from article: "A new era of NCAA enforcement was ushered in last month. The NCAA has mined the social media accounts of athletes in recent years for potential violations, but only now has the clear message been sent that schools must really pay attention, too."


http://www.ibleedcrimsonred.com/2011/07/ncaa-tries-tackling-twitter-and.html
That one is from 2011, but most of the provisions spoken of would still be in effect, methinks.


http://michiganhockey.net/compliance/
Don't see a date on that one, but it says many of the same things.


And a good summary article with future recommendations:
http://harvardjsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Blohm.pdf


Now, an angle that I have not seen addressed. It seems that earlier this year, the NCAA was prepared to change the rulebook to remove some recruiting proscriptions. The one that interests me is that the NCAA was going to allow some recruiting activities (including contacting recruits) to be performed by non-coaching staff. That is currently forbidden.

The rule changes have hit a snag:

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/05/ncaa_prepares_for_latest_try_a.html

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...icially-backs-off-of-two-new-recruiting-rules

So now it comes home. As I read it:

1. Boosters are forbidden from recruiting, via social media or otherwise
2. Non-coaching staff are not permitted to recruit either

Yet we have Mr. White organizing the Twitter Army - encouraging people to become boosters according to current NCAA rules, and violate the rules in the process.

Now I know that there is the crowd that says "you can't police it" and I am not going to change anyone's mind who is already firm on that position, but I want to reiterate that counting on a rulemaking body not to enforce its own rules is a dumb position to take in any walk of life.

Aren't you even a little bit concerned that we have an Athletic Department representative organizing and encouraging the activity? This is not an amorphous, undirected horde of SEC fanatics. Are other schools doing it this way?

I wonder what our own AD would say if we contacted them. Does the compliance department know what is going on?

This would be kind of like the police trying to strictly enforce the speed limit at 1 mph over the limit. Impossible. They simply do not have the means (nor the will) to implement any type of enforcement effort that would have any significant (effective) impact at all. Is it technically against the law? Yes. Does anyone actually get busted for going 36 mph in a 35 zone? Very, very few.

 

[tep624]

I'm not worried at all because every school and their fans are doing it. You cant possibly know whos a booster or not just like black knight said.

White is not breaking any rules either.

If a person publicly acknowledges that they're a booster, i.e., "I'm an Alumni!", or is a known former player, then it's pretty easy to tell.

There's really no way to enforce what White is doing or what the non-boosters are doing and I don't even know if what they are doing technically is breaking any current rules.

I would tread very, very lightly though if I was a booster.

 

[javadoc]

This would be kind of like the police trying to strictly enforce the speed limit at 1 mph over the limit. Impossible. They simply do not have the means (nor the will) to implement any type of enforcement effort that would have any significant (effective) impact at all. Is it technically against the law? Yes. Does anyone actually get busted for going 36 mph in a 35 zone? Very, very few.

Speed limit may be a good example, but if so, we should be even more worried. That example is often cited when talking about "discretionary enforcement" - you can't punish every violation, so it becomes your choice which you punish. Are you comfortable with allowing the NCAA to enforce this rule selectively?

 

[Doctor44]

I agree with the fact that what our fans are doing pales in comparison to some of the other programs - including Tennessee, Georgia, Auburn, S Carolina, FSU, Clemson etc. While, yes, it would be awful if SU had sanctions for the actions of fans I dont see how you can punish them and not punish every other major program.

 

[TheCusian]

Speed limit may be a good example, but if so, we should be even more worried. That example is often cited when talking about "discretionary enforcement" - you can't punish every violation, so it becomes your choice which you punish. Are you comfortable with allowing the NCAA to enforce this rule selectively?

If I get caught going 1mph over and the cop tickets me, I'm privately mad but take my punishment. But what if the sign fell down or my speedometer is broken? The judge tends to be lenient.

If the NCAA picks us out for words on the Internet, while most every school is doing it? If its spotty, like "there was an apple on the field, so..." or "you mentioned fireworks in PA..." - that's enforceable - but weak - and there would be significant public blowout.

I think the risk is worth it. If Miami and Oregon skate and we get in trouble for having a Twitter army? Weak.

 

[Doctor44]

I also think it gets gray what "recruiting" is. If I say #CuseNation at the end of every conversation is that recruiting? I ate a hotdog today #CuseNation. If i direct that message to a recruit, does it become recruiting.? Or do I need to say "Come to Cuse. #CuseNation."

 

[Doctor44]

I think some fans are just frustrated with losing out on recruits over the past few years. If tweetering is the way to keep recruits interested, and we lose out by not tweetering, then I say let the tweetering begin.

 

[MSOrange]

If the NCAA does start policing twitter, hopefully it will be by someone like me who can't figure out what the hell half the people are talking about anyway when they are using all that twitter language and acronyms.

 

[upperdeck]

one thing thats over looked is that its pretty easy to enforce the twitter stuff since you could write a computer program to look at mentions of almost any kid / team and create a threshold where it gets reported for the NCAA to look at closely of they so desire. its all in a database now and the records go back as far as they want them too. they dont need court orders to review things like email/txts.

they could easily go back 2-3 years from now and review twitter stuff.