Thanks to Kentucky Sports Radio blog for their facts and insights.
For those of you who do not follow collegiate sports, you may not realize that the NCAA is the governing body over all college sports for some 1200 colleges and universities that choose to be a part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The NCAA makes the rules—a lot of them—all of which are intended to improve the sports participation experience for student athletes. One of the purviews of NCAA rule making has been the guidelines that cover recruiting of future athletes to a school.
To quote Kentucky Sports Radio, “(per the NCAA) Fans are not supposed to have any contact with recruits, especially to tell them to come to their school.” But how can the NCAA or anyone else stop what goes on via
Social Media Breaking the Rules of the NCAA
Twitter, Facebook or any of the other social media platforms that are ablaze with fans urging young sports stars to “go to my alma mater” or “don’t go to this rival school.” The communication goes beyond urging and opinions being voiced and often becomes conversations and direct messages between the young athlete and ardent members of a school’s fan base.
But as Matt Jones points out on the Kentucky Sports Radio blog, although neither the NCAA nor the schools involved are likely to be able stop fans from engaging with recruits and prospects via social media, fans really should think before they tweet. Once the novelty wears off, do you think these athletes appreciate their mail filling up with hundreds of comments and messages daily? In Matt’s words, “…most of the time you are just making the players roll their eyes and not doing anything helpful. As I learned a few years ago, I am not 17…and you probably aren’t either. And the communication and cultural and generational gap is large…don’t try to cross it.
The NCAA will try to do something…but I am not sure what they can do. We have entered a brave new world and for better or worse (and its mostly worse) fans are now part of the recruiting process. God help us.”
Profound thoughts and interesting insights. Whether you think social media is the bee’s knees, cool, groovy, phat, sweet, or sick, there might be lines we shouldn’t cross. How much influence should strangers have on a young person’s education and career decisions, when they don’t know the person, have no authentic thoughts on what is right for him or her, and are voicing their opinion only because they are trying to increase the likelihood that their favorite team will make it to the National Championship?
Social media can be a really powerful tool, which means it has a much potential to do harm as to do good. The number one rule of social media might be: Respect others!
Thanks again Ky Sports Radio Blog for your insight.
Social Media’s Impact on College Sports and the Rules of the NCAA