🏈 Should this be included in the NCAA's perview when it comes to monitoring schools?

[TerryP]

Before you say "I'm not involved in the social media scene," yes you are. In fact, right now you are just reading what I'm posting here.

Granted, it's a different animal than facebook, etc. But, it's still people interacting with each other online. Virtually the same root concept.

I don't do facebook. I don't care to know what people I'm hanging out with are doing when I'm not with them. I don't want to know what they are thinking, eating, dating (OK, maybe I should have said "who they are...") etc.

Get the picture?

Back to football.

There's an interesting little twist to the COI, NCAA, NOA's, etc. this morning.

Yesterday, UNC received their notice of allegations. One of the interesting things to me was one of the accusations leveled against the Athletic Dept.

It wasn't what this accusation was "looped into/under," failure to monitor, that caught me off guard. It was what the NCAA said their compliance department failed to monitor.

Social media sites. Yep, you heard me right. The UNC compliance department didn't do enough to monitor what 105 football players were posting on web sites like facebook.

Is it just me, or do they have their plates full across the NCAA in compliance offices as it is? Turning a blind eye to a player driving several new cars when he's playing ball is one thing: IE: the allegations against Pryor.

But, now a three, four person office is supposed to monitor what's said on facebook, etc., by 105 football players, 13-15 mens basketball players, 30 baseball, 30 or so softball, gymnastics, soccer...get the picture.

My head is itching, and yes, the itch is telling me something. I confused to an even further degree this morning on just how the NCAA expects schools to accomplish these things when they continually take away the time needed for coaching staffs to "vet" potential prospects/players before they reach school.

I'm left... :dazed:

 

[c5vetman]

you are 100% correct. I personally hate facebook, but my wife goes on there and tells the entire world how much student loan debt we're in. She treats it like a personal conversation, even though she doesn't even know who 3/4's of her 900 "friends" even are. I can't even keep a tab on her, I don't know how anyone would expect to keep up with 200 student athletes who live and breathe facebook and twitter and others I probably haven't even heard of!

 

[psychojoe]

It is hard enough to keep up with who they associate with and their life style. If player A starts sporting some fancy new threads no one raises an eyebrow if his dad is well fixed. Player B, from a less advantaged background, would attract attention. The compliance staff has a next to impossible job in keeping up with things like that. It would probably take more than one additional employee on the compliance staff to monitor all 250 or so scholarship athletes on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and all the other social media. It would be impossible if they are using other names, screen names, etc.

 

[planomateo]

lame...but seems to be a necessity.

 

[LBS]

LBS. Non-FACEBOOK user since the doctor proclaimed "It's a Boy (an ugly one though)"

To be honest, I'm not sure how that is legal.
1) Noting that one must "Friend" someone to get assess to the depths of a FB page, that makes a clear statement that it is intended to NOT be a public conversation (even if there are 900 "friends"). Monitoring without invitation would be tantimount to eaves-dropping or forced wire-tapping if you will.
2) The fact that one can post to their FB page from a private cell phone blurrs the line as well. How is texting to a FB page different than texting to a contact list of friends?

If we are indeed writing of FB, these are my concerns. If the topic is Twitter, that could be a completely different story as Twitter is intended to be a forum for public comment vice FB as a "private" forum.

 

[cartag]

I think most college athletes have sort of fan pages on facebook. All anyone has to do is join facebook and "Like" his page, and then they have access to comment. Trent Richardson has 20,000 friends, but he probably never looks at his facebook page or comments. If he did make a comment on occasion, compliance officers would have to scroll through hundreds of posts to find it. Twitter is different, since its messages originate with the athlete, as I understand it. And I probably don't. But the whole monitoring social media thing is a ridiculously huge enterprise. And probably impossible.

Good grief.