Social media can be a great resource to share everything going on in our world around us. It can also be a playground for the worst of us and our most vain and callous attributes. The NCAA’s new rules about coaches tweeting and retweeting recruits could open the floodgates on the latter.
At midnight on August 1st, the NCAA’s new rule about coaches tweeting recruits came into effect. NCAA coaches can now retweet and like tweets from potential recruits and share them on their social media feeds.
#NCAA Proposal 2015-48 goes into effect at midnight; permits coaches to endorse (like, favorite) and republish (retweet, repost) prospects.
— Tennessee Compliance (@Vol_Compliance) August 1, 2016
Alas, since this is the NCAA, the new rule can’t be simple, straight-forward, and easy-to-understand. No, there has to be layers and layers of complexity and complicated nuance to this stuff. After all, this is the same organization that once had STRICT RULES ON CREAM CHEESE in place. Coaches can retweet and like (it’s still the favorite button to me, dangit) recruit tweets, but don’t you dare be even tempted into clicking that Quote Tweet button!
Cannot manual RT and say anything about prospect, but permitted to click heart or RT button. https://t.co/biRkkYFogd
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) August 1, 2016
The NCAA’s new rule came about from the difficulties in effectively enforcing their social media rules already on the books. So the organization decided to loosen the reins on coaches with the clearly defined standards below.
One of our resident NCAA rules experts explains the new Social Media rules that start 8/1: https://t.co/W2IGbqsfGi pic.twitter.com/kHYFX28PNr
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) July 30, 2016
Yes, coaches can subtweet recruits, but they can only do so “one minute later” than a retweet of that recruit. You just know there are NCAA officials working diligently today to make sure no recruits are being improperly tagged in rambling Facebook posts from coaches.
I know what you’re thinking right now – what’s the big deal? So what if Jim Harbaugh’s treasure of a Twitter feed will now be filled with a bunch of tweets from high schoolers filled with random emoji combinations that probably they don’t even understand. What could go wrong?
Everything. Everything can go wrong.
First, and most importantly, this new rule now makes it easier for Twitter trolls to harass recruits.
Twitter is already filled with way too many obsessed fanatics flooding the mentions of star recruits trying to beg them to go to their favorite school. Yes, because some jabroni tweeting a five-star recruit “come to Norman and ull be a STAR” is going to be the difference that gets them to commit come signing day. Yes, THAT tweet is going to put it over the top.
It’s much worse than that, though. High school recruits get some of the most vile abuse there is on Twitter as soon as they don’t choose the school of choice for these lunatics. This new rule will only make it much easier for fanatics to find these recruits on social media and bombard them with this garbage because their profiles will be showing up right in the coaches’ timelines.
On the flip side, the new rule will definitely have an impact on impressionable youth who are already getting their egos super-sized during the recruitment process. Auburn offensive line coach Herb Hand posted a note on his personal Twitter page saying that he would keep it his personal page. The note also included a message to recruits that they shouldn’t get offended if he didn’t like or retweet their stuff.
ATTN: All current and future prospects
New NCAA rules and my
🔥🔥Hot Take🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/eDfPCUDIyA— Herb Hand (@CoachHand) August 1, 2016
Seriously though, a big-time recruit will soon leave a school out of his Top 5 or Top 10 because their coaches weren’t active enough hitting those RT and like buttons. It’s bound to happen. Don’t believe me? SB Nation already polled top recruits earlier this year who said the new social media rules will have an impact on their recruiting process. They said it would show “how much a coach really likes them.”
The new social media guidelines, and the importance placed on them by recruits and fans alike, make it an impossible situation for coaches. You can see the message board threads now complaining about coaches who aren’t active enough on Twitter. Coaches are already having enough trouble putting faces with names. Earlier this year Urban Meyer lost a recruit he didn’t fully recognize at an event. And now coaches have to be responsible for liking and RTing kids as well? Aren’t old-fashioned mailers and phone calls enough!
The only solution? Major college football programs will have to hire people whose sole job it is to tweet and interact with recruits on Twitter. That could be your job some day! Thanks for creating jobs, NCAA?
