Social Media & Recruiting

[TexasTerror]

The NCAA has had to adjust its rules to deal with the changes with social media and how that comes into play with schools working their way through various loop holes in an effort to get in contact with players.

This one player apparently had enough - as we all know the NCAA can not babysit legions and legions of fans that can find access to these players, even without being a 'friend' on Facebook...


Everyone is on Facebook ... except one of the nation's top football recruits, who officially logged off the site last week after he blamed it for making his recruiting process "a living nightmare."

In full, here's what Philadelphia (Miss.) High linebacker C.J. Johnson wrote on his Facebook wall just before signing off the site for good.

"This is my last Facebook post and I'm gonna leave facebook with this. Linda Johnson has never worked as a house worker making 100,000 dollars a year and I will not be a Mississippi state bulldog and I'm not considering Mississippi state anymore bc you have constantly comment on my page send me crazy inboxes and has made my recruiting experience a living nightmare. Goodbye facebook."

The potential college star's exit from the social media realm, which was first highlighted by The Clarion-Ledger, has sparked new questions over the role of Facebook, Twitter and other social media in the age of hyper-focused modern college recruiting, where fans have new unfettered access to the stars they desperately hope will choose their school.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Top-recruit-quits-Facebook-following-living-nig?urn=highschool-313954

[lionsrking2]

I feel badly for CJ Johnson, and there's no excuse for the behavior of certain fans out there, but there's a simple solution...don't add friends who aren't really friends and limit access to your wall...the problem is, you don't really know who is sending those messages...could have just as easily been Ole Miss fans, posing as Mississippi State fans, in an effort to piss him off...if so, it worked apparently! Ha!

On a general note, anytime a fan or booster of a particular school, who is considered in the "athletics interest" contacts a student-athlete, it's a violation...doesn't matter if it's in person, on the phone, via snail mail, e-mail or facebook or twitter...not only are social media sites a problem, but the recruiting websites are equally as bad...they're constantly calling, texting or emailing recruits, trying to get the scoop on where they're going...many of these website hosts are supporters of particular schools and any contact they make is a violation - yet they do it all the time...all you have to do is get on bobcatreport.com and you'll find plenty of examples of their board hosts contacting recruits...unless they're independent journalists, with no affiliation to Texas Sate, they're violating NCAA rules by contacting recruits.