From what is otherwise a very interesting article on NCAA recruiting rules as they are being applied to fan pages on Facebook:
But dozens of Facebook groups are still up in plain site for current recruits, including Wall, and other top undecided basketball players such as Xavier Henry and Lance Stephenson.
I suppose the redesigned Facebook might qualify as a plain site, but I doubt that was the writer’s intent.
Incidentally, add me to the list of people who finds the NCAA’s intrusive attitude on this matter troublesome. It’s not even remotely clear what the harm might be, and as long as the page or group in question is not formally affiliated in any way with the university or its athletics program, I fail to see how the NCAA has the right to demand its termination, and the last time they got a little too big for their britches, an Ohio court put the smack down.
When I first read the article, I assumed Taylor Moseley was a player on NC State’s basketball team. After checking the roster, I learned that he is not. I cannot believe that the NCAA is stopping non-athlete students from posting messages of this sort on Facebook. Keith, I agree that it’s hard to believe that a court of law would allow the NCAA to prevent a college student from getting tickets to his school’s games for something he posted on a website of this sort. I find it harder to believe that any sane person would think that a top recruit would be influenced by a Facebook fan club as opposed to the dollars that the boosters are offering him under the table. Finally, I wonder how the NCAA would actually enforce this rule. Maybe they’ll use the face recognition software at the arenas that the government uses to look for terrorists.
Reason #820956 why I hate the NCAA. So, they think their petty by-laws are paramount to government institutions obligations to the Constitution? Fuck them. Their monopsonistic suppression of fair labor practices is bad enough, but this?. Congress, get your head out of your ass on the anti-trust issue with the NCG. This is far more disturbing. It’s often been said that paying football and basketball players a wage consummate to the revenue they generate for their institutions would kill non-revenue athletics, but if this corrupt organization is the one holding the system together, then the system needs to die. There’s still something about the unique interaction between the team and it’s greater campus that makes college sports worthwhile, but the stench of its governing body makes it harder and harder to enjoy these games with a good conscience.
Yeah…all I know is that I was fired from my job this past week as a university employee for what they viewed as a critique by me of a new student housing policy on facebook (even though I am, in fact, in favor of this new policy). Big brother is an asshole.
And I know my situation doesn’t involve the NCAA, but still, I wanted to vent…
I don’t find errors like that one very offensive. An editor should have caught it, but I don’t think it’s too hard to have your brain tricked into typing “site” instead of “sight” in that context. If it had been repeated, then sure, I’d join you in the weeping. I’m much more annoyed by the kind of florid, overwrought garbage high school English classes seem to encourage people to produce.
You should feature Buster’s recent blog post for misuse of the phrase “to beg the question.” It’s easier to forgive the site/sight goof, because that was probably just a careless typo.
I just read an applicant’s personal statement that included the sentence “I earned the respect of my piers.” I wasn’t even that mad; you can massacre the language if you make me laugh, intentionally or not.
I cannot see how the NCAA has a single leg to stand on here. No gifts are being exchanged, right? Since when is it improper for a student of a school to say “Gosh, I wish a really good recruit would come here!” If I make a blog post saying that I really want the Cubs to trade for Jake Peavy, is that tampering with a player under contract? I mean, my God.
What stops someone from a rival university creating a page for another university and getting them in trouble? Don’t they realize how ridiculous it is to attempt to enforce this, let alone the intrusion on students’ rights? Absurd.
was a comment critizing a good sentence while using bad grammar erased?
BSK, apparently the individual poster, not the school, will be punished. The NCAA is considering punishments like barring the individual from NCAA sanctioned events.
H-
Thanks for pointing that out. But, from what I understand of it, the university threatens the student because the NCAA threatens the university. If a university didn’t ask that the student take it down, wouldn’t the university get in trouble? Did I misunderstand?
BSK,
The NCAA has never initiated an action against a school based on a Facebook page, but I guess you’re right that that is the next step if the school can’t get their student to comply. If a school ever gets penalized, you’re right that people will probably start trying to recruit high school stars to their rivals via Facebook. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Taylor Moseley is actually a Dukie, trying to get NC State in trouble so that the player in question goes to Duke.
Megatons,
You should be punished by fellow Cub fans for trading for a slightly better Rich Harden, especially if both of their arms fall off this year.
Not sure how many of the people complaining about the NCAA actually are aware of how widespread the problem is, but I think the NCAA’s ultimate intent is to find a way to monitor/regulate, and eventually halt, the improper and illegal contacting of recruits via electronic means. The number of people, not just students, but boosters, donors, persons affiliated with athletic departments, etc., who use Facebook, text messaging, e-mails, the Interwebs, etc. to contact recruits would astound the common sports fan who does not grasp how rampant this problem is for college recruiting.
Per the tounge-in-cheek example noted by Mr. Megatons above, the analogy would be for everyone in Cubs payroll, marketing, finance, grounds crew, etc. – everywhere except those persons affiliated with personnel – texting, e-mailing or blogging or Facebooking Kevin Towers to trade Peavy to the Northside. It would be tampering, and it IS a violation of the no-contact rules promulgated by the NCAA.
I appreciate the NCAA doing something, for once. I wish they’d be more like Lester Freamon and “follow the money” instead of the technology. But progress is progress.