Boy, the NCAA is sure worried about all the right things ...
by Jeff Nusser on Apr 11, 2009 12:00 PM PDT
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RALEIGH, N.C. -- College sports fans, be careful of the company you keep on Facebook.
You might get yourself -- and the program you support -- in trouble.
That was the lesson this week for Taylor Moseley, a North Carolina State freshman who expressed a common-enough opinion on campus when he started the Facebook group called "John Wall PLEASE come to NC STATE!!!!"
More than 700 people signed up for the group encouraging Wall -- a local standout and the nation's No. 1 basketball recruit -- to pick the Wolfpack by national signing day next week.
But the NCAA says such sites, and dozens more like them wooing Wall and other top recruits, violate its rules. More than just cheerleading boards, the NCAA says the sites are an attempt to influence the college choice of a recruit.
Sometimes, the NCAA just confounds. It profits immensely from the interest generated by gambling on its sports, yet its president takes the time last week to nationally admonish Ty Lawson -- who is 21 years old -- for visiting a Detroit area craps table during the Final Four. The NCAA signs television contracts worth tens of billions of dollars based solely off of the entertainment labor it gets from student athletes for literally pennies on the dollar, yet tells those same students that they are not allowed to profit from their own labor, lest they be denied the means to their own education.
For its part, the NCAA's representative says the organizations rules are "technology neutral" -- really just an ignorant way of saying their rules are archaic and don't address the nuances and challenges of technology -- and that their main concern is "intrusions into a high school student's life when they're trying to decide where to go to college."
Has this guy ever been to Facebook? (Forget I asked that question.) Since when is a Facebook group an intrusion into anyone's life?
The troubling part of this for me is twofold. First is the free speech issue, which a lawyer raises in the story; second is the regulation of speech like this. It's one thing to regulate the speech of employees; aside from the legal questions it raises, it's whole 'nother thing altogether to try and regulate the speech of everyone who is a fan of your program.
Consider this just another in a long line of contradictions from the NCAA -- trying to squash the very kind of fan interest that drives up the revenues that make everyone (other than they athletes) pretty rich.
I guess I shouldn't have sent that Facebook note to Xavier Thames asking him to stay, huh?
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Maybe we should make a "Please come to UW Jake Heaps" group
and see if we can get another school in trouble.
Never mind it already exists
maybe we should report them to the NCAA
Its a good thing the NCAA's on top of stuff like this.
So, does anyone know how the USC probe(s) are going?
I'm glad they are focusing all their resources on this
I can’t think of any other problems they have… Nope none at all…
from what i understand it's mostly lawyer speak
if you phrase your sentence as a direct plea to the kid to come to your school, that can be identified as booster contact (ie: Jake Heaps, please come to UW!), whereas you’re more than welcome to start a group called “I hope Jake Heaps comes to UW!”
it’s the electronic age. 20 years ago, the ncaa would’ve thrown a fit if NC State started a letter-writing campaign and dumped 200 letters on John Wall’s doorstep. it’s not THAT different….
that all being said, i’m 30 years old and both facebook and twitter are way over my head, so i may just be talking out of my ass here.
I'm more concerned...
The NCAA will never be able to shut down a viral message such as a facebook group, there just isn’t anyway to do it. They have no control over the groups someone starts on facebook or what someone posts on Twitter. I suppose they can punish student-athletes that join those groups, but beyond that there isn’t much they can do.
I’m more disturbed at their chastising of Ty Lawson and punishment of other student athletes when they aren’t doing anything wrong..
Lawson is an adult, he wasn’t doing anything wrong! If he had won a large sum of cash he could have lost his eligibility…but at this juncture that’s a moot point.
That football player that won $500k in the lottery last year had to forfeit his scholarship because of the money he won, which I find odd because the NCAA rule states, and I am paraphrasing here, that the student athlete has to have an advantage that another person wouldn’t have because he/she is an athlete. Not sure how that factors into winning the lottery, but the kid lost his scholarship.
At any rate, the NCAA needs to lighten up.
Wow
This is incredibly stupid. It’s amazing that the NCAA can be so stupid but put on the greatest tournament in sports.
I did NCAA compliance and whoever issued this from the NCAA
has their head up their arse. The issue is with people affiliated with the university, particularly alumni having contact with recruits. I don’t care if someone has a fan website that worships a prospect. The issue is whether they are contacting the prospect or not. If the person is not, it’s not an issue. If the prospect is coming onto the person’s website and is communicating with other people on the site (e.g., twitter, blog) then you got a problem.
This is why Ted Stevens wants the series of tubes to be privatized.
Technology complicates communication too much for old people to comprehend how they can control it.
You do realize the NCAA is a private entity, right?
Linda's in the cold ground, won't see her anymore
Somewhere out on the highway tonight, the drunken engines roar
It's just one of those things, one of those things
-- Al Stewart, "Accident on 3rd St."
In memory of Nick Adenhart and all victims of drunk driving
I have no idea what the NCAA is after here
They can’t force people to take down this group.
The university can’t force people to take down this group.
Facebook presumably can, but they have no incentive to do so.
John Wall presumably can, but he has no incentive to do so (and probably doesn’t know it exists).
They don’t have a leg to stand on. Their threats are completely empty— in fact, I suspect they would never dare to file an actual lawsuit against a student. It’s the definition of a SLAPP suit and they’d probably end up getting sanctioned for abuse of process.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing stopping them from threatening… just have to publicize the fact that their threats are empty, I guess. I hate this kind of legal thuggery.
Linda's in the cold ground, won't see her anymore
Somewhere out on the highway tonight, the drunken engines roar
It's just one of those things, one of those things
-- Al Stewart, "Accident on 3rd St."
In memory of Nick Adenhart and all victims of drunk driving
They actually can do something
Lee said that people who act as boosters but fail to follow recruiting guidelines could face penalties such as being denied tickets or even being formally “disassociated” from the athletic program.
If it was my group, I probably would have stood my ground.
The NCAA it nuts
I remember reading an article a few years ago in an ESPN mag (I think) about the all time lamest NCAA violations that they punished people for. All were totally weak like coaches purchasing $15 meals for players or calling a prospective player one to many times by accident. The worst one by far made me want to punch whoever decided they had to enforce it.
A coach was at an airport with some players, and he was informed that one of his players’ brother had died. So the coach took the player aside and told him. While he was talking with the player and consoling him, he bought him a beagal and a soda for a total of like $3.75. They still punished the coach, albeit lightly.
The NCAA reminds me of the IRS....
Too many rules that don’t apply, make any common sense, or are out of date. Both organizations act as if they are above the law.
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