Summer Camps
Jul 26, 2006 18:19:04 GMT -5
Post by Raider Country on Jul 26, 2006 18:19:04 GMT -5
A new recruiting frontier
MySpace presents NCAA with new-age violations
Posted: Wednesday July 26, 2006
Earlier this summer, a handful of Kentucky fans tracked down the MySpace.com page of Patrick Patterson, a coveted basketball recruit from Huntington, W.Va., who calls himself the "King of DubV" on the site. He's an undecided, 6-foot-8 forward who is rated No. 16 overall in the class of 2007 by Scout.com and is being targeted by the Wildcats and nearly every other national powerhouse.
And so those UK supporters, in their overzealousness, posted comments on Patterson's page, ranging from innocuous ("I'd sure like to see you in blue and white! GO CATS!"), to promotional (a photo of UK coach Tubby Smith coaching troops in Kuwait) to outright sexually suggestive (a pic of lips with the message, "Hey there sexy ... you need to make a trip down to Lexington soon so we can play a little one on one").
In the last poster's defense, Patterson did have a somewhat suggestive message of his own, which read, "I'm black and 6'8 and 217 lbs. So ladies, y'all know what that means" -- but in making that statement, he didn't break any NCAA rules. The UK fans who posted, however, may have -- and last week the school self-reported secondary violations for unacceptable written contact with recruits by "representatives of the institution's athletic interests" (as reported by the Lexington Herald-Leader).
MySpace, to the world at large, is a social networking site with 94 million users (in the first week in July it was the U.S.' No. 1 Internet destination, accounting for 4.46 percent of all Web visits). But in the college basketball world -- where the NCAA's archaic rules fail to effectively address modern technology -- MySpace is one big recruiting violation waiting to happen.
The NCAA's Recruiting Subcommittee plans to examine Internet issues at its meeting in September, but can it really extend its umbrella to interaction with high schoolers on MySpace? As one Division I athletic department official told SI.com this week, "You'd have to have someone on staff 24/7 to monitor it the right way -- and the cost of that would be unbelievable." Another said, "How in the world would that be policed?"
Putting restraints on the 21st-century text-messaging craze, which is currently unrestricted between coaches and recruits, is feasible; the NCAA attempting to regulate MySpace, however, would be futile. Accountability is difficult; how can you prove the true identity of a fan with a screen name like "WildcatBlue," or be sure he's not, say, a saboteur from elsewhere in the SEC? And the sheer enormity of the site -- 94 million users -- makes keeping tabs on all new messages nearly impossible.
And yet as of now, if the interpretation reached by UK (with counseling from the SEC compliance office) holds, any recruiting-oriented post made by a fan on a prospective player's MySpace page could equate to unacceptable contact by a booster. "A booster doesn't have to be someone who donates money," said Kentucky compliance director Sandy Bell. "As soon as they involve themselves in recruiting, we have to consider them a booster."
By that reasoning, far more institutions than Kentucky have potentially been put in minor trouble by their own fans, including powerhouses such as North Carolina, UCLA, Kansas, Arizona and Florida. It seems absurd that MySpace comments could cause such a commotion, but since UK set the initial standard, SI.com has discovered the following MySpace activity that, until the NCAA steps up and offers a clarification, could be construed as violations:
North Carolina and UCLA "fans" posted pleas this year on the MySpace page of recruit Kevin Love, who is ranked No. 2 overall in the class of 2007. Love committed to the Bruins on Tuesday (and, shockingly, did not mention message-board posters as his reason for doing so). Here's an unedited sampling of a few of the comments:
• July 12, 2006, from "Steve_O," allegedly a UCLA student: "dude u have to come to ucla and now that mayo is gonna go to $C all the more reason to show him up for his one year in south central!"
• June 25, 2006, from "Toby," allegedly a UNC fan: "K-LOVE Or should I say 200 -2008 NCAA Basketball Champion UNC TARHEEL!!! Thats right you WILL be a Champion if you come on down to N.C. to join the Famous Tarheel Family. I noticed on scout.com you are going to Ucla to visit w/ fam and maybe to camp for a day. Dont get exicted because , UNC is Much better. Anyway thanks for the add. GO HEELS!!"
The page that purportedly belongs to O.J. Mayo, the No. 1-ranked recruit in the class of 2007, has drawn comments from hordes of fans, including alleged supporters of schools such as USC (to which Mayo has reportedly committed), Syracuse, Florida, Louisville, Kentucky, Ohio State, Memphis and Cincinnati.
• July 24, 2006, from "RIB," allegedly a USC alum: "heyyyyyy! im hopin that all the usc talk is for real... you wont regret it... usc is better than any other university... i would know, class of 2005... i bleed burgandy and gold... GO TROJANS"
• July 17, 2006, from "the light-skinned assassin," allegedly a Syracuse fan: "OJ. Choose Syracuse University Orange. You, Paul Harris, Dante Green, Devenodrof, Rick Jackson, Johnny Flinn... what? Who could stop that? Thats a real line-up."
• July 11, 2006, from "Kris," allegedly a Florida fan (and one who believes the sophomores are staying for two years): "go to florida.... I mean u can win an easy natinal title before you go to the NBA yeah with You, Noah, Brewer, Green, and Humphrey = 2007 Natinal Champions"
• July 7, 2006, from "Jason G," allegedly a Florida fan: "Don't go to USC, come to Gainesville and hang out with 'Dem Florida Boyz!' "
• June 24, 2006, from "Kyle," allegedly a Louisville fan: "man rick pitino has got a hot program down at louisville.we will be competing for a champonship.we need u to come to louisville"
• April 9, 2006, from "Matt," allegedly a (blunt) Kentucky fan: "U better be getting ur ass to UK..U could take us to another level in one year..then u can go pro and make millions"
During the final weeks leading to class of 2006 recruit Darrell Arthur's May 9 decision to attend Kansas, purported fans of KU, Arizona and Texas -- with the Jayhawk contingent being the primary offenders -- posted on Arthur's page.
• May 8, 2006, by "Peter," allegedly a KU fan:
"lsu=one good year, no tradition
baylor=never really been good, no tradition
KANSAS=amazing tradition and the right fit for you!"
• April 28, 2006, by "J-Mac," allegedly a KU fan (obscenities edited): "Man u betta pick kansas over all those otha sh--- schools, man dont u wanna play in front of 16,300 fans and in the most historic arena! so stop f----- around and get to kansas and play wit ur n---- sherron [Collins]"
• April 6, 2006, by "the 6 billion dollar man," allegedly a Texas fan: "I sure as hell hope you go to Texas. I think if you do UT will win a championship, but go to the school that best suites you."
• April 4, 2006, by "the law buddah," allegedly an Arizona alum: "yo- I am a proud UofA alum and I've seen some great talent pass through Coach Olson on their way to the next level. You have the size, the g-d given athletic talent and the skills to take the Cats to another level! Make the right choice and play for the best coach in all of College BBall...be a wildcat and bring a title to Tucson!"
Returning to the kid -- Patterson -- whose page started this MySpace mess, it should be noted that Florida and Wake Forest fans have also posted on his page.
• July 19, 2006, from "Scrait up at the beach," allegedly a UF fan: "Ma ninja...Do me a favor...Since I know Florida is recruitin you, and you can tell by my picture that thats my squad...I know youre gonna commit and go there, so help recruit O.J. [Mayo] for us...I seen where he said his final 3 schools was USC, Florida, and K-State...Think about it...2 Tri-State kids lightin up the SEC and winnin National Titles..."
• June 22, 2006, from "WFDeacs1," allegedly a Wake fan: "Good Luck at camp this week Pat, nice comment below, but if you come to Wake, you will get the best education around and win championship rings as well. Not just one like Antoine Walker, but 3 like Tim Duncan has done."
How far should we take this? That's 12 possible "written violations," found in a few hours' worth of Web surfing. If the NCAA wants to nitpick, it could probably find hundreds of such infractions in MySpace comment sections. None of these schools is likely to face a significant penalty, but they may be forced to follow the path of Kentucky by self-reporting their findings, and then attempting to educate their fan base about the perils of improper grassroots recruiting.
UK's Bell went on local radio to instruct fans not to engage in any future misconduct, and also spread the word on popular Wildcats message boards. She has an intern in the compliance office who keeps tabs on Internet activity, from UK message boards to MySpace to Facebook, in an attempt to red-flag questionable content as early as possible.
What's necessary at this juncture is for the NCAA to pull its rule book out of the ice ages -- and do so quickly -- by adding a number of new statements about recruiting and the Internet. Sites such as MySpace and Facebook aren't going away; they're only getting bigger, with thousands of new users jumping on the bandwagon every day. And the NCAA's options are limited. To ban all prospective student-athletes from having MySpace pages would impinge on free speech. To let the athletes have pages but attempt to police them for what would be considered "electronic communication" by boosters would require a massive staff. It would also be a massive waste of money.
The answer is to set rules to regulate some electronic mediums, such as text-messaging, e-mails and Internet phone calls, and acknowledge that others, such as social networking sites with varying levels of anonymity, cannot be controlled. Otherwise the NCAA will have its athletic departments paranoid, at all hours, of fan activity on the Internet ... and there will be a new administrative position open at the headquarters in Indianapolis: Director of MySpace Monitoring. The idea of that, really, is more distressing than any secondary violation.
sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/luke_winn/07/26/myspace.violations/index.html
MySpace presents NCAA with new-age violations
Posted: Wednesday July 26, 2006
Earlier this summer, a handful of Kentucky fans tracked down the MySpace.com page of Patrick Patterson, a coveted basketball recruit from Huntington, W.Va., who calls himself the "King of DubV" on the site. He's an undecided, 6-foot-8 forward who is rated No. 16 overall in the class of 2007 by Scout.com and is being targeted by the Wildcats and nearly every other national powerhouse.
And so those UK supporters, in their overzealousness, posted comments on Patterson's page, ranging from innocuous ("I'd sure like to see you in blue and white! GO CATS!"), to promotional (a photo of UK coach Tubby Smith coaching troops in Kuwait) to outright sexually suggestive (a pic of lips with the message, "Hey there sexy ... you need to make a trip down to Lexington soon so we can play a little one on one").
In the last poster's defense, Patterson did have a somewhat suggestive message of his own, which read, "I'm black and 6'8 and 217 lbs. So ladies, y'all know what that means" -- but in making that statement, he didn't break any NCAA rules. The UK fans who posted, however, may have -- and last week the school self-reported secondary violations for unacceptable written contact with recruits by "representatives of the institution's athletic interests" (as reported by the Lexington Herald-Leader).
MySpace, to the world at large, is a social networking site with 94 million users (in the first week in July it was the U.S.' No. 1 Internet destination, accounting for 4.46 percent of all Web visits). But in the college basketball world -- where the NCAA's archaic rules fail to effectively address modern technology -- MySpace is one big recruiting violation waiting to happen.
The NCAA's Recruiting Subcommittee plans to examine Internet issues at its meeting in September, but can it really extend its umbrella to interaction with high schoolers on MySpace? As one Division I athletic department official told SI.com this week, "You'd have to have someone on staff 24/7 to monitor it the right way -- and the cost of that would be unbelievable." Another said, "How in the world would that be policed?"
Putting restraints on the 21st-century text-messaging craze, which is currently unrestricted between coaches and recruits, is feasible; the NCAA attempting to regulate MySpace, however, would be futile. Accountability is difficult; how can you prove the true identity of a fan with a screen name like "WildcatBlue," or be sure he's not, say, a saboteur from elsewhere in the SEC? And the sheer enormity of the site -- 94 million users -- makes keeping tabs on all new messages nearly impossible.
And yet as of now, if the interpretation reached by UK (with counseling from the SEC compliance office) holds, any recruiting-oriented post made by a fan on a prospective player's MySpace page could equate to unacceptable contact by a booster. "A booster doesn't have to be someone who donates money," said Kentucky compliance director Sandy Bell. "As soon as they involve themselves in recruiting, we have to consider them a booster."
By that reasoning, far more institutions than Kentucky have potentially been put in minor trouble by their own fans, including powerhouses such as North Carolina, UCLA, Kansas, Arizona and Florida. It seems absurd that MySpace comments could cause such a commotion, but since UK set the initial standard, SI.com has discovered the following MySpace activity that, until the NCAA steps up and offers a clarification, could be construed as violations:
North Carolina and UCLA "fans" posted pleas this year on the MySpace page of recruit Kevin Love, who is ranked No. 2 overall in the class of 2007. Love committed to the Bruins on Tuesday (and, shockingly, did not mention message-board posters as his reason for doing so). Here's an unedited sampling of a few of the comments:
• July 12, 2006, from "Steve_O," allegedly a UCLA student: "dude u have to come to ucla and now that mayo is gonna go to $C all the more reason to show him up for his one year in south central!"
• June 25, 2006, from "Toby," allegedly a UNC fan: "K-LOVE Or should I say 200 -2008 NCAA Basketball Champion UNC TARHEEL!!! Thats right you WILL be a Champion if you come on down to N.C. to join the Famous Tarheel Family. I noticed on scout.com you are going to Ucla to visit w/ fam and maybe to camp for a day. Dont get exicted because , UNC is Much better. Anyway thanks for the add. GO HEELS!!"
The page that purportedly belongs to O.J. Mayo, the No. 1-ranked recruit in the class of 2007, has drawn comments from hordes of fans, including alleged supporters of schools such as USC (to which Mayo has reportedly committed), Syracuse, Florida, Louisville, Kentucky, Ohio State, Memphis and Cincinnati.
• July 24, 2006, from "RIB," allegedly a USC alum: "heyyyyyy! im hopin that all the usc talk is for real... you wont regret it... usc is better than any other university... i would know, class of 2005... i bleed burgandy and gold... GO TROJANS"
• July 17, 2006, from "the light-skinned assassin," allegedly a Syracuse fan: "OJ. Choose Syracuse University Orange. You, Paul Harris, Dante Green, Devenodrof, Rick Jackson, Johnny Flinn... what? Who could stop that? Thats a real line-up."
• July 11, 2006, from "Kris," allegedly a Florida fan (and one who believes the sophomores are staying for two years): "go to florida.... I mean u can win an easy natinal title before you go to the NBA yeah with You, Noah, Brewer, Green, and Humphrey = 2007 Natinal Champions"
• July 7, 2006, from "Jason G," allegedly a Florida fan: "Don't go to USC, come to Gainesville and hang out with 'Dem Florida Boyz!' "
• June 24, 2006, from "Kyle," allegedly a Louisville fan: "man rick pitino has got a hot program down at louisville.we will be competing for a champonship.we need u to come to louisville"
• April 9, 2006, from "Matt," allegedly a (blunt) Kentucky fan: "U better be getting ur ass to UK..U could take us to another level in one year..then u can go pro and make millions"
During the final weeks leading to class of 2006 recruit Darrell Arthur's May 9 decision to attend Kansas, purported fans of KU, Arizona and Texas -- with the Jayhawk contingent being the primary offenders -- posted on Arthur's page.
• May 8, 2006, by "Peter," allegedly a KU fan:
"lsu=one good year, no tradition
baylor=never really been good, no tradition
KANSAS=amazing tradition and the right fit for you!"
• April 28, 2006, by "J-Mac," allegedly a KU fan (obscenities edited): "Man u betta pick kansas over all those otha sh--- schools, man dont u wanna play in front of 16,300 fans and in the most historic arena! so stop f----- around and get to kansas and play wit ur n---- sherron [Collins]"
• April 6, 2006, by "the 6 billion dollar man," allegedly a Texas fan: "I sure as hell hope you go to Texas. I think if you do UT will win a championship, but go to the school that best suites you."
• April 4, 2006, by "the law buddah," allegedly an Arizona alum: "yo- I am a proud UofA alum and I've seen some great talent pass through Coach Olson on their way to the next level. You have the size, the g-d given athletic talent and the skills to take the Cats to another level! Make the right choice and play for the best coach in all of College BBall...be a wildcat and bring a title to Tucson!"
Returning to the kid -- Patterson -- whose page started this MySpace mess, it should be noted that Florida and Wake Forest fans have also posted on his page.
• July 19, 2006, from "Scrait up at the beach," allegedly a UF fan: "Ma ninja...Do me a favor...Since I know Florida is recruitin you, and you can tell by my picture that thats my squad...I know youre gonna commit and go there, so help recruit O.J. [Mayo] for us...I seen where he said his final 3 schools was USC, Florida, and K-State...Think about it...2 Tri-State kids lightin up the SEC and winnin National Titles..."
• June 22, 2006, from "WFDeacs1," allegedly a Wake fan: "Good Luck at camp this week Pat, nice comment below, but if you come to Wake, you will get the best education around and win championship rings as well. Not just one like Antoine Walker, but 3 like Tim Duncan has done."
How far should we take this? That's 12 possible "written violations," found in a few hours' worth of Web surfing. If the NCAA wants to nitpick, it could probably find hundreds of such infractions in MySpace comment sections. None of these schools is likely to face a significant penalty, but they may be forced to follow the path of Kentucky by self-reporting their findings, and then attempting to educate their fan base about the perils of improper grassroots recruiting.
UK's Bell went on local radio to instruct fans not to engage in any future misconduct, and also spread the word on popular Wildcats message boards. She has an intern in the compliance office who keeps tabs on Internet activity, from UK message boards to MySpace to Facebook, in an attempt to red-flag questionable content as early as possible.
What's necessary at this juncture is for the NCAA to pull its rule book out of the ice ages -- and do so quickly -- by adding a number of new statements about recruiting and the Internet. Sites such as MySpace and Facebook aren't going away; they're only getting bigger, with thousands of new users jumping on the bandwagon every day. And the NCAA's options are limited. To ban all prospective student-athletes from having MySpace pages would impinge on free speech. To let the athletes have pages but attempt to police them for what would be considered "electronic communication" by boosters would require a massive staff. It would also be a massive waste of money.
The answer is to set rules to regulate some electronic mediums, such as text-messaging, e-mails and Internet phone calls, and acknowledge that others, such as social networking sites with varying levels of anonymity, cannot be controlled. Otherwise the NCAA will have its athletic departments paranoid, at all hours, of fan activity on the Internet ... and there will be a new administrative position open at the headquarters in Indianapolis: Director of MySpace Monitoring. The idea of that, really, is more distressing than any secondary violation.
sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/luke_winn/07/26/myspace.violations/index.html