Know the NCAA Rules: Do Not Tweet Recruits

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As part of an embarassing trend on Twitter, fans, students and boosters have begun to tweet recruits to both harass those who are considered wayward, and commend recruits who are considered to be interested or committed to their school. It would be ignorant to pin point this to one school, as all fan bases are guilty of tweeting, but unfortunately, it appears to be prevalent in the last week since Tosh Lupoi has left Cal, opening up all of their recruiting targets and commits. Because of this, many boosters and fans of Pac-12 schools have tweeted Cal commits and targets both encouraging them to attend their school, and discouraging players like Shaq Thompson and Arik Armstead over not considering schools like USC and UCLA.

While it would not be in the best interest of anyone to embed the tweets here in this article, we will however quote the University of Southern California’s brochure from the Office of Athletic Compliance, on how it relates to interacting with PSAs, or Prospective Student Athletes.

You may not have any contact with a prospect or his/her relatives. Prohibited contact includes correspondence, e-mail, communication via social networking sites (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) or Internet (e.g., Skype), faxes, telephone conversations and in-person contacts (both on and off campus). If a prospect (or one of his/her relatives) approaches you regarding USC, explain that NCAA rules prevent you from discussing USC with him/her.

Please, do not tweet recruits. It is not worth putting USC or any other school at risk of NCAA Rule Violations over something that can so easily be prevented. Read the USC brochure on compliance, or mull through the Oregon packet from their compliance department, as it is just as detailed, if not more so. If you see anyone tweeting recruits, please unfollow them and inform them of the rules.

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