When Michigan receiver Roy Roundtree sent a congratulatory tweet directly mentioning recent 2013 U-M commit Mike McCray earlier this month, he committed a minor NCAA no-no in the process.
“NCAA rules do not allow comments about possible recruits on an institution’s social media page or a page belonging to someone affiliated with the institution,” the Association’s bylaws read. “In addition, these pages cannot feature photos of prospects and messages cannot be sent to recruits using these social media technologies other than through their e-mail function.”
While Roundtree’s slip-up was reported by U-M’s compliance office and no penalty is expected, coach Brady Hoke told AnnArbor.com recently he favors NCAA modification (and leniency) toward an evolving trend that’s tough to monitor.
“I think social media happened so quickly, and the NCAA is trying to get its head around all that stuff,” Hoke said. “We just need to keep educating our players... and I’ll mention what they put out there and what they say.
“But there’s no question something needs to happen.”
(For what it’s worth, Hoke isn’t much of a social media guy)
By Hoke’s own admission, the process of reporting violations secondary in nature -- Hoke uses text messaging restrictions as an example -- is “wasting people’s time” in the compliance office. Surely, he’s not the only coach who feels that.
South Beach, Atkins, what have you -- the NCAA’s rulebook needs to go on a diet for sure. The NCAA knows that, too. It’s just a matter of when they decide to start ripping out the pages.