Tech 621 Article 2

This past week I continued my research in exploring the relation between social media and college athletics.  I used Google Scholar this time to locate articles to sift through.  In doing so I found another interesting piece that the USA Today wrote back in 2006.  A quick citation of this is as follows:

Brady, Erick & Libit, Daniel. “Alarm sound over athletes’ Facebook time.” March 8, 2006. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/other/2006-03-08-athletes-websites_x.htm. Accessed through Google scholar February, 2, 2011.

Brady and Libit's article related to last week's article in relation to recruiting that is being doing regarding Facebook specifically.  Though it lacked plenty of examples as the Maher article, it did provide some insight into how coaches are having to deal with social media.  The best example regarding recruiting was how the assistant coach of Baylor's mens basketball team, Matthew Driscoll, had to intervene on a player's behalf on the players Facebook profile. What caused the intervention was due to a "runner' for an agent trying to convince the player to go ahead and sign a contract.  Luckily for the Baylor staff, the player quickly notified his coaches who then notified the school board of what was going on.  Coach Driscoll used the player's profile to tell the agent to cease all communications with their team.  After examining this example, one can wonder that though this is one case that was reported, if would be foolish to think that other cases go on unreported.

The article as a whole was more geared to how Facebook is being dealt with on the university level as coaches and schools try to protect their players.  One way that colleges are dealing with Facebook dilemmas is by notifying their players that they have to "scrub" their profiles.  Some of the colleges that were listed as doing so were Kentucky, Baylor, and Florida State. In the case of FSU, athletes were told they had exactly 10 days to have profiles "scrubbed."  Now in regards to what "scrubbing" means, it is not taking out an oxypad and wiping down their keyboards, instead it is to let the players delete all pictures and comments which may be considered offensive or show behavior that could be considered risque such as underage drinking.  

Speaking of, the universities that did go on record and discuss issues that they deal with for Facebook it seems that underage drinking photos are the number 1 thing that lands student athletes in hot water.  Dave Bezold, coach of Northern Kentucky mens basketball, found several photos of his underage players drinking alcohol in pictures on Facebook.  After investigating between himself and the athletic director, other athletes in other sports were also investigated.  The athletic director, Jane Meier, stated that she believed that between their 13 college athletic programs as well as their cheerleading squad that around "70% of the student athletes had pictures involving them with alcohol."  The way that NKU dealt with the situation was by having a conference with the athletes and letting them off with a stern warning as well as making them delete the pictures that stirred the controversy to begin with.

The last point the article raised was again how universities police these sights on a regular basis and even though the student interest is one thing that they are watching for, it appears the universities are also trying to make sure that nothing their student athletes due forms a black eye for the colleges from pictures and comments that are posted.  A letter to Baylor athletes was shown that notified the athletes that everything they do on Facebook can be seen by others and may cause themselves and/or the university to look bad and to be aware of what exactly they are posting using the social media site.

In conclusion this article built upon my previous article by Maher through giving more examples of how Facebook is being used/monitored for recruiting as well as expanding the concept of how social media itself plays a role in today's college athletics regarding student athletes.  However, like Maher, though this article was informative some of the information did seem a little time dated.  One problem that has occurred while exploring articles to use for this research assignment has been trying to find articles that I don't have to purchase through other sites.  Hopefully, by the time next week rolls around and my third article is analyzed, a more timely piece can be presented.