Prospective Athletes Monitored On Social Media

April 4, 2013 /
Chicago Tribune

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-04-03/sports/ct-spt-0404-prep-foot-edgys-blog-20130403_1_social-media-instagram-scholarship-offers

Might as well add social media studies to college curriculums.

After all, some schools are watching a prospective athlete’s every move on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

It’s no urban legend that athletes have lost scholarship offers and opportunities because of their actions on social media sites.

“We look at social media constantly,” one Mid-American Conference school’s recruiting coordinator said. “We have several eyes looking at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all the time. Most of the kids seem to not get the fact that social media is open to the public. They also seem to not understand that scholarship offers have been lost because of things we’ve seen on social media.”

Monitoring behavior of athletes has become a job for some. Information travels more quickly than some people realize, and tracking social media has become easier thanks to rapid changes in software capability.

“We see everything from Twitter conversations to friend requests on Facebook to pictures from last night’s party on Instagram,” one longtime Big East assistant coach said. “We see it all and we share that information back and forth in a moment’s notice.”

The next time a player is at a party holding a red Solo cup, he or she might want to think twice about posting a picture of that on any site. But photos aren’t the only incriminating evidence left behind. Times and frequency of posts also are warning signs to colleges.


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