1. COLLEGE ATHLETICS AND
SOCIAL MEDIA:
not so tongue-in-tweet.
@natebain & @hilcox18
November 6, 2012

2. #PresentationPoints
• Importance of social media and intercollegiate athletics
• How are student-athletes and prospective student-
athletes affected by social media?
• Positive usage of social media within athletic
administration

3. #LearningObjectives
We hope you understand the following after this presentation:
• Why is social media and intercollegiate athletics an issue?
• What role does social media play in intercollegiate athletics?
• How are potential student-athletes and current student-athletes
affected by social media?
• How are athletic departments utilizing social media positively and
what are some of the best practices of optimizing the technology?

4. Why social media?

5. Why social media?

6. Why social media?

7. Why social media and college athletics?
• EVERY BCS school is using BOTH facebook and twitter
• As of March 19, 2012 – 61 current college Head Football
coaches were on twitter
• As of September 14, 2012 – 1 BILLION facebook users
• As of June 6, 2012 – 140 M active twitter users

8. SOCIAL MEDIA IS FREE

9. Recruiting

10. Recruiting terms to know
• PSA = Potential Student-Athlete
• (9th grade HS)
• SA = Student-Athlete
• (Currently enrolled at an NCAA institution)
• NLI = National Letter of Intent
• Agreement between institution and PSA establishing the
commitment of the PSA to attend that particular institution
• “Microblogging”
• Term adopted by the NCAA
• Form of blogging resulting in a stream of short blog posts that are
generally limited by a total number of characters

11. Recruiting PSAs today
• In 2010, 93% of teenagers between the age 12-17 use
the internet
• Age of PSAs? 14-18

12. What are the differences between divisions?

13. Social Media + Recruiting Process
• Most common infractions in Division I?
• Publically reply to a PSA
• Comment on PSA – attending on a visit and/or committing

14. Social Media + Recruiting Process

15. Social Media + Recruiting Process

16. Social Media + Education
• “Facebook and MySpace could dwindle in a few
years simply proving to be the latest fad, or they
could continue to grow along with the expanding
technology.”
- Matt Maher, 2008

17. Student-Athletes + Social Media

18. Student-Athletes + Social Media

19. How do departments monitor SAs?

20. How do departments monitor SAs?
Cheat Sheet

21. How do departments monitor SAs?

22. Does social media play a role in college athletics?

23. Does social media play a role in college athletics?
Three major violations:
1. Academic Fraud
2. Impermissible Benefits
3. Unethical Conduct

24. Does social media play a role in college athletics?
UNC Public Infractions Report March 2012

25. How are athletic departments effectively
using social media?

26. Break News
• University of Arizona announces new head football coach via
athletic director Greg Byrne’s Twitter account.
• “And the new Arizona football coach and his family….”

27. Engage Fans
• Foster Relationship with Fan Base

28. Promote Ticket Sales & Attendance

29. Build Coach & Player Brands
• “Tennessee takes more progressive approach to social media than
its peers.”
- Yahoo! Sports
SEC Coaches & Twitter Followers:
1) John Calipari – 1,212,568
2) Billy Donovan – 78,488
3) Frank Martin – 28,499
4) Cuonzo Martin – 22,872

30. Promote Non-Revenue Generating Sports
• 50 Twitter Tips for Student-Athletes (by Tom Satkowiak,
University of Tennessee)
• “#39: There are many other teams and student-athletes at your
school. Take the time to give them a shout-out on Twitter when they
do big things. Ultimately, you’re all on the same team.”

31. #thingsyoushouldknow
• Importance of social media within intercollegiate athletics
• As sport administrators, you understand the importance of
keeping with current fads or trends that affect student-
athletes and potential student-athletes.
• Education should be a priority within the athletic
department for everyone!

32. #workcited
Cappexwriter (2012). Colleges monitoring recruits social networks. The College Insider. Retrieved from
http://www.cappex.com/blog/student-news/colleges-monitoring-recruits-social-networks/.
Gorant, Jim (2011). According to Alex Kline. Sports Illustrated, 115(23), 122-128.
Kafka, Peter (June 6, 2012). Mobile ad problem? Not at Twitter, says Dick Costolo. Wall Street Journal.
Retrieved from http://allthingsd.com/20120606/mobile-ad-problem-not-at-twitter-says-dick-
costolo/.
Maher, Matt (2008). You’ve got messages: Modern technology recruiting through text messaging and the
intrusiveness of facebook. Texas Review of Entertainment and Sports Law, vol. 8:125, 125-151.
NCAA (2012). University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill public infractions report. Retrieved November 1,
2012, from http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker /files/2012/03/ UNC.pdf.
Roussel, Pete (2012). Head coaches twitter chart. Coaching Search. Retrieved November 1, 2012, from
http://coachingsearch.com/home/462.html.
Unknown (2011). College golf team suspended over racy photo. TheDenverChannel.com. Retrieved from
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/ news/college-golf-team-suspended-over-racy-photo.
Vance, Ashlee (October 04, 2012). Facebook: The making of 1 billion users. Bloomberg Businessweek.
Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-04/facebook-the-making-of-1-
billion-users.
Walsh, Davis (2011). All a Twitter: Social networking, college athletes and the first amendment. William &
Mary Bill of Rights Journal, 20(7), 618-650.