We hear the compliance world is chirping about Twitter. (Speaking of which, follow us).
We've touched on this issue before, and our views have evolved a bit since then. We understand that an EdCol is forthcoming from the NCAA Real Soon Now, but here's what it's probably going to look like, at least when it comes to Twitter's three main functions, coaches, and prospects:
• Tweets. Run-of-the-mill tweets that a coach sends out are usually going to be okay. They can't contain things that NCAA rules would preclude, such as announcing a verbal signing, or talking about a particular prospect. If coaches stay away from obviously recruiting-specific issues, they'll probably be in a safety zone. Remember, Twitter is most easily thought of as a micro-blogging tool (up to 140 characters per tweet). Since it's already okay for coaches to have their own website (which could include a blog), garden-variety tweets that could appear on a blog are generally going to be okay. I wish we could be more specific than this guideline, but it's pretty difficult to create a hard and fast rule for tweets, given all the variables.
• Direct messages. The NCAA equates these to email messages since they are private between the Twitter sender and the recipient/follower. Keep in mind that it would not be permissible for a coach to send a direct message to a high school freshman since the starting point for email to prospects is at least a year later.
• @Replies. Even though these messages begin with another Twitter user's account name, these are public messages that any Twitter user can read. So if a coach were to post an @Reply to a prospect, that's going to run afoul of the ban on electronically transmitted correspondence (in other words, it's not a fax or email) and be an issue with the recruiting publicity rules, too.