Twitter CEO and Michigan Booster Dick Costolo Commits NCAA Violation on Twitter

As the CEO of Twitter, Dick Costolo has played a central role in the platform's success, which is a major reason why social media has become so popular. It's popular enough, in fact, that the NCAA has made certain conduct on its airwaves impermissible for boosters of college programs.

Regarding that last part, it appears Costolo didn't get the memo.

Class of 2015 wide receiver George Campbell, a 5-star prospect, committed to Michigan on Saturday, prompting Class of 2014 commit Wilton Speight to congratulate him on Twitter.

Seeing this activity, Costolo, a Michigan booster who spoke at the school's spring 2013 commencement, couldn't contain himself and sent this innocuous-looking tweet:

The problem? Doing so was actually a minor NCAA violation. As CBS Sports' Tom Fornelli explains:

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According to one of the roughly billion rules the NCAA has, a booster is not allowed to contact a recruit until after the recruit has signed his letter of intent with the school. Not in person, not on the phone and not on social media.

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The irony is too poetic not to acknowledge. It's like a friend of mine, who never accepted his job offer with Google because Gmail spammed his acceptance email.

As far as repercussions are concerned—well, there shouldn't be any big ones. Boosters have done bigger, badder, drastically more wicked things to attract recruits. Costolo isn't Nevin Shaprio or Ed Martin; he isn't (as far as anyone knows) paying or bribing high-schoolers to come play for Michigan.

He's just a guy who runs Twitter who missed a memo on how to use his product.