Urban Meyer Right to Ban Ohio State Players from Using Twitter

The Ohio State Buckeyes finished their disappointing season last night with a loss against the Florida Gators, and new coach Urban Meyer is already making drastic changes.

According to ESPN's Desmond Howard, via Twitter (ironically enough), Meyer is banning his players from using Twitter.

Most people knew Meyer was going to run a tight ship in Columbus, so this move doesn't come as much of a shock. 

Still though, we know how much college kids love their social media, and Twitter in particular, so this new rule change is sure to meet some resistance.

Nonetheless, I completely agree with Meyer's decision. There's just no reason not to.

Go ahead and try to think of what positives can come from college athletes posting on Twitter. The list isn't too long, is it? These athletes have lots of followers, so they could tell people to donate to charity, and um, yeah that's all I can think of. 

Now think of all the negatives that can come from a college athlete posting on Twitter. That list is about 10 times longer. Posting inappropriate pictures, ignorant comments, disrespectful comments and the list goes on. 

Granted, 95 percent of college athletes are smart enough not to post anything they shouldn't, but Meyer, in his first year at a big school, can't afford to take his chances with the other five percent.

Ohio State Football is right smack dab in the middle of the national spotlight and with all the scandal its been through lately, it can't afford any more. 

Meyer has to be perfect with off-the-field stories, and Twitter is destination No. 1 to start that campaign.

Essentially this is a situation where you want to say, "better safe than sorry." Banning Twitter isn't necessary, but it's extremely smart.

What's more, Meyer is intelligently making this rule change before the season starts. Florida State implied a similar change during this season, but it came after a losing streak, so the Seminoles just looked like they were creating a scapegoat.

This way, Meyer is simply being smart and preventive. 

If Buckeye players are really hurting from the loss of Twitter, here's an idea to get their messages out: call people on the phone.

Update: Apparently, this whole thing wasn't true. Or maybe it was. Wait, no, it wasn't.

OK, I don't know what to believe, but Junior tight end Reid Fragel doesn't exactly believe the rumors to be true.

"Just now finding out the whole twitter thing wasn't exactly true," Fragel Tweeted.

At this point it's hard to figure out who to believe, but Fragel is on the team and Desmond Howard is not (and is a former Wolverine. What's really going on here?), so we'll go with Fragel for now.

We'll keep you updated as we learn more.