College Football: Social Media Monitoring Is What Every School Should Be Doing

Social media has been a hot button topic in collegiate athletics since the rise of Facebook in the mid-2000s, which led to pictures of underage athletes consuming alcohol being accessible for the world to see.

Now, several years later, Twitter is the main culprit of trying transgressions, and many coaches are taking the "ban Twitter" route to stop their headaches. Other schools accept the challenge to teach kids responsible use of social media, and hats should be off to them for helping grow their young people.

One tool in the battle to monitor and teach proper usage is the implementation of social media monitoring tools. Not widely popular on the public scene, athletic directors, compliance personnel and coaches have been quietly signing up with monitoring companies to help them tackle the task of monitoring their athletes.

The companies plug in the student-athlete's social media outlets into their program, and at the advisement of the school's staff, they tag words that could be problematic. Every school has its own vernacular with respect to bars, clubs, drugs and drinks; so in addition to standard terminology, schools can craft lists to alert them to their specific athletes.

It is far from a massive undertaking once it is set up. The programs run in the background and simply pull terms that are used and alert the coaches and/or administrators when a flagged term is used by an athlete. The coach gets an email alerting them to the social media post, and from there, they can determine if it is something or nothing. If it is nothing, the player doesn't even need to be brought into the office for a talk. If it is something, whether it is inappropriate, offensive or a danger to the player's eligibility, coaches can take action.

Both Kentucky and Louisville are utilizing this type of monitoring service, and it is drawing mixed reviews.

The Courier-Journal points out that some folks don't like the idea. Bradley Shear, a Washington DC attorney, is strongly opposed to the monitoring practices:

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But Bradley Shear, a Washington, D.C., attorney and digital media expert who has advised state legislatures across the country on social media policy, calls the practice “unbelievably outrageous” and “clearly unconstitutional.”

He likens the practice to placing a listening device in a student’s car or residence.

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The ACLU is against the services as well. However, students who actually partake in the practice are in support, as the Courier-Journal reported:

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“I feel like it’s OK for (the coach) to monitor (student-athletes) to make sure they’re not representing the university in a bad way,” said Muhammed Saisullah, a UK junior walk-on who played on the football team in 2011. “Monitoring, I think it’s pretty smart.”

Similarly, Emily Juhl, a junior volleyball player at U of L, said she thought it helped make her more cautious in her communication. She said she hasn’t heard any other athlete complain.

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Both Saisullah and Juhl make good points. Social media, for these college athletes, is still a learning experience. Their coaches are supposed to be growing them into adults that function in society in a successful manner. Part of functioning in that society is understanding how to use social media. Monitoring social media and helping students become more aware of the ramifications of their social media messages is a positive step.

Especially when compared to the alternative offered up by so many coaches, simply banning the use of the social media devices.

Much like film is an opportunity to review mistakes made in games and in practices, these monitoring services are a chance to review missteps young athletes make on the social media scene. Help them fix the things they do wrong and give them the tools they need to successfully navigate the social media world going forward.

Every school should at least entertain the idea of a monitor service; it not only helps a school protect itself from being blindsided by a media storm, but it also helps student-athletes to mature in the social media arena.