University of Miami Under NCAA Investigation for Texting Infractions
Various media outlets have reported that the University of Miami is being investigated by the NCAA for “impermissible text messages”, which seems to span a variety of sports.
Football is one of them of course, and the University self reported the infractions to the NCAA, and the belief is the infractions are not considered severe.
The NCAA banned college coaches from text-messaging recruit back in 2007 because of the potential cost to a student athlete who did not have an unlimited text messaging plan.
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This has become a growing problem because the NCAA was asleep at the switch when text messaging became a primary means of communication in this country.
Personally the fact that a team can be put on probation for text messaging is fairly dumb; these kids should not be communicating with coaches directly in the first place.
This is no different than a player giving his cell phone number to a girl that is pursuing him and she texts him until he is out of messages, he gave her the number so it is his responsibility to tell her to stop.
In most of these cases the parents of the recruit are paying for the phone anyway, so why would the parents not pick up the phone and say “coach Shannon the text messages need to stop we can’t afford them anymore.”
It should stop right there, Randy Shannon like any other coach does not want to piss of a potential recruits parents, instead though the NCAA makes a monolithic rule with unrealistic expectations.
What if the recruit initiates contact with the coach via text message is it permissible then?
What if the recruit has an unlimited texting plan, and prefers the text communication over talking on the phone?
When you make a blanket rule it leaves almost no flexibility for those who do want to take advantage of the technology.
I am sure Ohio State and Florida fans are waiting for the opportunity to jump on this topic, especially Florida with their $100k scandal several months ago.
But, this is a non issue.
Yes, there were a few teams who landed on probation for text messaging, and another team gave up one scholarship and reduced a few campus visits.
In the end it’s all one big smoke screen the NCAA does not have a handle on anything these days, and they know their only weapon is making examples out of big time programs and hope that everyone else falls in line.
That is why there are so many schools self reporting violations now, almost every day you see another school mentioned. When the NCAA put the screws to USC it put every other school in panic mode.
Miami still has hardly had any players arrested under Shannon, and if Florida, or any other school’s fans want to compare “transgressions” over the last four years then that’s a challenge we can take.
I saw another ignorant comment from a Florida fan on the article,
"Funny. Reading UM fans' posts on here through the last couple of years one would think that Randy Shannon's program is the cleanest in all of college football.
Go figure.
Is he serious?
“Text messaging” is considered dirty? I am sorry last time I checked $100k was not being sent over text to prospective or current players.
This is the dumb game schools have to play with the NCAA, this is just another example of the bigger problem in college football.
That is a different article for another day.
Back to the NCAA’s verbiage on this rule, “The NCAA website notes that ``evolving technology presents unique challenges in recruiting. . . . Schools cannot text prospective student-athletes at any time, but they can e-mail during permissible contact periods. Schools can do so even from social media platforms such as Facebook. . . . All other electronically transmitted correspondence including, but not limited to, text messaging, Instant Messenger, chat rooms or message boards [e.g. a user's wall] within a social networking Web site or through other services or applications remain impermissible. . . . Tweeting is permissible as long as coaches are not using it to contact individual prospective student-athletes and are abiding by the standard recruiting rules.'' (www.miamiherald.com)
That is the one of the vaguest explanations of a rule I have ever read in my life.
They say emailing even through Facebook is okay, but posting on the athletes Facebook wall is not okay?
That makes absolutely no sense at all, if the NCAA had a clue they would realize that many people have smart phones and emails to their Facebook or email accounts show up on their phones.
Theoretically this is texting, and tweeting is okay as long as they do not contact the student athlete.
Okay, so I am Joe coach, I setup a Twitter account, and I ask Rob Blue Chip to follow me on Twitter.
He sets up his smart phone to receive Tweets as text messages, and once he follows me I Tweet “boy Rob Blue Chip would look great in a Hurricanes uniform”.
This message was posted to my Twitter account, and since the recruit is following me he gets a TEXT on his phone.
I can sit here and shoot holes in the NCAA’s texting rule all day, but I won’t.
As for the Miami Hurricanes they know that the NCAA and other schools would love to see them get in trouble. People feel that Miami is making a comeback, and another set of violations could set the program back several years.
That is not going to happen. These are mostly considered secondary violations unless they sent thousands of text messages to prospective recruits, which does not seem to be the case.
This only made news because it was Miami, no money exchanged hands and no bounties were paid the Hurricanes will self impose new policies and the NCAA will be pacified enough to leave them alone.
If the Hurricanes do slip up and get caught texting recruits again, then they may not be able to put off the NCAA next time. The school has imposed tougher internal polices although it has not been disclosed exactly what those are.
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.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
