I'm still checking out my My Space account. I still don't like it, but I have to admit that it has helped me connect with people I haven't heard from in years. Plus, I have many, many friends. Like I need a stupid website to stroke my self-esteem [of course, I guess this blog can also do the same, but that's neither here nor there]. Any-who, some Kentucky basketball fans came across the My Space account of a high school recruit from West Virginia who's considering the Wildcats. The kid still hasn't decided where he wants to go to school so some UK fans have been leaving him messages encouraging him to come to Lexington. All well and good, except that this could be an NCAA recruiting violation. UK officials have already reported it as a possible rules infraction.
Only the coaching staff can make contact with potential recruits. This keeps boosters from getting to a kid in high school and promising mad cash if they come to his/her school. That's why no one even remotely affiliated with a college [including fans] are supposed to make contact with unsigned high school kids. This little My Space fiasco might [probably won't] bring about NCAA sanctions.
But, once again, here's a case where the NCAA needs to get over themselves. My Space has about 100 million users, many of them between the ages of 16-22. I'm pretty sure there aren't any kids in America that don't have a My Space account. And there's always going to be obsessed college fans seeking out recruits and sucking up to them. So the only response to be totally safe is to bar the potential recruit from having a My Space account.
And you wonder why these college/professional athletes do such crazy things. They're told very early in life that they're not like everyone else. That they need to play by different rules. Pretty soon, after years of being kept in a box but told they're the best thing since sliced bread [see: Maurice Clarett] they're in full fledged rebellion. You know, I used to think that having multiple ESPN's were a good thing. I couldn't wait for The Ocho. Now I'm not too sure.
Sidenote: The NCAA is the legalized Mafia. They use kids to make billions but don't give a rip about them. However much I love college sports, the NCAA will never make my friends list.