Ad Disclosure
As you read this article, SEC coaches are likely drawing up their Twitter strategies for later this year.
Much has been made about the NCAA’s recent decision to deregulate electronic communications between football coaches and recruits, which will open the door for unlimited texting opportunities for coaches by lifting restrictions that were put in place back in 2007.
And while more text messaging is certain to bring a noticeable change to the recruiting landscape, the deregulation of the social media branch of electronic communications that comes along with the rule change may actually be the area most impacted:
2015-48 allows coaches to like, favorite, retweet, repost, retweet, etc. social media posts from recruits. So welcome to that being a thing.
— John Infante (@John_Infante) April 13, 2016
247Sports National Scouting Director Barton Simmons recently explained to USA Today why the unlimited use of Twitter may be more useful than text messaging.
“In a lot of ways Twitter is better than texting because if you don’t have a kid’s phone number, you have to find it somewhere,” he said. “With Twitter, you can find him, follow him and he follows you back and you’re on the way.”
Essentially, having the ability to contact recruits freely through Twitter will eliminate the need for a middle man to provide contact information for these players.
So what should we expect when this new rule goes into effect on August 1?
Lots of activity from the accounts of football coaches.
It will be interesting to see if head coaches choose to do this additional grunt work themselves, or to have one of their football operations employees work their Twitter handle for them.
Can’t you envision Nick Saban hiring a member of his staff with the sole purpose of manning a “Nick Saban” Twitter handle 40 hours per week?
Nick Cole is a former print journalist with several years of experience covering the SEC. Born and raised in SEC country, he has taken in the game-day experience at all 14 stadiums.
