The Lions' Pride

Vandy is a great school, and much closer to home obviously, but I'd have to imagine we're still sitting in the driver seat here.

@RoaringLion "i see your point about BOB maybe not liking it, because a guy doing the interview could say the wrong thing, or annoy the recruit, but for the most part i think high school boys love attention, and getting it from blogsites has to be a pretty "rockstar" feeling...a lot of people on this site thought Rich Rod pitch to ryan was cheesy but he seemed to eat that up."

From my high school friends, they absolutely hated the whole process. The interviews, the facebook messages and wall posts. They hated it with a passion. The whole thing is pretty stressful for a 17/18-year-old, and then you have a bunch of different people trying to get in your ear about it (Not necessarily reporters, but mainly the fans who constantly tweet stuff like "go to ______").

Tony Mancuso ‏ @GoPSUTony Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
Maggie Lucas is on FIRE in Baton Rouge. She has 16 of #PennState's 20 points.

for those not watching

Me either Adam...me either.

Its happened already. Read some tweets from a big booster I believe at Alabama who tweeted something less blatant but still was def. a violation. I think I read an article on it somewhere.

Stupid envelopes resetting means I missed most of the conversation in this thread recently.

Sean has a job to do...he doesn't talk to these guys as a fan of Penn State, he talks to them as a representative of 247sports.

Are bloggers becoming more official in terms of press passes, etc.? Sure...but are they part of a site that essentially requires them to be unbiased in reporting, asking questions, etc.? Doubt it. I have no problem with fans following kids on twitter, but talking to them and buddying up with them is inexcusable. There's no reason to try and befriend these prospects. Just leave them alone. The coaching staff is paid to recruit these kids. Let them do their job and stay out of it.

Without opening up the blogs vs. online premium sites vs. newspapers, etc. definitions of what "media" is (we'll be here all month), I'll pass this along. I'll just say that it's improper to lump the credibility and ethics of all blogs together just as its improper to do so with reporters from all premium sites, all newspapers, all TV commentators, etc. Generally, "all _____ are _____" is a bad way to form an opinion.

I already sent this link to a few people in this thread, but it really is useful for anyone with an interest in this area:

http://michiganhockey.net/2011/07/14/recruiting-contact-through-social-media-know-the-rules/

You'll see that it contains direct quotes from Michigan's chief of compliance (she was interim at the time she wrote this) regarding the distinction between what coaches, media, boosters, etc. are able to do with respect to contacting recruits, as well as the distinction between interviewing them and trying to influence their decisions. It's a good read for everyone, not just people who write about their favorite teams. Especially interesting is that the same person can operate in a media and booster capacity, depending on their actions.

On another note, social media is a banana republic and the NCAA knows it. There's very little they can do to regulate it. It's obviously easy for someone to create a fake account posing as a Penn State fan and tweet things at a recruit that would be obvious violations...or derogatory things if it looks like a recruit is on the fence or going elsewhere (pretty sure this happened with Armani Reeves as he was about to make a decision, not that his decision wasn't already made). Same goes for Facebook.

I mean, what's to stop anybody here from creating a Twitter account called @BuckeyeFan4Lyfe and trying to get Ohio State's recruits ruled ineligible by offering them money or whatever? Or creating a blog with interviews (fake or otherwise) filled with leading questions trying to recruit players to OSU? How is the NCAA going to sift through that nonsense?

If Bob Lichtenfels (to use a *totally* random example of someone who is supposedly "objective media") decided to publicly influence a recruit via Twitter to attend Pitt instead of PSU, what are his consequences? Nothing. The NCAA doesn't have the authority to shut down Scout.com or any of its affiliated sites, and he's probably not even going to be vaguely disciplined within his own organization.

The NCAA is also wildly understaffed and overworked, and they're not likely to spend time worrying about what fans or even quasi-reporters are tweeting at recruitings or saying to them on Facebook. Which, sad but true. They have bigger things to deal with. It's the compliance offices at the member schools who have to clean up the messes of all these secondary violations.

It's practically an honor system for the people who cover these teams, because there are basically no consequences for people outside the NCAA umbrella (basically, coaches, SID's, and athletes). For reporters/bloggers, there are at least repercussions as to reputation and future access to the program, but many of those people don't depend on direct access anyway. For mostly anonymous fans, there are absolutely no consequences (maybe revoking season tickets if the school can track down the offender?).

I'm in NOLA and they're already saying LSU should rent him for this year to win the MNC. They already have a sick defense...put him running the O and that would be pretty impressive.

It's in the bag now

Also, love the site.

Does anyone think that if Danny O'Brien come here, our team chemistry will go up in flames?

Yes that awesome team chemistry we had with the McGloin/Bolden debacle...

Oh and come on, guys, how many times do we need to keep this non-VIP. It's not that hard.