Social media and twitter have become the first and one of the best places to get information. In athletics, coaches, players, and media members put themselves out in the public, pass along information and show off their personality.
In college athletics, many coaches have decided to ban their players from using it during the season. Boise State football coach Chris Petersen was the first one. Purdue’s Matt Painter instilled a ban during the season last year and this summer, Steve Alford banned players altogether from tweeting.
Tom Crean, an active coach on twitter, allows his players to tweet.
CBS Sportsline columnist Gregg Doyel, who I respect greatly, wrote over a month ago that coaches are protecting not restricting players by having a team twitter ban. In this case, I think Doyel and many coaches are way off beat.
First of all, college is a critical time for maturation in a student’s life, athlete or not. It is a time for learning, feeling things out, and making mistakes. They happen.
Student-athletes also have rights and privileges. Poor judgement will be made by all–coaches, trainers and players on down. College is an ideal time for a coach to ensure his players have morals and values that will benefit them in the “real world.”
By banning their players from tweeting, they are not only holding them back but it is not allowing the player from establishing their brand. And I’m big on that. Everyone has strengths, insights and opinions. A coach declaring a ban essentially says I do not trust you and you are my robot–follow my rules.
The NCAA is big with their student-athlete campaign, saying “over 99% of all college student athletes go pro in something other than their sport.” Well if most aren’t moving on to the pros, and they won’t, why are you holding them back from finding another talent and showing off their personality–all in part to build their brand.
A great example is former Ohio State basketball walk-on Mark Titus. He played at Brownsburg High School in Indiana, and wanted to continue his career into college. While on the basketball team at OSU, Titus began a blog entitled, “Club Trillion,” not sure of what it would develop into initially. Brilliant title by the way, Trillion because if you put zeroes in the stat sheet next to one minute of playing time, you get a trillion. Creative.
I credit the Buckeyes for allowing him to embark on this newly found interest and letting him run with it. Over three million people have checked it from the beginning in 2008. He has over 29,000 twitter followers, and now has begun writing for Grantland.com–a ESPN website led by Bill Simmons.
Without that opportunity, without his unique insight and ability to write, few would know of him and he wouldn’t have the job he does today.
Today Jason King of YahooSports.com posted a Q & A with Indiana Basketball head coach Tom Crean who is very active on twitter. Crean recognized the concerns but believes it provides more good than bad, thus no twitter ban for IU players.
Q: You mentioned the cool technology with your wife’s phone. Along those same lines, what is your take on Twitter? Some coaches are preventing their players from tweeting. Are you considering a Twitter ban?
“No. I hope I never have to. They’ve just got to learn to be regulators of their own thoughts. They can’t throw random things out there that they could’ve just as easily put in a text. Sometimes Twitter can become that, those random digressions when you just throw things out there for the world to see. That’s especially the case when you’re a college athlete, a basketball player at Indiana. It gets a ton of attention. I heard a great statement one time on the Today Show. Someone said, “You should view the ‘send’ button like pulling a trigger on a gun. Once you pull it, you can’t get it back. That’s what ‘send’ is like.” I use that line with my guys from time to time. We try to help them and give them advice. That’s not to say we won’t have an issue. Hopefully it won’t get to that point, though. I want them to understand that there’s a lot freedom they get. Twitter is one of those things. It’s important they use it wisely.”
Q: You seem to tweet more than most coaches? How has it worked to your advantage?
“I thought it was going to be a big recruiting deal but it hasn’t turned into that at all. It’s become much more about providing information to people who are interested in our program. Fans, alums and certain media members follow it. That’s what’s exciting. I’m very cognizant of that. I’ve made mistakes on things I’ve put up from time to time. For the most part you want to put up things you think are going to matter to people. I think it’s a great way to keep people abreast of your team. I don’t just want to put out, “The guys looked good today. They worked hard.” I want to give more detail without giving our opponents a competitive advantage.”