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NCAA: Fan Facebook site violates rules

This after a NC State fan set up a web page that urged a recruit to come to the school. From AP-

College sports fans, be careful of the company you keep on Facebook.

You might get yourself — and the program you support — in trouble.

That was the lesson this week for Taylor Moseley, a North Carolina State freshman who expressed a common-enough opinion on campus when he started the Facebook group called “John Wall PLEASE come to NC STATE!!!!”

More than 700 people signed up for the group encouraging Wall — a local standout and the nation’s No. 1 basketball recruit — to pick the Wolfpack by national signing day next week.

But the NCAA says such sites, and dozens more like them wooing Wall and other top recruits, violate its rules. More than just cheerleading boards, the NCAA says the sites are an attempt to influence the college choice of a recruit.

Moseley got a cease and desist letter from N.C. State’s compliance director, Michelle Lee, warning of “further action” if he failed to comply. In an interview Friday, Lee said that people who act as boosters but fail to follow recruiting guidelines could face penalties such as being denied tickets or even being formally “disassociated” from the athletic program.

The actions NC State took are understandable. They don’t want to be penalized. On the other hand fan websites being considered recruiting tools seems like a giant NCAA overreach to me. They called it a high tech recruitment tool. Would that then apply to any fan website for a particular school that generically asked athletes to consider coming there to play? It’s decisions like the above one that makes many reasonable people NCAA rules are just plain ridiculous.

 
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