Kansas Basketball Recruiting: Your Friendly Reminder to Not Tweet Recruits

Top 5 recruit Julius Randle will visit Kansas for the Texas game, and with perhaps the best recruit since the NBA stopped letting kids go from high school to the NBA also granting Kansas an official visit, interest in recruiting is certainly at a peak right now.

With the future of the basketball program at stake (remember, just one team has won a national title without a McDonalds All American on the roster) Jayhawks fans are no doubt invested in where 17 and 18 year olds decide to attend school. With that investment, some of you might be thinking to yourself "hey if I tweet (random recruit) COME TO KANSAS WOOOO then he totally will!"

No.

Let's start with the more important reason: it is super creepy to talk to a 17 year old kid to try to persuade him to make a major life decision that you agree with. There are tons of examples of this, some felonious, but most just stalkerish and creepy. And besides, have you ever known a recruit to say "oh yeah I decided to go to (school X) because they were so awesome at tweeting me"?

Now to the good (?) stuff: doing it is an NCAA violation. Have you, RCT reader, bought any KU merchandise or tickets? Then you are in fact a booster according to super boring NCAA bylaw 6.4.2:

6.4.2 Representatives of Athletics Interests. An institution's "responsibility" for the conduct of its intercollegiate athletics program shall include responsibility for the acts of individuals, a corporate entity (e.g., apparel or equipment manufacturer) or other organization when a member of the institution's executive or athletics administration or an athletics department staff member has knowledge or should have knowledge that such an individual, corporate entity or other organization: (Revised: 2/16/00)

(a) Has participated in or is a member of an agency or organization as described in Constitution 6.4.1;

(b) Has made financial contributions to the athletics department or to an athletics booster organization of that institution;

(c) Has been requested by the athletics department staff to assist in the recruitment of prospective student athletes or is assisting in the recruitment of prospective student-athletes;

(d) Has assisted or is assisting in providing benefits to enrolled student-athletes; or

(e) Is otherwise involved in promoting the institution's athletics program.

Bonus link! Here's an (probably) easier way of determining whether or not you are a booster. (You probably are)

More boring reading time! Said boosters cannot contact recruits per rule 13.1.2 which says:

General Rule. All in-person, on- and off-campus recruiting contacts with a prospective student-athlete or the prospective student-athlete's relatives or legal guardians shall be made only by authorized institutional staff members. Such contact, as well as correspondence and telephone calls, by representatives of an institution's athletics interests is prohibited except as otherwise permitted in this section. Violations of this bylaw involving individuals other than a representative of an institution's athletics interests shall be considered institutional violations per Constitution

So if you have given any money at all to the school (and I mean any money. If you have bought a keychain or a pen or a cap you have given money to the school because a small portion of that money finds its way to the general scholarship fund or perhaps a booster organization) then you are a booster and no tweeting recruits for you.

It's true that you're probably not going to get a recruit in trouble if you do. I am not aware of a case in which a player was deemed ineligible because he was tweeted at as a recruit, but that doesn't mean you should do it. For one, there is the slight chance that the NCAA decides to make an example of a school at some point (although it will inevitably be Kentucky because their fans are the guiltiest of all guilty parties), but the more real world application is that compliance people at universities are overworked as it is, but when tweeting at recruits happens, they have to report it to the NCAA, taking time away from actual work that could actually help actual recruits/athletes. Actually.

Take it straight from the horse's mouth:

However, boosters should refrain from tweeting about prospective student-athletes.

It is not going to get you in trouble, and it (probably) is not going to get Kansas in trouble. (largely because some K-State fan could pretend to be a Jayhawks fan and tweet every recruit known to man over and over again) But 1. it is against the rules and 2. it is super weird and creepy.

It should also be noted that your super cool Julius Randle sign where you make a pun on Orange Julius (really original, really) is also a violation:

KU Fans: NCAA rules prohibit you from recruiting prospects and publicizing their visit to campus, including signs in AFH during a game!

— Jayhawk Compliance (@jayhawkcomply) February 12, 2013

There is probably less chance that a sign will get the school in trouble, but also probably less of a chance that said recruit will see the sign, making it not worth your effort to do so.

So to review: 1. it is illegal and probably more importantly 2. it is really weird and creepy. Don't be weird and creepy.