Madelon Allen

Sports Communication
STCO 40970-070
Broc Sears
11/27/2016

Social Media in Collegiate Athletics

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Madelon Allen
Sports Communication
STCO 40970-070
Broc Sears
11/27/2016

Collegiate Athletics & Social Media

Social media has become a necessity in collegiate athletics and has changed the scope of how

Athletics Communications works entirely. However, it’s not perfect and there are bumps. I’ll be focusing

mostly on Twitter and how collegiate athletics utilizes it.

Before social media, athletics communications had a very different look. Most news broke via

press release, a story on the team would be printed in the next day’s newspaper and would be clipped

out by staff. Everything was mostly by the web; press releases and pertinent information would be
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posted there and you were done. Now, everything is on social and press releases are the last thing on

the staff’s mind.

You would send a press release out, now you tell your beat writer at the local media and

they’ll get it out quickly. You tell them, you put it on Twitter, then email and then the
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website.

Kickoff times or awards given to student-athletes for a notable performance go straight to social media

to get the word out quickly and keep it short and to the point. The release online will contain more detail

and information, but the point is to get your audience’s attention and engage with the fans.
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Social media engages the fans in ways that weren’t quite possible before. It gives fans a special

look into the world of athletics and of certain sports. This is one of the reasons it’s become critical for

collegiate athletics to utilize social media. For the first time, collegiate athletics can interact with their

fan base with ease and communicate directly. That can be a positive and a negative attribute.

It (social media) obviously allows you to get the information that you need distributed

and it takes it directly to where that user is, and hopefully you develop relationships with

these people, but if you don’t try and establish that 1-on-1 relationship and ignore posts

and messages it becomes a negative. We should always, especially in something as

loyal as a University and its athletics programs, try and have that 1-on-1 relationship
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and not just broadcast what we want out there.

In the beginning, the website was the only place for the fans to receive their information, that and the

newspaper. Now you’re keeping your fans directly in the loop constantly, pregame, in-game and
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postgame, instead of hoping that they may have a reason to come and check out your website.

Part of why social media works so well for collegiate athletics is because of the images. Social

media allows athletic departments and programs to create their own graphics, which are cohesive with

the brand to make sports information like statistics more interesting. Images connect more effectively

with an audience and the visual appeal of something can make or break whether or not a person pays

attention to something.

Images are going to be the biggest thing for generation z, the first generation to really
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grow up with technology.

Game day is the center stage for athletics, and one of the things fans love to see most is the replay. The

TV may not show it, but Twitter probably will. SnappyTV is now owned by Twitter, and allows users to

share video clips with their audiences with ease.

We offer a robust platform that enables organizations of all sizes to edit, share, and

archive live video and TV programming completely within the cloud. The SnappyTV

platform enables organizations to rapidly create, distribute and measure real-time

promotional messaging delivered via social media channels. Messages are sent by the

millions during prime time shows, live sports and breaking news. When you bring in
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social interactions around live streams, conferences and other events, this number

grows exponentially. SnappyTV powers the clips of the biggest moments for sharing to
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the biggest audiences brought to you by the biggest brands.

Many sports teams will use SnappyTV to show their audience the play that the referees are reviewing at

the time, or to show the highlights of the game. This is a luxury for collegiate athletics however, because
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as of October 2016, NFL teams are banned from sharing clips on their social media accounts. It allows

the team to showcase their talent, which is important when thinking about recruiting.

Social media also gives fans a glimpse through the window into the world of collegiate athletics

and the lives of their favorite players and teams. Giving fans an insider look makes them feel closer to

the team and makes them feel like they know individuals on a more personal level. It increases their

loyalty to the team and their passion is evident. The size of the window is determined by how much the

coaching staff wants to be seen or how much they want people to see. The culture can be a big factor in

this. The social media coordinator and the communication staff’s role is to determine which stories

should be told and in what way the audience will receive the media, and then they put it all out there.

Social media allows for a brand to tell its own story. We don’t need the media to

disseminate a message and we’re able to control the voice and tone. This is something

that didn’t exist before social media when you truly needed the media to tell an audience
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your story.
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One audience member the communications staff has on their mind is the potential recruit. Recruiting

has become a big business, and the coaches want to make sure it’s done correctly. Because of social

media, the recruiting process starts much earlier and goes much faster.

For coaches, it's yet another channel for contacting, recruiting, and gathering

information about players. For student athletes, social can be a means of getting

recruited, by elevating their social profile through interactions with local fans, students,
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coaches, and other recruits, in ways unimaginable just a few short years ago.

Social media can help foster the 1-to-1 relationships for an athlete looking to play in college, fostering

an instant connection with a program, which is critical in the recruiting process. The way coaches were
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allowed to communicate with their recruits changed just recently on August 1 of 2016, allowing direct

interactions with recruits.

An athletics department staff member may take actions (e.g., "like," "favorite," republish,

"tag," etc.) on social media platforms that indicate approval of content on social media

platforms that was generated by users of the platforms other than institutional staff
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members or representatives of an institution's athletics interests.

Basically, the NCAA realized that the previous social media guidelines were inefficient and they were

hard to enforce, so they lessened their own burden and took away some restrictions. Another part of

recruiting that’s essential is just having potential recruits see the brand constantly.

It’s impossible for a coach to talk to a recruit 24/7/365 but social media is always there.

If they catch a glimpse of TCU Football on Twitter or Instagram, that’s one more time
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that they thought about TCU that day than they would have without social media.

TCU football is one of the programs that have been showing their recruits some love since the change in

the NCAA, but with a slightly different approach than other schools. Instead of “liking” or “retweeting” a

recruit or commit from the official TCU football account, they are located on a secondary account,

TCUFTW. TCUFTW is the official account of the football staff, and this is where they choose to give

support to commits and recruits so that it doesn’t clutter up the main account or add a sense of

disruption because it doesn’t match the branding of what is normally posted.

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Some programs and staffs have taken the approach of retweeting or favoriting from the individual

coaches accounts, prompting ESPN.com college football reporter Alex Scarborough to tweet this:
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The old-school way of recruiting by having face-to-face meetings is still around, but coaches

understand that they need to understand whom they are after and meet them halfway in a way they are

comfortable with and in the way they’re most used to. With millennials and the upcoming generation y,

that’s by social media.

“I think social media's extremely important, because remember, these are young

people's lives. We're here to be teachers and educators, and that's the way they

communicate. That's the way they learn. Not many young people pick up the newspaper

anymore and read it from front to back. All they do is go on Twitter and social media.”
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– Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck

Social media may seem all well and good but unfortunately it’s not that easy and not that

simple. As famed ESPN’s College GameDay analyst Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast!” There are

problems that come with collegiate athletes and departments (and recruits too) using social media. It’s

true what they say in Internet safety talks – what you put out there stays there, and there is the potential

that anyone can see it. Just as employers are using social media as a vetting tool for scoping out

potential employees, so are the recruiters in collegiate athletics.

The former Penn State now Auburn offensive line coach Herb Hand isn’t the only one to let a recruit go

based off social media. Social media is a way for all users to show who they really are to some degree,

and that can either be a good or bad thing. There are several cases of high-profile football recruits being

dropped because of their Twitter or Instagram names, tweets, or bios. Programs and their respective

Universities want to showcase themselves well and show that they are getting the best of the best, but
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even the best of the best have grammar and punctuation mistakes in their tweets or use almost

incomprehensible jargon.

Another potential pitfall of social media is the fact that you just can’t control what people post.

One unforgettable example is the sad story of Laremy Tunsil. Minutes before the NFL Draft began in

April of 2016, a video of Tunsil smoking from a mask attached to a bong was posted to his Twitter

account. The post was quickly deleted but then within thirty minutes of it being posted, his account was

deactivated. Tunsil claimed his account was hacked and that the video was from several years ago, but

the ball just kept rolling and the potential No. 1 pick in the Draft’s dreams went with it, but still ended up
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as the 13 overall pick with the Miami Dolphins. With Tunsil being the lesson to all college athletes in

the limelight, the message is to not do anything you don’t want the entire world to see.

Not all athletes have the issue of posting what they shouldn’t, and maybe in some cases like Tunsil’s, it

was accident or it was the act of someone else. Some programs have implemented social media policies
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for their student-athletes to follow, some have created no-post rules, or some heavily monitor what their

players post such as Kliff Kingsbury and his staff.

“We have fake accounts with cute girls that they add right now, so we can see what’s

going on and who’s tweeting what…those are heavily monitored, for sure. I think they do

(know they are being monitored), but they can’t resist that; a friend request from a cute
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girl is an automatic follow.” – Texas Tech head football coach Kliff Kingsbury

Although it seems unethical, Kingsbury seems to have good intentions, feeling for his players who may
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“get attacked on their social media” after having a bad game. The negativity from fans pointed at

players on social media is a concern, and no staff member wants their player to have an outburst of

backlash. Rob Carolla, the Director of Communications for the Big 12 Conference, doesn’t believe in

limiting players’ social media. Instead, he wants athletes to be taught the power of social media and
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how to utilize it. A good example of a student-athlete who has used their notoriety for something

bigger than athletics is TCU’s own Brandon Parrish. Parrish has a deep love and passion for animals,

and he often takes to his Twitter to express it. Because of this passion he went to South Africa this past

summer to study abroad with TCU, and recently he has been nominated for the Allstate Good Works

Team.
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Unfortunately, players aren’t the only ones who can receive backlash via social media.

Sometimes programs or universities themselves receive backlash for things posted or things said.

Baylor University received a lot of grief throughout the entirety of handling the sexual assault cases

involving a few football players, especially with transparency. Major news or statements from the

University revolving around these cases were posted at very odd times of the day, to which many
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attribute to the PR team trying to hide what’s being posted in cluttered timelines. President Ken Starr’s

statements on the ongoing investigations and the situation as a whole was released on Super Bowl

Sunday and was not well received.

Another problem for universities and their athletic departments is the need for speed of getting posts

out. The Miami Hurricane’s football account embarrassed themselves when during pregame warmups

for the game against the Florida State Seminoles, they tweeted an update with the hashtag #BEATMIAMI

instead of #BeatFSU. By the time it was deleted, multiple accounts had already tweeted a screenshot of

the error.
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Another stakeholder that deals with issues of speed is the news media reporting on collegiate

athletics. With how instant news has become, reporters want to get their information out first and have

that exclusive buzz. Because of how quick everything needs to be for them on social media, journalists

don’t always fact check their information and take what they see on social media to be true and put it

out there, and if they take the time to make sure they have valid information, they may not be the first

one on the story. This can cause unnecessary clean up and statements from programs to clear the air.

In line with wanting to be first, reporters will often live-tweet press conferences.

Sometimes reporters aren’t paying full attention to the questions being asked because

they’re trying to get out what they (the coach or player) just said so they miss what was
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asked next and then they’ll ask the same question again.

This issue, again, wastes time and it also can hurt the reputation of a reporter. This live tweeting also

means that SIDs don’t necessarily have the chance to ask reporters to not include something said in

their story, such as if a player misspeaks or says something that could be misconstrued. Reporters also

want the insider information so that they will be the news source with the new hot gossip; the first ones

to come out with a report. This means they want to know all about injuries.

In the NFL, it’s big business. The social media coordinator does not answer to the head

coach. It’s about selling tickets and merchandise so practice, injuries, the locker room,

etc. are wide open for fans to experience. It’s not like that in college football. Secrets are

kept: who’s the starter, who’s injured, etc. because it’s just not the same. For example,

an NFL team has to announce who practiced each day and who did not. They also have

to announce a starting quarterback because TV ratings and ticket sales are on the line.

In college football, it’s about winning over access, so, having to shoot around injuries,
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starters, etc. dictates access and therefore quality of content in most cases.

Although the media and the fans may want injury reports, it seems to still be a gray area as to whether

or not athletic departments or coaches are of liberty to comment on injuries. Most often it is the

decision of the program if they want to comment on them or not. HIPAA, or the Health Insurance

Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is often cited as the reasoning for not sharing injuries

because it dictates the amount of information a doctor can tell a third party about a patient’s illness. A
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college, university or high school is not automatically covered under HIPAA because they have an

athletic trainer on their staff; it’s only if the trainer bills the athlete directly or their insurance plan for
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outside treatment that they would be covered. That means that HIPAA does not extend to coaches.

The reason the NFL can discuss injuries is because of a clause written into every players contract by the

NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement which allows coaches and their doctors to discuss sports-related
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injuries. Some may think that’s an issue of access for athletics communications departments, whereas

others may think it’s no ones business but the player’s. TCU believes in not discussing injuries, period.

Social media has become so important in collegiate athletics to where beat writers and national

reporters alike will actually report on what’s being said on social media. After a scandal, after a shocking

announcement, after a good or a bad game, you can find articles all over the Internet about how people

reacted to the news on social media and the public’s opinions are. The Bleacher Report does one for

practically every game played in Division I NCAA football.

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Over time, the job description and responsibilities distributed in collegiate athletics

communications have been changed dramatically by social media, but the goal remains the same: show

off your athletic programs and student-athletes in a way that is engaging and informative. The role of

athletics communications professionals has evolved into much more than just the necessities of being

able to write and communicate well and effectively.

“The core responsibilities of the sports information director from 30 years ago are still

the same today; however, athletics departments must recognize and account for all the

additional layers of responsibilities and duties that today’s professional must now

handle with the accessibility of technology and the demands of social media.”

– Adam Zundell, Senior Associate Commissioner of Communications, Mountain East

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Conference

Sports information directors (SIDs) are more diverse in their skills than ever. SIDs were named so

because of their function as historian, record-keeper, statistician and media contact producing
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programs, game results, stats and quotes. If I can say so, SIDs have the job of doing all the behind-

the-scenes aspects in athletics that a fan doesn’t think twice about how they are produced. That’s

changed because access to information has exploded in an expansive way in this digital information

age.

As access to information expands, the institution’s athletics program becomes an

immediate and far-reaching reflection of the university – an effect not lost on

presidents, vice presidents and deans. Now more than ever, athletics is in many cases a

college’s best promotional tool, which elevates the importance of those who operate it.

That’s good news, as long as the institution structures the athletics communications
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staff and resources accordingly.

The benefits of social media are tangible in the form of likes, retweets, shares and followers and many

base the ranking of the best college athletic departments social media based on the following.
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These results are achieved by hiring the best of the best, which are now defined by how diverse their

abilities and skill sets.

The media relations portion of our job has now evolved to having to have a skill set of
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video and design capabilities within your background.

The positions of both TCU’s Caten Hyde and Kyle Seay simply wouldn’t exist without social media, as

their titles are Social Media Coordinator and Social Media Specialist, respectively.

However, just as the benefits of social media are tangible in the sports communications world,

so are the challenges. SIDs are stretched in multiple directions, being responsible for more than one

sport in many facets including each program’s social media. TCU’s athletics communications

department has five full-time staff members, each being responsible for two or more sports of the

University’s 20 programs. Those 20 programs have a total of 41 social media accounts; most having a

Twitter, Instagram and a Facebook, and co-ed sports such as track and field/cross country and

swimming and diving have an overarching account for the sport. The combined following for all the

sports across platforms is a whopping 527,661 people. Football alone has 270,402 followers, which is

still more than all other sports combined at 257,259. These numbers were all updated at the end of the

day on December 6, 2016. That’s a lot of accounts and a lot of stakeholders at the hands of just a few

people. Mark Cohen, Associate Athletic Director for Athletics Communications at TCU says “social
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media is now the No. 1 part of the job.”

Companies have invested in digital and social and understand the importance, as these

social media managers are the face of your brand. We’ve become very strategic about
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our messaging and content over our social media platforms, and I don’t think many
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people really grasp that.

i
Kyle Seay, personal communication, November 28, 2016
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Mark Cohen, personal communication, November 26, 2016
iii
Kyle Seay, personal communication, November 28, 2016
iv
Kyle Seay, personal communication, November 28, 2016
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Victoria Wisdom, personal communication, November 18, 2016
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SnappyTV, web, “About SnappyTV”, 2014
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SB Nation, web, “The NFL is banning teams from sharing clips of their own players”, October 9, 2016
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Caten Hyde, personal communication, November 13, 2016
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Ray Rahmati, web article, Spredfast, “How Social Media is Changing College Recruiting”, June 16, 2016
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NCAA, legislative document, NCAA Proposal 2015-48, August 11, 2015
xi
Caten Hyde, personal communication, November 13, 2016
xii
Bud Elliott and Alex Kirshner, web, quote from Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck, “Players like it, but
the NCAA's new social media rule could be chaos for coaches”, August 1, 2016
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Jesse Reed, web, SportsNaut, “Texas Tech football using fake ‘cute girl’ Twitter accounts to track
players”, August 26, 2016
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Jesse Reed, web, SportsNaut, “Texas Tech football using fake ‘cute girl’ Twitter accounts to track
players”, August 26, 2016
xv
Rob Carolla, personal communication,
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Ben Kercheval, web, CBS Sports, “Yes, things are still a mess at Baylor, which still has a long way to
go”, October 4, 2016
xvii
Mark Cohen, personal communication, November 26, 2016
xviii
Caten Hyde, personal communication, November 13, 2016
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Richard Bell, journal article, “The impact of the HIPAA privacy rule on collegiate sport professionals”,
The Refereed Sports Journal, April 2, 2008
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Hillary Smith, web, “Coaches, schools unsure about HIPAA rules when athletes are injured”, The
Northwest Indiana Times, May 14, 2014
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NCAA Division II Communications, online publication, “Telling the campus story through athletics:
how to position athletics communications in a leadership role”, January 11, 2016
xxii
NCAA Division II Communications, online publication, “Telling the campus story through athletics:
how to position athletics communications in a leadership role”, January 11, 2016
xxiii
NCAA Division II Communications, online publication, “Telling the campus story through athletics:
how to position athletics communications in a leadership role”, January 11, 2016
xxiv
Tennessee Athletics, web, “Top 25 Twitter Accounts: Athletic Departments”
xxv
Matt Hoover, personal communication, November 16, 2016.
xxvi
Mark Cohen, personal communication, November 26, 2016
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Kyle Seay, personal communication, November 28, 2016