Florida Manages To Commit Recruiting Violations On Facebook

Today in "Snitches Get Stitches" news, a rival school—not necessarily an SEC rival—has tattled on two Florida coaches for improperly communicating with recruits over Facebook on separate occasions. The improper method: public wall postings. Wait, what?

That doesn't sound right, and yet, per the Orlando Sentinel:

Coaches can have electronic conversation with recruits through e-mail — and direct messaging via Facebook qualifies — but posting on a recruit's Facebook wall is not allowed, according to NCAA rules.

That makes no sense whatsoever. If you have used Facebook, you're familiar with the wall. It's where you can link your friend to that hilarious .gif of the Dutch guy kicking the shit out of the Spanish guy's sternum or publicly rehash your inside jokes to the annoyance of all your other friends reading their news feed. The key word from that sentence was publicly. Barring advanced use of privacy controls, wall postings are by default public. Now, why would the NCAA have a problem with that while private emails and Facebook messages are kosher?

Furthermore, the punishments for these things are another variety of ridiculous:

For each offense, the coach was reminded of the interpretation and prohibited from written communication in recruiting for a two-week period.

Yeah, fucking skewer him, NCAA! Send his ass out on a rail. Good, he gets a stern reminder of the rule and cannot have any written communication with recruits for two weeks. You know, except for the whole private email and Facebook message thing. And so concludes your daily dose of "The NCAA's Recruiting Rules Are At Such A Comical Level Of Absurdity It Makes Your Teeth Hurt" news.

Florida Football Misuses Facebook, Commits Four Minor NCAA Violations [Orlando Sentinel]