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SEC Football: Welcome To The Twitter Circus

By Meredith Hornsby

Jul 11, 2016; Hoover, AL, USA; Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey speaks during SEC media day at Hyatt Regency Birmingham-The Wynfrey Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 11, 2016; Hoover, AL, USA; Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey speaks during SEC media day at Hyatt Regency Birmingham-The Wynfrey Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports /
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With the enactment of NCAA Proposal 2015-48 allowing coaches to somewhat interact with recruits on social media, Twitter has been even more entertaining than usual the last two days.

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Everyone is all abuzz because the NCAA approved a new social media rule went into effect Monday morning. The NCAA’s legislative council passed the proposal in the spring, and as of August first, it was legit. The exact wording of Proposal 2015-48 is as follows:

"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 members or representatives of an institution’s athletics interests."

Upon being reminded that Sunday night we had only a few hours before the madness began, most people immediately went to the pages of the coaches they follow on Twitter and “turned off retweets”. That way, they didn’t have to see the mess that they knew would come. And boy, did it ever.

This graphic posted by BamaHammer contributer Wesley Gullett shows the number of retweets made by each SEC head coach on just day ONE of the enactment of the new social media rules. And he throws some shade at UT’s Butch Jones, which is always fun.  Jones was the top “retweeter” in the league, with 108, followed by Les Miles at 11, Will Muschamp with five, and Dan Mullen with two. The other SEC coaches either avoided Twitter all together, or just weren’t interested in jumping on the Retweet Wagon so quickly.

Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban is the only SEC head football man who does NOT have a Twitter account. The online antics and BitMojis of Bama’s offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin do more than enough to make up for Saban’s lack of social media; Kiffin even got an honorable mention in the above SEC Network graphic with his three retweets.

This only shows the Twitter activity of the fourteen coaches in the SEC. Coaches all over the country (or staff members on their behalf) hopped on the social media site Monday morning and started working their magic, “favoriting”, “retweeting”, and sharing tweets from recruits.

So how did recruits react? Most of them thought the coaches being all up in their business on Twitter was hilarious, or even stupid. In fact, this article from FoxSports posted Monday afternoon showcased many tweets from the young guys laughing at the coaches, like this one from Devodrick Johnson, Texas A&M class of 2017 commit.

https://twitter.com/foebg_/status/759993954599211008

It’s clear that the new rule has turned the popular social media app and site into quite a college recruiting circus. We’re not sure how to feel about it all just yet, but at least it’s entertaining.

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With everything that’s been going on in the world and our country lately, we can all use some comic relief watching these coaches try to figure out how to manipulate the system to best serve their recruiting purposes. Maybe one day, Saban will even decide to join Twitter. Maybe.

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