Unless you are a college football fan (hang in there social media geeks, we’ll get to your stuff soon enough 
) you probably wouldn’t even have a clue what this post is about. Honestly, unless you are a Texas Tech student or fan or resident of Lubbock, TX you may not know what a Red Raider is. One thing for certain though that more folks in the social media world will know about them because their coach, Mike Lynch, has banned Twitter usage from his team completely.
That’s right – banned. Not limited or restricted – just banned. Oh, you say, there can’t be any teeth in that policy. How could he possibly enforce that? Fear might work since he has already suspended one player indefinitely from the team because of breaking the rule. If there is any question, Mashable reports
Following a few suspect tweets by team members, Coach Mike Leach has announced that Texas Tech players are now banned from Twitter altogether. SportingNews also reports that one of the offending Twitterers, offensive lineman Brandon Carter, was “suspended indefinitely for violating team rules and his Twitter page was nowhere to be found.”
Honestly, I am at a loss on this one. Here is one of the tweets that Carter floated
My hope is that there is more than this tweet used to suspend someone like this kid indefinitely. There was no finger pointing except at himself so that seems to be harsh. I will say that there could be more to this since this was the only tweet from Carter that was shown.
All of this points back to the need for organizations from companies to sports teams and all stops in between to understand that the world has changed. Whether it’s for the better or not is not the debate. Right now, it is just a fact that it has. Everyone is going to have to be definitive in their stance but there may need to be a little flexibility moving forward like the SEC (Southeastern Conference) did recently regarding the use of social media in any form as it relates to the events that are in a college stadium in the league. I did a double take on that one because it is just asinine to even think it let alone say it.
We have seen social media in sports be addressed by the NFL and other colleges in other sports. We have seen social media addressed in a variety of ways by companies and organizations worldwide as well. My question is are we any closer to actually understanding what the implications of using or banning social media will be in the near and long term?
Go ahead, Pilgrims, take your shots (or your swings or –insert sports cliché here-).
