Did the Sooners Commit a Minor Violation Via Twitter?

Social Media has reached unthinkable levels in the football recruiting. Players and coaches MUST use it, or they will find themselves getting left behind. The NCAA has rules in place regarding social media and how coaches can use it to interact with recruits. If you follow any of the Sooner coaches on Twitter they are constantly tweeting area codes of prospects, because they cannot directly mention the name of a recruit or use the "@reply" feature on twitter.

A recent ESPN.Com by Jake Trotter made mention of this exact policy.

"Coaches can't write on a recruit's Facebook wall or instant message him, but are free to send private messages during contact periods. On Twitter, coaches can't publicly mention recruits, but they are allowed to send direct messages." Jake Trotter

In addition, here is the policy we found connected to NCAA regarding their social media policy.

Divisions I and II rules allow for coaches to contact prospects through the direct-message function on Twitter, subject to the same rules applicable to email communication with recruits. However, publicly mentioning a recruit’s name or sending an "@reply" message via Twitter are both considered NCAA rules violations. Coaches can "follow" recruits on Twitter – and vice versa – so long as the @reply function is not used. Any direct messages sent through Twitter must conform to the contact-period legislation for each NCAA sport.

So here is the tweet in question.

We will let you judge for yourself.