re: Message from LSU Compliance regarding Message Boards

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jesus christ people!!! who here has a hard time understanding the concept of a previous relationship?

so stop with the stupid questions like, "if the kid asks his mom and dad what school he should go to, they can't say anything because they become a booster?"

anyone that has known the kid BEFORE they became a recruit can tell them whatever the hell they want to tell them!!!!! like his parents, little brother, best friends, and HS coaches.

if i hear of a great RB from lafayette high, i cannot go and find him, start talking up LSU, in an effort to convince him to go to LSU. but if that same guy is getting a blowjob from girlfriend of 3 years, then she can stop in the middle of blowing and tell him that she will never do that again if he goes to another school besides LSU.

i hope everyone understands now.

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wow, i do understand now, thanks to you deciding to finally share your infinite wisdom. i do believe that we are all much more intelligent as a result of reading your post. it must really eat at you to have to share this site with so many idiots, however, i do believe that if you search hard enough you can find one or two on here that shares your.....

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wow so when recruits come on the board, identify themselves and want to talk to LSU fans we are supposed to ignore them and not reply?

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Looks that way, and it also looks like the folks who go to the prospects' myspace pages and tell them to sign with a particular school need to stop doing that.

But there is a serious potential for abuse with this rule. If anyone who encourages a recruit to attend a particular school is automatically considered a booster of that school, what's to stop me or anyone else from going to every recruit's myspace page or posting on every message board encouraging every recruit to attend Tulane? Is Tulane then committing an NCAA violation because I am "automatically" a Tulane booster and am communicating with prospects? That sounds ridiculous.

I have a little experience in this area, so I'll touch on the subject for anyone who wants to read it. If you don't want to read my overly-long explanation, skip to the last bit and you'll get the message.

This is basically how it is, in a nut shell.

The bottom line, when it comes to fans and recruits: If a fan trys to influence where a recruit should attend college, that college is in violation of NCAA rules. There is one exception to this: anyone who has a prior relationship to the recruit before (more or less) any school begins to recruit him. Those people with prior relationships to the recruit (family, friends, coaches, etc.) can influence the recruit as they see fit.

Now for some of the misconceptions many fans have on this subject.

1) These rules are stupid, unfair, (and my favorite) unconstitutional. First, these rules are only stupid and unfiar if you are a fan.

FYI: on the NCAA totem, the fans rank last, or next to last. Their main priority, in this case, is to protect recruits and their families and friends. Imagine your son is a 5-star quarterback being courted by the big teams. Imagine also that their are no NCAA rules prohibiting fan/recruit contact. Fans from all over the nation would be knocking at your door 24 hours/day. They would be swarming your house. They would try to contact your son at school, on dates, while driving, etc. It would make your family's life a living hell (similar to Britney Spears/paparazzi), and the NCAA will not stand for that, and rightfully so. As far as the consititution argument goes... that's just stupid. The NCAA does not restrict what you as an american can say, but they can definitely punish your college for what you say to a recruit.

2) These rulse can't be enforced (i.e. It's rediculous to think a school could actually regulate what it's fans can say to anyone.). Another fan's argument that follows along these same lines is: even if I do encourage a recruit to attend my favorite college, and my favorite college reports it to the NCAA, the NCAA will not really punish my college.

The NCAA will not tolerate the previous situation I just described (i.e. Britney/paparazzi). The NCAA puts the reponsiblity on the schools, themselves, to insure that this does not happen. The schools must put forth every effort to educate their fan bases and to prevent them from influencing recruits (thus, you get LSU's message on the first page). If the university KNOWS a recruit has been influenced by a booster of the program (here, the term "booster" includes fans - and it has nothing to do with giving money) it must self-report to the NCAA that they have committed a secondary (minor) violation. Now, what type of punishment will this cause? From the NCAA, probably nothing of which to speak. However, ESPN has an army of peons that scour the daily minutia of college football happenings. The next day LSU self reports, you'll see a headline on SportsCenter saying: "LSU athletic department committs NCAA violation(s) regarding its football team." How many LSU recruits watch SportsCenter? How many coaches at rival schools will use such a thing to recruit negatively against LSU? "You don't want to go to LSU, they'll be on probation and lose a bunch of scholarships next year because their a dirty program." Can't you just hear Saban saying that?
The real punishment comes from the P.R. fallout if LSU self-reports violations committed by fans, and they MUST self-report if they do, in fact, find a violation no matter how small. They would be completely stupid not to.

Take home message for any fan who loves LSU: You can interact with an LSU recruit all you want, JUST DON'T TRY TO INFLUENCE THEIR COLLEGE CHOICE IN ANY WAY, EVEN IF THEY ASK YOU FOR SUCH ADVICE.

P.S. Forgot to add this one litte exception: Anyone can pretty much say anything to a LSU recruit IF, IF the recruit is on campus for an official visit. Otherwise, I'd stick with what I wrote above.

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Bluethought

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Nice dissertation, now... Who the frick are you and who gives a shite? This is nothing more than CYA by LSU. Carry on as usual on this site. Any kid that comes to this site is not being approached by anyone.

This site is for entertainment and amusement, nothing else.

Sometimes things don't always work out like planned- Remember the kids who sang the Aggie Fight song @ Hemstead High before H.W.'s decision, & next thing we know, Harvey Williams committed to LSU.

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or me to "automatically" be treated as a booster of a school simply because I encourage a recruit to attend that school.

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Those are LSU's words in the letter to CYA against anything. This is the actual definition of a booster in the NCAA rules (I fit the definition given by LSU, but I don't think I fit the NCAA definition):

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13.02.13 Representative of Athletics Interests.
A "representative of the institution's athletics interests" is an individual, independent agency, corporate entity (e.g., apparel or equipment manufacturer) or other organization who is known (or who should have been known) by a member of the institution's executive or athletics administration to: (Revised: 2/16/00)
(a) Have participated in or to be a member of an agency or organization promoting the institution's intercollegiate athletics program;
(b) Have made financial contributions to the athletics department or to an athletics booster organization of that institution;
(c) Be assisting or to have been requested (by the athletics department staff) to assist in the recruitment of prospective student-athletes;
(d) Be assisting or to have assisted in providing benefits to enrolled student-athletes or their families; or
(e) Have been involved otherwise in promoting the institution's athletics program.

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This typifies what is scary about the proliferation of rules and laws.

They make tons of laws/rules, half of which are open to serious interpretation or are basically impossible to enforce or prohibit. Don't think that isn't partially by design. It gives the person in charge (government or NCAA) complete control. Once they want to nail your arse they will always be able to find some rule or law to do that with. In this manner, they keep everyone in check by fear.

This is part of the rulebook for totalitarian regimes.

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Yep. You are 100% correct.

Chicken thanks for the post. The rest of this stuff gives me a headache.

So how in the hell are we supposed to know its actually a recruit? If I tell everyone on the board that I'm Christine Michael do they have to take my word for it?