This blogpost might have some overlap in it; overlap with other blogs you can find on WRAL.com including David Glenn’s ACC Journal and the WRAL ACC & Beyond Sports Blog, but it definitely concerns high school sports as well. This blogpost is about a new kind of recruiting; recruiting in cyberspace.

If you’re on this site and reading this right now you obviously know what a blog is. Blogs are just one of a few things that the NCAA, coaches and compliment officials are worried about these days. Rivals.com first brought this issue to light last year, but we have seen it develop over time.

One of the most high profile examples comes from Tampa Bay, Florida, where four-star football prospect Stephen Garcia was hired by the Tampa Tribune to host a blog on their web site. The blog was titled “Crazier by the Day,” discussing the recruiting process he was going through. Garcia posted new blog entries every few days with information of new offers, training camps, unofficial visits and more. The blog debuted one day in May, and the next morning this blog had become a new recruiting tool.

The following morning, less than 24 hours after the blog was posted on the website, about 30 South Carolina fans had posted comments on the blog encouraging him to become a Gamecock. According to Rivals.com’s David Fox, comments said things like, “[hope to see you] gun-slinging in the Garnet and Black.”

South Carolina wasn’t the only school represented on the blog though, schools such as Florida, South Florida, Alabama and Auburn also had comments encouraging him to go to their schools.

Here lies the problem.

If any of the so-called-fans who commented on the blog were boosters, donors, or otherwise affiliated with the school’s athletic program, the school would have to file a violation report to the NCAA. NCAA by-laws clearly indicate that boosters cannot have any contact with prospects. What NCAA by-laws don’t clearly indicate is whether or not blogs and sites like MySpace or Facebook are forms of communication.

So, we move from last year’s text messaging issues to this year’s blogging and social networking site issues.

The problem with Facebook and MySpace pages is, if the prospects have them and don’t keep them private, there is no possible way to keep boosters from accessing them. This is why some schools, including Kansas State University, are strongly encouraging their prospects and student-athletes not to have social networking pages or blogs. Another problem, when you comment on blogs and social networking sites, it is largely anonymous. Therefore, it would be easy for a booster, coach, or staff member to pretend they are just a fan (and they would probably get away with it).

Although I am only aware of one violation being reported because of a social networking site, I do think it is happening a lot more than we care to believe. Just ask the University of Kentucky.

Kentucky reported a secondary violation to the NCAA in regards to the recruitment of Patrick Patterson, a star basketball player from Huntington (West Virginia). Kentucky said in it’s report that several boosters tried to influence Patterson to become a Wildcat through his personal MySpace page. Some of the comments on his page reportedly inferred that basketball players at Kentucky receive sexual favors. Wow, bribery too?

Kentucky responded with education. They posted a message on their official athletic web site as well as in their season programs reminding boosters and supporters of the NCAA by-laws. The message also gave the names of 16 online posters who were asked by the University to turn themselves in.

I think one of the major problems is the lack of control. The NCAA can’t control who accesses these sites, and they can’t control who comments on blogs. Also, the will to win is very strong, and schools are always looking for an advantage over everyone else. I’m not going to pretend like I have the answer to this problem, because I don’t. I don’t even know if there is an answer. Maybe this is the only way boosters should be able to contact recruits, or maybe it is just as bad as any other contact. Personally, I believe communication is communication, but I don’t know how to regulate it.

I think another problem is that the by-laws are outdated. The rules were implemented at a time when “snail-mail,” telephone calls, and face-to-face meetings were the norm. Over the past few years, e-mail, instant messages, text messages and pagers have been added to that list. The real problem with blogs and social networking sites is that it would be virtually impossible to find out who a person really is. The only way it is possible is to check the IP address of the commenter, if you can do that. It’s just a good thing being used in a bad way.

Rivals.com also did a study concerning social networking among high school athletes. One of the athletes that participated in the study was O.J. Mayo, one of 2007’s top basketball recruits. Mayo’s name is registered to seven MySpace pages. According to Rivals.com, only one is private. What does this mean? Well, put simply, it means that the authenticity of these pages cannot be guaranteed. Just and example of how easy it is to create your own alias on the Internet and get away with it.

I decided to do a little research of my own with both well known high school and college athletes in our area. I tried former Duke star J.J. Redick, current North Carolina star Tyler Hansbrough, and NC State quarterback Daniel Evans. On the High School side, I searched Julian Gamble (Basketball, Southern Durham) and Josh Oglesby (Football, Garner).

Here's what I found...

When I searched J.J. Redick's name on MySpace.com, 52 people were returned. Of those 52, I noticed many of them were from random locations outside of the Raleigh-Durham area, as well as the Roanoke, Virginia, area where Redick is from. Another thing I noticed, the profile pictures were all pictures accessible to anyone, such as those found on WRAL.com. None of the profile pictures were personal pictures off of the basketball court. Several of the profiles didn't even post a profile pciture. This really makes you question the authenticity of the profiles.

The next athlete I searched was Tyler Hansbrough. Hansbrough's name returned 13 results, and again, I noticed the same things  concerning the apparent location and the profile pictures.

Lastly, I searched Daniel Evans' name. I figured I wouldn't get as many results with Evans' name since he isn't as high profile as Redick and Hansbrough, and I was right. Once I narrowed the search down to NC State's Daniel Evans, I found just two profiles that used his name. Again, no profile picture and the two locations were Chapel Hill and Fuquay-Varina.

I started my searches of high school athletes with Southern Durham's Julian Gamble. Gamble is going to the Miami this Fall where he will play basketball for Frank Haith. Gamble's search turned up five profiles, however only one appears to be genuine.

Josh Oglesby is one of the top running backs in the country, and his name turned up 13 profiles, non of which I can say are authentic with any certainty.

As you can tell, this is a major issue in the recruiting world and something that high school prospects need to be aware of. Right now, I'm not sure what the answer to the problem is, but something must be done. Coaches and boosters need to exercise honesty while in cyberspace, and I think most of them do. It's unfortunate that such a good thing is being used with bad intentions.