Image via @GatorsFB
Last month the NCAA lifted their ban that barred electronic communion between football programs and potential recruits. And now, a new arms race in college football could be beginning.
The University of Florida football program hired a staff that will be solely dedicated to helping recruiting initiatives on social media. In an article recently published by 247sports.com, Florida’s second-year head coach Jim McElwain was profiled regarding the steps that they have taken, as they venture into this newly deregulated recruiting realm.
“In our case, expanding and actually hiring new people in just the social media part of it and starting basically a whole separate office… And that’s what they do. That’s a big piece that wasn’t even around probably what, five years ago… ”
McElwain and his new social media department at Florida will be able to recruit players on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. Since 2007 college football programs were not allowed to text message or actively interact with recruits on social media. Now it is all fair game.
After September 1st of a football players’ junior year of high school they can expect their Twitter mentions and likes to begin to skyrocket, especially if they are a highly sought-after recruit. And these social media interactions will be coming from head coaches, teams and in the case of the Florida football program, a staff dedicated solely to that.
Recruiting in college football is a year-round job, and that is why Florida has taken such swift action to create a recruiting department dedicated to social media. Their football program has gone through some lean years in recent seasons, based on their own high standard of success. If they want to get back to their days of winning national championships they must recruit the best high school talent.
However, some head coaches such as the former Florida head coach Urban Meyer – who won two BCS National Championships at the university – believes this new electronic recruiting could prove to be problematic for high school recruits, as they will get bombarded with text messages and social media posts from teams and coaches. Yet, Meyer understands that social media allows recruits to regulate these interactions to some extent.
“If you text someone, you can’t stop that, so you have a phone full of what? Text messages… So here’s a kid in high school being bombarded with text messages sitting there doing this all day. If it’s social media, you can determine who you want to hear from.”
Programs like Florida, have taken measures to stay ahead of the curve in terms of how best to reach recruits. In the ultra-competitive Southeastern Conference they understand the need to be at the forefront of trends in order to recruit top football talent.
Fellow SEC football program and former national champions, Auburn University, has made a similarly strong commitment to recruiting on social media.
Auburn now has a very active presence on both Twitter and Instagram in order to recruit players. They started the hashtag #AmbUsh17 to help begin attracting the high school class of 2017. The Tigers also established a Twitter account solely for football recruiting. However, with the help and commitment of their new social media department Florida’s presence has Auburn’s beat, for now.
The Gators football recruiting Twitter account has amassed over 8,000 followers and sent out over 2,000 Tweets, often promoting #Swamp17. Both universities have been very active in prompting and congratulating former players who were recently selected in the 2016 NFL Draft. But, for these programs and others around the country who follow suit, they will soon come to realize that it will take much more of an effort to garner the attention and love that many high school recruits are looking for.
While it may seem hard to believe many recruits will take a great deal of stock into coaches and teams liking or reposting their social media content. Teams around the country will learn there is a price to be paid for not having an extremely polished presence on social media, as another SEC football program learned the hard way. Texas A&M recently lost recruits after one of their football coaches took to Twitter to question the metal toughness of young football players today, after an A&M recruit de-committed.
The NCAA was right to lift the ban on electronic communication between schools and recruits because it was already happening. Now, whether they like it or not, college football programs will have to use social media to help recruit.
The University of Florida was one of the first football programs to hire a staff dedicated to social media for recruiting purposes, and they certainly will not be the last. Teenagers spend a lot of their time on social media, and now these platforms will be where some elite athletes make one of the biggest decisions of their young lives.
