Arkansas Coaches Oversee Athletes' Web Sites
Last updated Sunday, June 15, 2008 6:12 PM CDT in Sports
By Ryan Malashock
The Morning News
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FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas basketball coach John Pelphrey had heard of Facebook and MySpace, but he didn't know much about the Internet social networking sites when he worked at South Alabama.
One day during the summer of 2006 changed all of that. His athletic director, Joe Gottfried, gathered all of the Jaguars' teams for a sobering meeting with some pretty serious guests.
"We had the FBI come in and warn all of our athletes about being careful about what you put on those sites in terms of your personal life," Pelphrey said. "They talked about all kinds of things. They stressed for the girls about not putting numbers and addresses on there. For me it was very, very eye-opening."
As a result, Pelphrey doesn't take his role lightly as an educator and overseer of his players. At Arkansas, as at many schools around the country, the task of supervising the usage of sites such as Facebook and MySpace rests with coaches. The NCAA has decided not to regulate the policing of these sites, leaving each institution to draw up its own policies.
Others also are responsible for ensuring athletes at Arkansas don't run amok with their online profiles. Bill Smith, associate athletic director for communications for women's sports, gives a detailed orientation concerning these sites at the start of every school year. The men's athletic department hadn't held a similar meeting under former athletic director Frank Broyles. But current athletic director Jeff Long said an orientation and policy would be put into place for all athletes when the two departments merged this year.
"We'll certainly have a statement on social Web sites and the expectation of our student-athletes if they engage in being on them," Long said.
Even then, though, much of the burden will still be placed on Arkansas' coaches to act as both teacher and watchdog.
"The rules of engagement are that it is left up to the coaches to monitor," Smith said. "It's up to them to do it, and I think they all do to some extent. If for no other reason, they do it to teach and protect their athletes."
Most schools around the country are taking the same tactic. Schools such as Baylor and Wake Forest have implemented specific, written policies that outline what can and can't be done on social networking sites. Other institutions actually censor athletes' usage of these sites in some way.
Loyola University in Chicago has gone even further, completely banning its athletes from creating Facebook profiles. The Arkansas athletic department would be well within its rights to mimic Loyola's policy if it wanted, Smith said.
But it's not feasible, not in today's culture," Smith said. "We'd rather teach them how to do it responsibly."
The same summer law enforcement officials visited Pelphrey at South Alabama, Smith gave a presentation about these online sites to a convention attended by his national colleagues. While there, he told a story and anecdotally found out that Arkansas' approach mirrors that of most other SEC schools.
He informed the gathering about an online "group" that was formed by players on a certain team at a certain SEC school. He didn't name the sport. He didn't name the college. Smith simply explained that the "group" was named "Jane Doe is a liar."
"Jane Doe," he said, was the name of the players' coach. Within the "group," the players made appalling remarks about the coach, doing so in such a way that it wasn't clear whether they were serious or joking. After his speech, Smith said, three people representing three different sports at three different SEC schools approached him.
They all had the same question: Was this at my school?
"It wasn't either of their teams," Smith said. "I almost couldn't believe that happened. That told me that these kinds of things are happening all over the place. And it told me that coaches and administrators and (sports information department officials) are tuned in to what is going on."
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