This is a timely cautionary tale that came out this week in football as a Penn State assistant coach tweeted that the Nittany Lions staff had dropped a recruit because of activity in social media, i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

I know of a handful of cases where this HAS happened in softball too and I’ll cover more of the subject later.

Softballers: be aware it’s not just your friends who are following you!  Parents: would be very wise to monitor what your athlete is doing because it’s not only good parenting, it could be the difference between your child getting that dream offer or not.

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This article courtesy of 247Sports, a leading football recruiting website.

Since the emergence of social media, the recruiting landscape has changed completely, with new avenues like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram now available for coaches to interact with and advertise their program. These outlets also give college staffs a closer look at prospective student athletes that was previously not available.

Dropped another prospect this AM due to his social media presence…Actually glad I got to see the ‘real’ person before we offered him.

— Herb Hand (@CoachHand) July 30, 2014

High school and college coaches continually preach about prospects being careful about what they post on social media, and Penn State offensive line coach Herb Hand became the latest to state just how important social media is to the evaluation process. “Dropped another prospect this AM due to his social media presence…Actually glad I got to see the ‘real’ person before we offered him,” Hand tweeted Tuesday morning. When asked about the stance, Hand told 247Sports, “If a guy makes the decision to post or RT stuff that degrades women, references drug use or cyber-bullying crap, then I can make the decision to drop them,” Hand said. “Especially if I have discussed it with them prior, and especially in today’s climate of athletics.” Nice job by Hand putting it out there and once again reminding prospects that they need to be more careful what they put out there, as the freedom of social media, with the ability to post whatever is on your mind without moderation, directly reflects how colleges think they will react to life away from home and without authority watching over.

We are in the business of educating young men and I’m very comfortable with my efforts in the past – https://t.co/39I9vrk1GH #LiveAndLearn

— Herb Hand (@CoachHand) July 30, 2014

There was some brush-back to Hand’s public stance, as most schools do not put things like that out there. That’s not to say it has not happened to other colleges and prospects before, as it undoubtedly has. Former Top247 prospect Yuri Wright comes to mind as a prominent recruit that was dropped by several schools, including Michigan, for his actions on social media. He would later be kicked out of private school before signing with Colorado, where he is now entering his sophomore season.

While teenagers and adults often let loose on social media, and it should not be forgotten recruits are teenagers, schools still have the choice to filter out who they choose to recruit based on their actions on twitter, Facebook, etc. These are potential future ambassadors of their employer’s brand, and any red flags that show up now could possibly worsen once they get to college. But it also does not mean they will do anything wrong in the future either, and it is not known just how often this policy affects elite prospects so much as it does borderline targets.