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The NCAA: Coaches can’t use Instagram to recruit

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We all love to joke about the ridiculous rules that the NCAA has included in their rulebook, but this one may take the cake:

Question: May a coach take a photo and use software (e.g., Instagram, Photoshop, Camera Awesome, Camera+,) to enhance the content of the photo (e.g., changed color of photo to sepia tones or add content to the photograph), and send it to a prospective student-athlete as an attachment it to an email or direct social media message?

Answer: No, a photograph that has been altered or staged for a recruiting purpose cannot be sent to a prospective student-athlete.


I get the rule. You’re not allowed to alter pictures and send them off to a recruit. You can’t photo shop them into a picture on the bench. You can’t add text to the picture. You can’t do anything to change the photo specifically for a recruiting purpose, even if that rule, in and of itself, is kind of ridiculous.

But to eliminate instagram?

To disallow running a photo through a filter that adds sepia tones?

I mean, I feel like this is kind of stating the obvious at this point, but don’t they have more important things to concern themselves with? Like, oh, I don’t know, Graham Spanier or Shabazz Muhammad or the cesspool that is high-level recruiting in both football and basketball?