Online Social Networking by Athletes

A U.S. University just banned its athletes from the networking site, Facebook.com. About 400 Student-Athletes were affected by this ruling and they were given until August 1st to remove their profiles or risk reprisals from the university.

The university is Kent State Universoty. The university said that thay are just protecting student identities and the university's image. Further claiming that students who list phone numbers and addresses have been contacted inappropriately, either by strangers or sports agents. The move to ban the site came from students and coaches expressing concern over safety and privacy issues.

Now, what a dumb Sports Agent he is if he can not get in contact with an athlete. With or without facebook, agents can easily contact these athletes. What the?!... Local, regional, and even national media are all over these players, their contact details, their associates are all over town. By the way, why the hell are they protecting the privacy of athletes? Why not protect Engineering students too. Why not protect Medicine students?

Back home, I wonder if DLSU Lasalle Basketball players have their own profiles at Friendster.com. Maybe with the downtime they are having, they are busy doing online social networking. If they have, will the UAAP ban these players another year if they do not remove their accounts? :-) Go Lasalle Go (rest)!