NCAA says #nohashtagsallowed on Akron @ZipsMBB Jerseys

The Akron verses Ohio game coming up Saturday has been receiving some attention this week.  Akron dubbed the 5pm ET home game as “Social Media Night.”  To build a buzz, the marketing department created promotional jerseys for the team to wear during the game which sport @ZipsMBB (the program’s Twitter handle) across the back of the jersey.

The Akron marketing team came up with the Twitter handle idea about a month ago.  They reportedly reach out to the NCAA to see if the jerseys violated any rules.  Akron felt the response they received from the NCAA was ‘vague’ and therefore the jerseys would be allowed to be worn for the game.  The team ordered the jerseys and released promotional photos.  Since releasing the photos, the NCAA followed-up with Akron telling them they were not allowed to wear the jerseys during the game.  According to espn.com, the rule that appears to be in question is “NCAA Rule 3, Sec. 5, Art. 5, which states that a jersey shall ‘identify the school, the school nickname or mascot, or the player’s name.’”  Apparently the NCAA does not believe a Twitter handle meets those guidelines.

This is not the first time teams have used Twitter handles or hashtags to promote their teams.  From hashtags in end zones to Twitter handles on soccer jerseys, teams have been exploring creative ways to connect fans with their social online presence for years.  However credit to Akron for creating this buzz despite the players not being allowed to don the jerseys during the game, (instead they will wear warm-up shirts bearing the handles before the game).

This story is especially interesting as it is right on the heels of last week’s announcement of new NCAA rulebook changes.  Just one week ago, the NCAA announced plans to relax their policies on social media recruiting restrictions, essentially allowing coaches and recruiters free rein to call, text, tweet, Facebook message, etc prospective recruits during the allowed recruiting period.  According to NCAA President Mark Emmert, the new rules (including the social media recruiting rule) were instituted to “represent noteworthy progress toward what can only be described as more common sense rules that allow schools more discretion in decision-making.”  If history (and the schools that continue to hire John Calipari) has taught us anything, it’s that schools are more than capable making ‘common sense’ recruiting decisions, but where the policing is most necessary is around marketing promotions like “social media night,” yeah, that sounds about right. Ref. espn.com, espn.com Pic Ref. John Ashley/University of Akron via espn.com