College athletics departments are so worried about Facebook and MySpace that, in some cases, they’ve spent the summer researching how their own students use the social-networking sites.
The University of Wisconsin at Madison, for example, assigned one employee the task of collecting data on students’ MySpace pages and Facebook profiles, reports the Wisconsin State Journal. Vince Sweeney, Wisconsin’s senior associate athletics director, declined to provide the Journal with specifics on the study, but he did say that the department would likely share its findings with coaches before the fall semester begins.
Officials at some of the colleges that have cracked down on athletes’ Web profiles say they are trying to protect students from being contacted by strangers—or, worse yet, sports agents. But critics of anti-Facebook policies say colleges are more interested in protecting their own reputations than in keeping athletes safe. —Brock Read
