Saturday, March 08, 2008

When SNW Meets the NCAA

Elena DelleDonne and her family is finding out the hard way the the new media is not welcome in the corporate sports world. At the same time, exactly what was she thinking by cutting an endorsement for anyone.

Everyone wears some blame here, but the whole business begins with, well, business. And if you have to start calculating whether or not something will be kosher -- that's your first warning that it just might not be OK. The money quote here, from the USA TODAY account, by the website owner thinking it was permissible -- "They are still student-athletes. There are no rules on that."

What? Maybe you mean high school athletes, cause you just used the association's definition.

Here's my future advice: If you need to parse, you better pass.

After Thursday's USA TODAY on-line story (which is much shorter than the printed version), the local Delaware media has followed with a more interesting recount of the events. I highly recommend reading both -- there are some significant variances between the accounts.

The nugget from the local paper:

Ernie DelleDonne pointed out that Elena often is approached by videographers, representing various media organizations, after showcase games, which are designed to attract college recruiters and scouts. He said he was standing with Elena when they were asked by one videographer what they thought of mybasketballprofile.com.

Elena responded that she liked the site, Ernie DelleDonne said.

"The video had Elena and I mentioning the entity," Ernie DelleDonne said, "but it was not an endorsement."

The video has disappeared from the original site, but one has to think it will YouTube soon.

Remember the old SNW advice. Once posted, easily distributed -- especially when it is within a tightly knit community.

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