The Florida Gators were flagged on Monday for recruiting violations via Facebook. That’s right; the world’s largest social network has now become an accomplice for shady contacting tactics. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Facebook play a role in somewhat substantial college football happenings, nor will it be the last.

Back in February of this year, Oregon head coach Chip Kelly dismissed wide receiver Jamere Holland from the team for some insanely vulgar comments he made on his Facebook Page. These comments, which you can try and piece together here, were critical of some of the disciplinary moves Kelly had made at Oregon.

Flash forward one day later, Holland was gone. Flash forward months later and Chip Kelly has had to deal with much more of this tomfoolery, but I digress.

Facebook, Twitter, and the quickening ways to communicate and connect have changed the face of college football and sports as a whole. In the situations listed above, both parties went above and beyond what they were allowed and/or supposed to do and it cost them dearly – Holland obviously more than the Gators.

The fact that players are able to build a fan base through these outlets is a scary thought. In many instances, the online world isn’t ready for what these sudden campus superstars have to say. Yet, an 18-year-old has now become a source, and their thoughts are a part of many people’s daily routine. Guilty as charged. Even scarier is that these players can now market themselves before they ever visit a college campus.

Coaches and recruiters are also learning how to toe the line using 2.0 methods, and Florida is one of the first but certainly not the last to get caught. With these new methods come rules. For instance, coaches and recruiters are allowed to contact players via email and/or direct message, but Facebook Wall posting is not allowed.

Going forward, will social media become an integral piece of the recruiting process in the future, or will a few more Gator-type situations put an end to the experiment? Will the players be able to control the freedom or will the anti-social media sentiment that has become loud roars in pro sports trickle down to the college level?

Recruiting violations and reckless tweeting certainly warrant separate arenas of discussion, but both will be monitored closely in the future.

It should be fascinating to watch, and I’m anxious to see how the NCAA handles certain situations. I feel that the NCAA is more reactionary that revolutionary when it comes to rules, changes, etc – but I also get the feeling that they understand the importance of keeping the integrity and images of the players and coaches intact.

In the end, however, a few bad situations may damper the impact that social media has on the game sooner rather than later. I hope I’m wrong, but it’s safe to say that a some bad PR driven by more rule bending or some late-night Tweeting might have the final say on where we go from here.

Today, well actually last night at 1:00 AM, I was officially suspended from Twitter. I couldn’t sleep for some reason so I decided to sign into my @Kegsneggs account and this is what I saw. So much for posting my mock draft…

“Strange Activity?!” Panic set in and immediately I wanted to know why. But in actuality, I already had an idea. I soon found out that I, a young college football expert/wanna-be, was in violation of a major Twitter rule.

The Twitter Rules state that one can be suspended, “If you have followed a large amount of users in a short amount of time,” OR “If you repeatedly follow and unfollow people, whether to build followers or to garner more attention for your profile.” Plus a bizzillion other items including porn, but the two items above were the ones that rang true.

GUILTY AS CHARGED.

This last week I have been using a program online to assist me in following and flushing Twitter folk quick and easy. I began doing this because I wanted more followers, blog hits, friends,chatter, and a big ego boost. I even installed a bell next to my bed that I rang every time I picked up another follower – okay, that’s not true but I did want to increase the K  ‘n E  fan base and this was my feeble attempt at doing just that.

By doing this, others would follow me back and perhaps KegsnEggs would get HUGE in the process. While I’m not proud of this, it did seem to be working pretty solid. That was, however, until Twitter stepped in and shut it, and more specifically ME down.

This isn’t the spot of my rant where I go off on Twitter, in fact it’s the exact opposite. My suspension lasted all of 15 hours thanks to @ginger – a Twitter employee who I pulled from one of the many “I got my ass suspended” blog. Many of these blogs said that I could expect days, weeks, or even months of waiting for reinstatement (gulp). I tweeted ginger my problem from my personal, extinct Twitter page and she provided a timely response asking for my specific case number. I gave it to her along with a sincere apology and the ball was rolling.

After agreeing to obey by the rules from this point on, my account was then reactivated. I was thrilled, then appalled to see that I had lost all my followers, followings, and lists. After sending out S.O.S.s to many of you (thanks to those who helped me out), my info returned about ten minutes later and I was thrilled and relieved once again.

I cannot thank Twitter and more specifically ginger enough for resolving this mishap in less than a day. With that said, this is what I’ve learned from my day as a Twitter outlaw.

I realized how much I love Twitter and more specifically, the many fans, followers and good people that I have the privilege to interact with on a daily basis. Losing it, (not to mention in such an embarrassing way), was something I couldn’t fathom. Instead of trying to promote myself to more and more people, I instead plan to increase the depth of the interactions that I already have – ala “The Things We Think and Do Not Say” via Jerry Maguire. Hopefully I don’t get fired, however.

I advise all of you to do the same, especially considering you get this screen if someone tries to access your suspended page. Why don’t I just walk around my neighborhood with a clipboard, my god.

I wish this whole thing never would have happened, but in a sick way I’m glad it did. I will do things differently from this point on. I will embrace the FAIL WHALE, respond to more tweets, be funnier (or at least try), and provide more insights.

(Breathing in the cool air of my Twitter homepage sans the ”Suspension Warning”) WE NOW RETURN TO YOUR TYPICAL K ‘N E BANTER- mock draft tomorrow, Kegheads.