Nebraska Athletic Department keeping close eye on student-athletes' social networking

Keith Zimmer knows Nebraska's student-athletes derive plenty of benefits from having Facebook and Twitter pages.

It's the downside of those public pages that worries him and Nebraska's Athletic Department.

"It can definitely benefit you, but it can certainly haunt you as well," Zimmer said.

Nebraska's associate athletic director runs the Life Skills department and is well aware of the fact other schools around the nation are running into problems with student-athletes' online postings.

Thanks to the popular social networks, schools around the nation have at times had to scramble to reprimand its student-athletes for inappropriate and questionable postings.

For example, Kansas basketball player Tyshawn Taylor aired the Jayhawks' dirty laundry on Facebook in September after he and some teammates brawled with KU football players. Taylor helped bring the fight to light when he bragged that he broke his hand while throwing a punch.

After Taylor posted a veiled threat to transfer as his Facebook status in January, he was forced to delete his account.

Less than a week later, now-former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach barred his team from using Twitter after one player complained about him on the site. Leach scolded his players publicly for being "a bunch of narcissists that want to sit and type stuff about themselves all the time."

In February, Oregon earned some national attention of its own when Ducks receiver Jamere Holland used his Facebook page to offer an expletive-filled complaint about the discipline of a teammate who was arrested for DUI.

In a subsequent post, Holland wrote, "I wish I could block whites as friends an only have blacks LOL, cause apparently I'm misunderstood." He was kicked off the team a day later.

"It doesn't surprise me to hear that about other schools," Zimmer said. "I just hope those schools are paying attention and trying to educate their athletes like we are."

For the past year, Nebraska's Life Skills department has worked to try and prevent these incidents from happening by monitoring its more than 550 student-athletes through the use of a program called UDiligence.

The automated service tracked Facebook, Twitter and MySpace posts and sent e-mail alerts to Zimmer and NU coaches each time it spotted an inappropriate posting.

"The goal was to create a culture and let the student-athletes know they need to be responsible with their social networking," Zimmer said. "It can become everyone's business in a quick hurry, and for their own future best interests, it's important they understand the pros and cons of social networking."

Zimmer admitted more than two dozen student-athletes complained about the program when it first began and saw it as a violation of their privacy.

"We told them that once you signed on to be a Nebraska student-athlete, it now becomes our business," Zimmer said. "We try to present it in a positive way: We're out to protect your image and your future, and we want to see you succeed well beyond Nebraska."

The program is based on a database of more than 500 objectionable words. When a student-athlete uses one of these words, the post gets flagged. They're usually confronted by a coach or assistant shortly thereafter.