An interesting development over the past decade is the ways many team and league official X (formerly Twitter) accounts have started to work in snarky comments you might expect from fans in addition to their usual mix of information and press releases. That’s been seen from several sources, but the latest there is the NCAA Division I FCS Southland Conference’s official account suggesting they wouldn’t want the loser of the Florida – Mississippi State (in response to a @RedditCFB suggestion of relegating the loser):
(If @SouthlandSports is willing to take them, that’s not our call)
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 21, 2024
No thank you. https://t.co/HUJnxxsl9V
— Southland Conference (@SouthlandSports) September 21, 2024
This is obviously a joke. No matter how poorly the Gators or Bulldogs play (and both have been quite bad so far this year, with each entering Saturday’s contest 1-2), college sports doesn’t have official relegation (outside of being left behind when other schools in the conference exit).
Although the response here isn’t a serious policy statement, it’s another example of cheeky remarks you might expect from fans coming from official accounts. There have been a lot of those of late, including TCU putting together a video making fun of the ACC for their game being on The CW and Argentina using a win over Canada to drop a reference to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” diss track on Drake.
The idea of X accounts using the fan voice isn’t new, with the Los Angeles Kings in particular embracing that more than a decade ago. And there are cases of even whole university accounts (notably South Carolina’s) or team accounts (notably the Indiana Pacers and New Orleans Saints) blasting media cold takes. We’ve also seen teams weigh in on officiating and players, sometimes in controversial ways. But it’s perhaps even more remarkable to see a full conference account get in on this.
Maybe other conferences will join in. That could mean we’ll someday get the ACC clapping back on people who insult its schools, or cheeky responses to people who tag @SEC when they mean the Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECgov) rather than the conference. Or maybe we’ll even see conference realignment actually partly play out on social media at some point.
The Southland Conference’s tweet here is a pretty low-stakes one, as Florida and Mississippi State are unlikely to ever join them. But what if those schools refuse to arrange to buy games with Southland Conference schools going forward? Deciding that over a conference tweet would seem pretty petty and unlikely, but a lot of petty things happen in college athletics.
Of course, the bet here is that this tweet’s probably relatively safe, and one everyone can just laugh at. And it is quite a funny one along those lines. But it does bring up interesting thoughts on just where the line is for official team and league accounts. The conference was probably on the right side of it this time, but there’s a line there that people running these accounts have to be cognizant of. And it’s interesting to ponder where that line might be.
For now, though, there probably isn’t much wrong with the Southland joining the ranks of college football fans laughing at the struggling Gators and Bulldogs.
[Southland Conference on X]
