"Subtweeting" is the practice of tweeting about someone without sending them a notification about your tweet by mentioning their Twitter handle. Sometimes, this also means not even mentioning the person you're tweeting about by name but leaving readers to work out from context clues who it is you might be talking about. Usually this is passive-aggressive behavior intended that allows a Twitter user to speak negatively about another Twitter user without specifically mentioning them. But sometimes it's a tactic used by college football coaches to send public messages to players without running afoul of NCAA rules. According to the Texas A&M compliance office, it's now impermissible to subtweet recruits under certain circumstances.



The NCAA has ruled on the issue subTweeting unsigned recruits. — Brad Barnes (@TAMUCompliance) February 24, 2016





The #NCAA says using PSA's nickname = not permissible in public messages when context suggests the message is referencing an unsigned PSA. — Brad Barnes (@TAMUCompliance) February 24, 2016





Here's an example of a tweet that'd no longer be proper under the new restrictions on nicknames. It's a January tweet from Texas linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary on an in-home visit with four-star linebacker Jeffrey McCulloch, who's nicknamed "The Shark." McCulloch eventually signed with Texas.

A meal fit for a Shark!!! pic.twitter.com/59ppHxicaN — Brian Luc Jean-Mary (@luc_brian) January 22, 2016



Tweeting directly at recruits was already considered impermissible public contact. Making it impermissible to use nicknames is a more strict rule, but not by much. Some coaches go so far to describe on Twitter the physical build of a prospect and where he's from as a means of skirting the rules. This ruling doesn't seem to prevent coaches from doing that.

This also doesn't seem to apply to coaching staffs' practice of celebrating verbal commitments by tweeting a hashtag or battle cry of some sort. For instance, when South Carolina gets a commitment, the Gamecocks football staff tweets "#SpursUp." Similarly, Kentucky tweets "Yahtzee!" and Texas A&M tweets "YESSIR!" It appears the NCAA will continue to let this slide for now, even though it technically constitutes publicly commenting on a PSA.