LSU outfielder Blake Dean boasts he “smells good,” quarterback Jordan Jefferson went to Panama City for his senior trip, volleyball defensive specialist Lauren Waclawczyk follows the “official rules of shotgun” and soccer goalkeeper Mo Isom can fit 33 grapes in her mouth.”Those are big ass grapes too,” Isom commented on a Facebook photo posted to her profile. “I thought it was quite an accomplishment.”The widespread use of social-networking Web sites among college students often provides the public with personal details about student-athletes who, like their University peers, tend to post ample information and photographs to these sites. Publicly viewable profiles depict these student-athletes — often considered celebrities — in their true light, for better or for worse. And athletic departments in the Southeastern Conference are taking note of the information student-athletes publish, sometimes unwittingly, for the masses.Of the 12 SEC schools, at least five monitor their athletes’ social-networking pages. LSU, Auburn University, Mississippi State and the universities of Alabama and Tennessee all keep tabs on their athletes’ social-networking information. These five schools, plus Vanderbilt, all have formal policies relating to student-athletes’ use of social-networking Web sites. The University of Arkansas is in the process of developing a social-network policy for its athletes.The universities of Kentucky, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina do not have formal policies but do address social-networking concerns during informal training and orientation sessions. Isom’s Facebook profile was changed from being viewable by any member of the LSU network to completely private after being contacted by The Daily Reveille.”I’m addicted to Facebook,” Isom said. “I’m always on it. And the grapes were just fun and games with friends.”After a video clip of Isom scoring a 90-yard free kick was No. 3 on ESPN’s SportCenter’s Top 10 Plays of the Day and circulated further on YouTube.com, Isom said she received around 300 friend requests and messages from individuals she did not know — including some as far away as England and Malaysia.”It was crazy,” Isom said. “Sometimes it weirds me out, and I’m definitely careful.”Other LSU athletes aren’t as cautious as Isom. Defensive end Kirston Pittman said his profile doesn’t have any privacy restrictions. “I just click ‘confirm,'” Pittman said of fans’ random friend requests. “I just leave it open. I don’t see the harm in just accepting anybody that wants to be your friend or whatever. I don’t even know how to make my profile private.”Pittman said he doesn’t typically post content to his Facebook profile, but instead uses the site to stay in touch with out-of-state friends.”[Coaches] tell us a lot you have to watch about what you put online, because you not only represent yourself, you represent LSU and your community and your family,” Pittman said. “You have to be careful about what you put on Facebook and MySpace.”All SEC schools said student-athletes are held accountable to individual team rules.”Each coach runs his or her own program,” said Rod Williamson, Vanderbilt athletics director of external relations. “Some coaches have a long list of dos and don’ts, and others just have a few things.”Of the schools with policies, the guidelines are often spelled out in no more than a single page in student-athlete handbooks.”Remember that you at all times represent LSU athletics,” the Internet misuse section of the Student Athlete Handbook reminds Tiger athletes. “Remember that the general public, including news reporters, also have access to these Web sites.”Isom said she was not told specifics about acceptable use of social-networking Web sites.”But it goes without saying that things we have on our Facebooks need to be appropriate,” Isom said. “We are told on a daily basis our actions on and off the field represent the soccer team as a whole.”Michael Bonnette, LSU sports information director, said Athletic Department officials spot check athletes’ profiles randomly, but the only blanket policy affecting all sports is the one paragraph contained in the Student Athlete Handbook. However, coaches of each sport have the discretion to enforce more stringent rules, and violations are addressed on a case-by-case basis with the student-athlete’s coach.”We feel really confident with the plan we have in place here,” Bonnette said. “We feel it’s a win-win for both our student-athletes and our sports teams. We’re constantly monitoring these things and making sure we, as a department, are covered.”Despite Bonnette’s confidence in his department’s policy, which is on par with other SEC schools’ rules, he said a conversation about increasing monitoring measures arose during an Oct. 14 staff meeting. Bonnette said the discussion did not stem from a particular incident, but rather the need to continually assess active policies.In 2006, USA Today reported two LSU swimmers were removed from the team “after making disparaging comments about their coaches on Facebook.” Both Bonnette and Associate Athletic Director Miriam Segar declined to comment on specific incidents of social-networking abuse, citing athletes’ privacy as a main concern.And last fall, LSU linebacker Derrick Odom was dismissed from the football team after an alleged fight involving several team members took place at The Varsity Theatre. Odom’s Facebook status was updated in the hours following the fight revealing details of the brawl, perhaps leading to his dismissal while other players involved remained on the team.”Derrick is saying the fight don’t end till u die BITCH,” Odom’s Facebook status read the day after the incident. But these incidents appear to be exceptions. Most student-athletes use social-networking sites in the same manner as their non-athlete peers.Tiffany Carpenter, University of Tennessee athletics public relations director, said she views every athlete’s MySpace or Facebook profile — for all 20 sports —  during the summer. At an orientation session with all athletes, Carpenter said she shows examples of acceptable and unacceptable profiles.Under Tennessee’s policy, the strictest in the SEC, if a Tennessee student-athlete is found in violation of the social-networking policies, the athlete is permanently placed on the “spot check list.” Carpenter said every month 25 to 50 athletes are randomly selected in addition to the repeat offenders to have their profiles viewed for policy violations. Athletes with private profiles are not checked, Carpenter said, though the department stresses the importance of these athletes knowing their friends on the Web sites.But Carpenter said athletes posting inappropriate content isn’t the only obstacle presented by social-networking Web sites. One Tennessee athlete brought a Facebook profile falsely claiming to be him to Carpenter’s attention. Carpenter said Tennessee coaches often have multiple Facebook profiles created in their name. Both these problems were addressed with Facebook, and Carpenter said the falsified content has been removed.Despite UT’s problems with fake athlete and coach profiles, most other SEC universities aren’t experiencing similar difficulties.”We realize we’re not in a cocoon here, so we want to make sure our student-athletes are mindful of that,” Williamson said. “As somebody who is not in that generation, it just amazes me what people will put on that site.”—-Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]