the editor of Black Shoe Diaries is on line two in 3...2...1...

The whole world is way more fucked up than I could have ever imagined. 

this is the best thing ever.

that i saw today.

on the internet.

well, at least in the last hour, i do get around you know.

but more seriously, it is good.

I bet the Ohio State AD wished they'd thought of catfishing free tatoos to teach players the dangers of taking benefits from boosters.

Great laugh out of this one.

...yo. But it turns out neither Brandon nor the AD ever catfished anyone. Instead, one of the two companies they hired to monitor student athlete social media interactions had an employee follow on Twitter and/or friend on Facebook student athletes.

This is what happened as reported by Pete Cunninghamd of A2.com.

According to Ablauf, the athletic department had 180 Communications give a presentation to the men's and women's basketball teams and the football team in the fall of 2011. A female employee of 180 Communications -- described by Brandon and Michigan coach Brady Hoke as attractive -- had friended several of the athletes on Facebook and followed them on Twitter in the weeks before the presentation to gain access to their public posts. Ablauf said the employee of 180 Communications then gathered several of the posts, some of which were directed to her, to show how easily someone could access their information and use it against them.

"She showed them things that could be misconstrued that weren’t appropriate for public consumption," Ablauf said. "It was a very powerful message of how to use media and social media."

Ablauf said the 180 Communications Inc. employee did not contact the athletes and bait them into saying anything, which is being widely reported. He said her interaction with the athletes was limited to making a friend request or following them and gathered what was public from there.

"She didn’t communicate or maintain a relationship. She asked to be liked or followed," Ablauf said. "I think people jumped to that conclusion because that's what's in the news right now with the Te'o thing and that’s inaccurate."

Ablauf said the department expanded the presentation to include every Michigan sports team in 2012 in order to get out a message about personal branding, interaction with the media and the dangers of social media.

"What we’re tryng to do at Michigan is not teach them just about their four years at Michigan. Future employers look at what they post on Facebook and Twitter," Ablauf said. "You have a lifetime to build a reputation and in a or poor tweet or post that can really hurt what you've worked for and employers can access that very easily."

Rachel Lenzi of the Toledo Blade told me in a tweet exchange that they taped the presentation and Q&A. It will be interesting to see how DAB characterized the effort in his talk and if he ever used the term Catfishing, because what they did back in 2011 was definitely not that.

This is the funniest thing I've read this year.

I think what they did was a great idea, you learn best when youve been burned, better to be burned by someone who has your best interests in mind instead of whatever the Manti mess was.  I'm also happy to see Brian poke fun at it!