DKW 86 7,431 Posted August 28, 2006 Share Posted August 28, 2006 http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...RTS06/608270493 Coaches make honest mistakesNCAA requires restitution for secondary violations Related articles • Excerpts from the documentation By Mark Alesia mark.alesia@indystar.com A college football coach contacts a recruit during a time it isn't allowed. Although it's an honest mistake, the player has to be declared ineligible until the matter can be cleared up officially. The art of the ticky-tack foul NCAA infractions deemed to be inadvertent or resulting in minimal advantage are characterized as "secondary" and usually result in minor, self-imposed penalties. Here are some recent examples from Indiana University, Purdue and Ball State, obtained through public-records requests: Purdue football When Devard Darling, now a receiver with the Baltimore Ravens, checked out of his hotel room at the Purdue student union after an official recruiting visit, he refused to pay for his almost $100 in phone calls. While schools are allowed to provide a room during an official visit, they can't pay for phone calls, and the hotel was supposed to block such calls. The athletic department said it couldn't reimburse the student union because that would be an NCAA violation. An athletic department employee wrote to the union, "You'll have to pursue Mr. Darling." Purdue declared Darling, a transfer from Florida State, ineligible to play for the Boilermakers. He ended up at Washington State. The NCAA took no further action. IU men's basketball After arriving home from a loss at Purdue, coach Mike Davis required the team to watch video of the game for an hour. That violated a rule against practice after an event unless it's between games of a tournament. No sleuthing was necessary to find out about this one. Dick Vitale talked about it on television. The compliance coordinator of another Big Ten school alerted IU. The team was required to reduce its "athletically related activities" for two weeks, and Davis received a letter of admonishment from the school, a normal part of penalties for secondary infractions. Ball State football An assistant coach picked up a recruit and his father, who's legally blind and uses a wheelchair, to take them from their home in Chicago to campus for an official recruiting visit. He also drove them back. While NCAA rules allow schools to provide meals and lodging for parents, they can't give them transportation. The coach said he thought it would be OK, given the circumstances. It wasn't. The assistant coach received a letter of admonishment from the school, and the father reimbursed the school $88 for mileage. Purdue men's basketball During an official campus recruiting visit, a recruit's player-host took him to a party in Bloomington, going outside the 30-mile radius that's allowed by the NCAA for entertainment. The recruit had to pay $61.42 to charity. That was the difference in mileage money between what the school could provide within the rules and how far he actually traveled. The player-host was suspended from team activities for five days and not allowed to host any more recruits during that semester. IU (general) An administrator overheard some other staff members talking about how they fared based on the results of the weekend's pro football games. The compliance director followed up and they admitted they were in a fantasy football league that charged a $50 entry fee and had a $250 prize. That's against NCAA rules because it's considered gambling. One staff member received a two-day suspension and a $100 fine. Two other staff members were suspended for a day. -- Mark Alesia The player's mother goes ballistic. The coach feels horrible. He sends her flowers, with an apology. Yep, that's another NCAA violation, one for which the mother has to make restitution for the value of the flowers. The story, all true, comes courtesy of Chris Strobel. As the NCAA's director of secondary enforcement -- basically, the cop in charge of college sports misdemeanors -- Strobel might be considered one of the organization's chief nit-pickers. But the humor of such situations isn't lost on him. "I don't think the coach signed that particular recruit," he said. More than 2,700 secondary violations -- defined as those that are isolated or inadvertent, and don't create a significant advantage -- were reported in 2005, usually by the schools themselves. A review of the reports submitted by Indiana University, Purdue and Ball State, obtained through public records requests, shows a side of college sports not often revealed to the public. They illustrate the difficulty of creating a level playing field while mixing amateur sports and higher education. Jennifer Brinegar, IU's assistant athletic director for compliance, said the school has "a strong culture of compliance," but it's impossible to avoid violations. "The rulebook is 460 pages, and a rule or bylaw can have three to 100 interpretations on (an NCAA) database, and you're responsible for knowing those," Brinegar said. "And the rules change." Ed Howat, who oversees compliance at Purdue, said that taken individually, some rules seem silly. But, he added, "When you look at the big picture, each bylaw is there for a reason." In 2003, Purdue self-reported a violation by baseball recruits for watching three minutes of a football game from the field at Ross-Ade Stadium. They had passes to be on the field before the game for warm-ups and to watch the band. It's against NCAA rules for recruits to watch from the field or bench during a game. Watching from the stands is OK. To determine restitution, Howat pro-rated the price of seats closest to where the players were standing. The players made $5 donations to the Salvation Army as restitution, the receipts for which were filed with the NCAA. The NCAA took no further action, as is usually the case with secondary violations. Former IU football coach Gerry DiNardo had a graduate assistant break the rules by buying the parent of a recruit a hamburger during the drive from the airport to Bloomington for an official visit. The rules say recruits' parents can be provided meals only within 30 miles of campus during an official visit. "I will say, in defense of those rules, some coach, somewhere, probably stopped between campus and the airport and spent $500," DiNardo said. "There's always a reason the rule was passed." DiNardo was also written up for a summer softball game between the football coaches and football players. It was within the rules for the school to buy food for the occasion, but the game constituted an impermissible "athletically related activity" outside the playing season. IU's report to the NCAA noted, dutifully, that the players "were not timed running bases and were not required to perform any warm-up activities." Strobel said the NCAA sees self-reports of secondary violations as a positive sign. "It shows you've got a monitoring system in place and you're fulfilling your obligations," he said. "We're more concerned about institutions that don't report any. By the nature of the rules and bylaws, there are going to be mistakes." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DKW 86 7,431 Posted August 28, 2006 Author Share Posted August 28, 2006 Vanderbilt Oklahoma Kentucky Tennessee Reports Secondary Violations MSU Ivy League Reports Notre Dame Michigan Kansas How to self report. I think you get the idea. With 2700 reported violations in Div 1, That would come to about an average of 3-7 per team in a given year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quietfan 233 Posted August 28, 2006 Share Posted August 28, 2006 Purdue declared Darling, a transfer from Florida State, ineligible to play for the Boilermakers. He ended up at Washington State. The NCAA took no further action.Hmmm...wonder where he learned that skipping out on bills is OK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthLink02 8 Posted August 28, 2006 Share Posted August 28, 2006 You all are cheaters plain and simple. Reminds me of UGA's secondary violations last year http://www.aunation.net/forums/index.php?s...c=22943&hl= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DKW 86 7,431 Posted August 28, 2006 Author Share Posted August 28, 2006 You all are cheaters plain and simple. Reminds me of UGA's secondary violations last year http://www.aunation.net/forums/index.php?s...c=22943&hl= Forgot to include that one.... I could also do a few on :lsu as well. As the NCAA says: ...More than 2,700 secondary violations -- defined as those that are isolated or inadvertent, and don't create a significant advantage -- were reported in 2005, usually by the schools themselves. ... Strobel said the NCAA sees self-reports of secondary violations as a positive sign. "It shows you've got a monitoring system in place and you're fulfilling your obligations," he said. "We're more concerned about institutions that don't report any. By the nature of the rules and bylaws, there are going to be mistakes." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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