Rich Rod calls NCAA violations while at UM "...a bunch of BS"
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2013/10/rich_rodriguez_vents_about_vio.html#incart_river
"I get mad when I think about that, to me -- and I don't mind saying it -- I thought it was a bunch of BS," Rodriguez said. "We got in trouble for, in the offseason, a strength coach putting a rubber ball on a stick for a get-off thing when (players) did their running. A rubber ball on a stick.
"Now think about that, I could have put a hat on a stick -- that was something I got in trouble for."
Let's just focus on the NCAA violations for this discussion. The rest of the past is history. I was thinking about this the other day as it seems the NCAA is not going to make a big stink about Alabama and other SEC schools committing very similar violations to what got USC in a heap of trouble.
It angers me that players receiving illegal benefits in the south is probably going to get a slap on a wrist compared to what Michigan got for a Freep jihad over a rubber ball on a stick.
October 10th, 2013 at 3:51 PM ^
Are you serious? Every other coach in the country was able to make sure their program was in compliance, so why couldn't Rich Rod? Besides, the program was found to have had 4 major violations, not just the rubber ball on the stick.
October 10th, 2013 at 3:55 PM ^
Or head-deskingly misinformed. Because not only do you think every other team is/was in full compliance (BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA), but you seem to think the compliance issues started with Rich Rod's tenure.
October 10th, 2013 at 4:11 PM ^
How do you know that other teams were not in complience? Do you have evidence to suggest otherwise regarding another program? If not you are the troll buddy. According to the NCAA the rules violations started with Rich Rod's in 2008.
October 10th, 2013 at 4:15 PM ^
According to the NCAA, UNC did nothing wrong when they put fake classes on people's transcripts. UNC did do this, it's an accepted fact by the school itself, but the NCAA found no wrongdoing. So your use of the NCAA as the arbiter of violations is incorrect, not to mention disturbingly naive to the point of mental illness.
October 10th, 2013 at 5:16 PM ^
This post is why there was upvoting.
BRING IT BACK
October 10th, 2013 at 6:01 PM ^
You are grossly misinterpreting what happend at UNC to try and prove your point. UNC was found in violation and there were penalties imposed by the NCAA.
the penalties in this case include:
- Public reprimand and censure.
- Three years of probation from March 12, 2012, through March 11, 2015.
- Three-year show-cause penalty for the former assistant football coach prohibiting any recruiting activity. The public report contains further details.
- Postseason ban for the 2012 football season.
- Reduction of football scholarships by a total of 15 during three academic years. The public report includes further details.
- Vacation of wins during the 2008 and 2009 seasons (self-imposed by the university). The public report includes further details.
- $50,000 fine (self-imposed by the university).
- Disassociation of both the former tutor and former student-athlete who served as an agent runner (self-imposed by the university).
Boom.
October 11th, 2013 at 6:39 AM ^
Survey says: Bzzzzt!
"The academic fraud violations stemmed from the former tutor constructing significant parts of writing assignments for three football student-athletes."
Not one ounce of those penalties stemmed from the no-show class taught by Julius Nyang'oro, which is what I was referring to. Try again.
October 10th, 2013 at 4:24 PM ^
I'm referring specifically to similar complience issues to that we had under Rich Rod. Obviously there are other schools that have been found to be in violation of other ncaa rules.
October 10th, 2013 at 4:32 PM ^
But you're STILL wrong.
Oregon got hit with exceeding coaching staff limitations and failure to monitor just this year.
Maryland reported practice time violations for the 2010 season a year later. And it counts as a minor violation. Because the NCAA gonna NCAA.
This took me like 30 seconds to Google. C'mon son.
October 10th, 2013 at 5:26 PM ^
You seem to be making my point. Violations were commited and penalties were handed out by the NCAA. What are you trying to argue?
October 10th, 2013 at 8:19 PM ^
That what happened at Michigan was similar to paying student athletes. Oh wait no, that is what you were doing and were called out for being a troll. He was also trying to say that no other coaches did the same thing as RichRod so it must have been an awful thing he did. Oh no wait, that is what you said and were called out for being a troll.
October 10th, 2013 at 4:09 PM ^
Yes, everyone sticks with perfect adherence to the practice rules and all 120-some HCs will be able to snappily recite, when asked, which objects the training staff may put on a stick.
Also, there are no players taking money from boosters except those which are caught.
October 10th, 2013 at 4:13 PM ^
Dude, what's on the stick is not the issue here. Somehow no other school was found in violation, so you can only speculate as to whether it happens or not an another school.
October 10th, 2013 at 6:09 PM ^
The only reason anyone even knew it happened at Michigan was because the Freep decided to raise all sorts of holy hell about it. If the Freep wouldn't have blown the whole thing out of proportion we would have never heard about it and nothing would have happened. Also if you don't think these types of things happen at many of the other college programs around the country you should really pay more attention to college athletics.
October 11th, 2013 at 7:49 AM ^
You are making your opponents' points. As you say, "you can only speculate as to whether it happens or not an another school. " And your speculation was that "Every other coach in the country was able to make sure their program was in compliance." That seems like a foolish, unwarranted speculation to me.
October 10th, 2013 at 4:09 PM ^
There's no way that is true. Probably nearly every team commits a violation nearly every day.
The only real "rules" are 1. don't get caught 2. admit nothing even if caught and 3. don't show up the NCAA (i.e., USC style). Follow those rules & you'll be fine.
October 11th, 2013 at 12:02 PM ^
Credence Tapes, I'll just jump in here to point out that this is yet another point that you've gotten entirely wrong.
The Ha'Sean Clinton-Dix case is an object lesson in how Michigan got screwed by Rosenberg, Snyder and the Free Press.
In the Clinton-Dix case, Alabama learned of the details internally. They self-reported to the NCAA (no doubt including a self-report of a secondary violation) and took internal action including suspensions. And thereby ended the story.
I have little doubt but that it would have turned out differently, if ESPN had first gotten the story, and blew it up as a major scandal, before Alabama could do anything about it.
That is what Rosenberg did to Michigan. Going out of his way -- even compromising the veracity and accuracy of his basic story, by not talking to anyone in charge -- to keep Michigan in the dark about what he was writing about until the last possible instant. In the Freep story, they dropped the news on Michigan on a Friday afternoon before going online with the story on a Saturday with print on the front page of the Sunday paper.
The two cases, Alabama and Michigan, aren't much of an embarassment to the NCAA. What they reveal is the way that the Free Press gamed the process, and the level of malice on the part of Rosenberg.
This is the remarkable thing; if the Detroit Free Press were an NCAA member institution, their actions in not notifying anyone of what they (erroneously, it turned out) suspected as major violations might themselves have been the subject of sanctions.
It's simply monstrous, what Rosenberg did. It should not be forgotten, as long as either one has even the remotest contact with Michigan.
October 10th, 2013 at 3:06 PM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 3:37 PM ^
But really, that is way too much information.
October 10th, 2013 at 4:12 PM ^
I recall this actually being a big charity event. I don't think he was implying he went to Goodwill and rummaged about for RR's maize and blue undies.
October 10th, 2013 at 3:09 PM ^
You hear the rumors of all the crap going on elsewhere and somehow we get the NCAA hammer for stretching too much. Please, don't pay any attention to Miami, Oregon, Okie State, Alabama, or Auburn and give Penn State their scholarships back! Just don't let me catch you stretching!
October 10th, 2013 at 3:09 PM ^
The whole thing really is unfortunate and unfair. The only reason we were prosecuted is because our own local press kept on the point so much as to hold the NCAA accountable for doing something. Our own press.
It seems at this point that the NCAA won't do anything unless there is an outside party riding them the whole way, such as the Freep in our case. For most schools, there isn't an outside entity as hellbent on the destruction of the team that has the time and resources to pursue this kind of prosecution.
That's why my disgust for the Freep will never go away. They put a ton of resources into tearing down U-M, a source of enjoyment and happiness for people in their own backyard, in their own readership. At a time when the people of Michigan needed something to feel good about more than ever.
October 10th, 2013 at 3:14 PM ^
I will never give a dime to any effort from the Free Press. Unless they make square (hah!) I can only hope for a swift elimination of the whole paper.
October 10th, 2013 at 3:16 PM ^
was Bill Martin inviting the NCAA in to see what they could find. Had Michigan simply investigated things itself and submitted a report, I doubt anything ever would have come of it.
October 10th, 2013 at 3:17 PM ^
I have never and will never understand why they did what they did. You are 100% correct and speaking as somebody here in Ohio where the Cleveland Plain Dealer basically shills for the Buckeyes BECAUSE THEY ARE SMARTER THAN COWS UNLIKE THE FREEP WHICH DECLARED WAR ON 1/2 OF THEIR CUSTOMERS.
How no one has written a book on the adject stupidity of a business attacking its customer base yet is beyond me but that book is just waiting to be written. It truly is unreal.
October 10th, 2013 at 3:58 PM ^
So basically you think the Freep should only report exactly what its consumers want to hear? Why even have newspapers then?
October 10th, 2013 at 4:06 PM ^
It's just that fabricating a story is extra stupid when a by-product of the story pisses off half your customers.
October 10th, 2013 at 4:24 PM ^
If the Freep started investigative reporting to prove once and for all that American automobiles are crap and the only decent car is a foreign one would it matter if they were right or not? Because they would be shitting all over the very people they depend on to buy their stupid paper and at the end of the day who really cares what they think.
They allocated time, money and print coverage to make something up in order to attack something that at least 50% of their readers hold dear. How on earth does that make any sense in any business model known to man?
October 10th, 2013 at 4:36 PM ^
I'm all for Jeffersonian ideals of a free and independent press, even though those have gone by the wayside for well over a century.
However, if you're going to, as a media source, exist to sell yourself, then crapping on a large chunk of your customer base and making shit up to do it is pretty darn stupid.
October 10th, 2013 at 5:20 PM ^
specifically, what did the freep "make up"? You seem to be throwing a lot of crapping and shit around without providing any evidence. Michigan was found to be in violation by the NCAA. How is that "made up"?
October 10th, 2013 at 5:52 PM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 6:11 PM ^
The freep did not "claim" anything, they reported allegations made by former players.
October 10th, 2013 at 8:22 PM ^
Did you actually read the article? Because you seem to not know what was in it if you think the Freep didn't claim anything.
October 11th, 2013 at 1:13 AM ^
You're just being annoying. Or else you honestly don't understand media spin, which wouldn't surprise me either, I guess, if you're an average American.
October 10th, 2013 at 6:21 PM ^
the freep didn't even know the damn rules. they didn't know the difference between "voluntary" and "mandatory" practice time. complete incompetence. yet no one was fired to my knowledge. inexcusable.
October 10th, 2013 at 5:58 PM ^
Since the only evidence you seem to recognize is NCAA verdicts, perhaps you should read what the Freep alleged and what the NCAA found. They are different, ergo the Freep made some of it up.
October 10th, 2013 at 6:10 PM ^
The Freep quoted former players who alleged they were forced to practice more than was allowed. They did not make the allegations up, they were reporting allegations made by former players. The NCAA investigation was not able to verify those allegations however, but they were not made up by the Freep.
October 10th, 2013 at 6:13 PM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 7:25 PM ^
You can chose to believe that, but there is absolutely no evidence that says this is the case. However we do have evidence that the investigation found compliance violations that were commited under Rodriguez, similar to what was alleged by the players. The freep article was not to my knowledge counted as evidence against Michigan, so even if the allegations were eronious, they had nothing to do with the findings.
October 10th, 2013 at 9:15 PM ^
There was, before you, another naive young man who wandered into the MGoBoard once and questioned what it was that the Free Press got wrong. Here's how that turned out:
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/why-i-still-read-free-press?page=1#comment-498349
So yes, the Free Press reported what players said. Remember that not a single player "complained" to Mike Rosenberg. What Rosenberg did was to call a bunch of playershe knew as reliable contacts who were out of the program (I'm not aware of any then-current players actually cooperating in any way with Rosenberg). Of course, while Rosenberg was granting anonymity to players who were gone from the program (e.g., Clemons) and had absolutely nothing to fear from Michigan (contrary to Rosenberg's bullshit claims), Rosenberg did inexplicably quote Je'Ron Stokes and Brandin Hawthorne by name. And in the process, Rosenberg butchered their comments and the context so badly that the players complained to Rodriguez, their families complained to the press, and none other than Angelique Chengelis called out her friend and colleague Rosenberg such that their friendship was damaged.
It was a hateful abuse by Rosenberg and should never be forgiven. "Rich Rod crying" was for a very long time one of the leading Google searches with the coach's nickname. I know of just one occasion when Rodriguez was close to public tears. It was when he was recounting his freshman players coming to his office in shock when they saw their names in print in the Free Press.
You say that the Freep reporting was not supported by the NCAA, and should therefore not be counted for much in terms of any Michigan sanctions. Well, okay. But any sentient human being knows what the Freep story did, to kick off the investigation in the most sensational way possible. So there's that. And then, there is the way that Rosenberg and Snyder went about this story; they talked to absolutely no one in any position of CARA management or authority at Michigan. As a result, their story was crap, and at the same time, they managed to keep Michigan in the dark and unable to look into anything, investigate themselves and report any secondary violations.
The Freep story was calculated, intended and crafted so as to cause the maximum harm to Michigan's image, and designed to provoke an NCAA investigation for major violations. How do we know that? Shortly before the story broke, Mark Snyder FOIA'ed Michigan about any history of "major violations." How do I know that? I FOIA'ed Michigan, asking for all of the Free Press FOIAs.
October 11th, 2013 at 10:06 AM ^
Clearly a TROLL...Please ban him/her or it! Or bring back the downvotes...
October 10th, 2013 at 6:15 PM ^
Yes some of the quotes were made up. Ask some of the players that were quoted in the article and they will tell you the freep twisted their words and even added on some of their own. I don't recall all the players that were misquoted but there was a story in the Detroit News (I believe) where a player and his father were furious at the Freep for twisting said players quotes.
October 10th, 2013 at 9:24 PM ^
Better link to substitute for the one in my preceding post:
October 10th, 2013 at 4:46 PM ^
It makes zero sense unless someone inside the fort put them up to it.
October 10th, 2013 at 4:52 PM ^
No need for a conspiracy, I figure Rosenberg's just a hack, figured everyone hated RR, and he thought he'd get famous off of it. He miscalculated, badly, because it turns out people loved Michigan more than they hated RR, and now he's despised.
October 10th, 2013 at 5:38 PM ^
He may be despised, but he got a better job, sadly.
October 10th, 2013 at 9:29 PM ^
So yeah, Rosenberg is gone. Good riddance.
But Mark Snyder is still creeping his way around the Michigan Athletic campus. We should not forget, that while Mike Rosenberg seems to be the main culprit in concocting the Free Press story, Snyder was his partner in crime.
If you are a current or former Michigan athlete reading this blog, or if you are a current student with friends who are student-athletes: tell everyone you know to stay away from Snyder. Do not help him, or his paper. Don't talk to him. Don't give him any stories. Don't give him any quotes. Don't help him in any way with any exclusive project.
October 10th, 2013 at 7:05 PM ^
I understand your point, but there's a huge amount of subjectivity in "reporting" and "research," specifically in the determination of what questions to ask and pursue. The Freep made a ridiculous choice, in my opinion.
October 10th, 2013 at 3:25 PM ^
If you look at recent history, the most significant NCAA efforts and/or sanctions were honed in on situations where the press did most of the work for them:
- USC: Yahoo expose on Reggie Bush taking money/improper benefits and the entire audit trail it created
- Penn State: Sandusky crimes and all the media attention that followed
- Ohio State: Sports Illustrated cover story on Tressel and accusations of benefits to players going back several years
- Michigan: Detroit Free Press expose sans actual facts
- Auburn: Widespread reporting about Cam Newton's dad getting paid $180K
The NCAA as an enforcement agency, forced to conduct its own investigations from start to finish is a joke. They had what should have been an "open and shut" case against Miami last year and managed to completely bungle that up. They've done next to nothing at Oregon, Oklahoma State or Alabama, despite there being plenty of smoke around all three programs to warrant a meaningful investigation.
The NCAA is literally at the point where if you don't hand the evidence and the recommended discipline to them on a silver platter so that they can simply push a button to approve, they won't even bother trying.