Jihad The Second: Tentative Results Comment Count

Brian

jihad-2006-2007-tercera-guerra-mundial-01lg barwis

don't call it a comeback, jihad's been here for years

So.

After Tuesday's press conference we have all been apprised of what Michigan stands accused of and can go back to the original article and this site's response to that article and evaluate those claims for accuracy. One thing leaps out at me about my response: having little experience with "major violations" that didn't involve hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash changing hands, I didn't comprehend where the line between "secondary" and "major" lies. It turns out that everything down to a few TRENCH WARRIOR hats is major, so this paragraph that wraps up my deconstruction of the journalism-type substance turns out to be wrong:

The Free Press systematically overstated their case by omitting contextual information and misrepresenting quotes about voluntary workout programs. They have repeatedly raised the specter of major, program-crippling sanctions. They took a side, and if that side turns out to be wrong the people responsible for the story should be held responsible for their errors in judgment.

They won't, of course. If and when Michigan releases the results of its internal probe and announces they've come up with either nothing or a pu-pu platter of secondary violations, people will laugh at NCAA enforcement, cite the Jerry Tarkanian quote, and laud the journalistic effort that went into proving football players play a lot of football.

…but only the word "secondary." Michigan will get hit with a major violation after all. They will take some largely symbolic punishment. This is not victory for the University. But it's closer to a win for them (and it's not very close) than it is for the Free Press.

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A series of quotes. The Free Press:

Players spent at least nine hours on football activities on Sundays after games last fall. NCAA rules mandate a daily 4-hour limit. The Wolverines also exceeded the weekly limit of 20 hours, the athletes said.

Toney Clemons:

"The allegations are true," Clemons said. "Nothing is fabricated or exaggerated in that story. I was there on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. or 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. depending on if guys needed treatment. You were there daylight to nighttime."

Yrs truly:

I am willing to wager many amounts of money that the Sunday lifting was of the variety that fits the NCAA's definition of voluntary, as was the film. The rehab/examinations/dinner and any downtime in between practice and film and other activities definitely don't count. At no point has anyone in the media even broached this possibility. It has not occurred to them. Some of them specifically omit it because it conflicts with their aims; some are just professional parrots.

When Michigan releases its compliance information, Michigan will check in at four hours of countable activity on Sunday. If they're over at all it will be by a small amount. I bet a dollar.

The NCAA:

Between August 31 and October 26, 2008, football student-athletes were required to participate in as many as five hours of countable athletically related activities per day, which exceeded the maximum of four hours a day, on several occasions, including, but not limited to, August 31; September 7, 14 and 28; and October 5, 12, 19 and 26. Additionally, during the week beginning October 19, 2008, the student-athletes were required to participate in approximately 20 hours and 20 minutes of countable athletically related activities, which exceeded the maximum of 20 hours per week. [NCAA Bylaw 17.1.6.1]

Someone owes me a dollar.

There is another allegation accusing the program of even slighter overages (a half-hour at most) during the early parts of the 2009 season, after the article came out. We will see why Michigan went over when the details come out, but it's safe to say given David Brandon's statements that Michigan will argue they were erroneously lumping stretching in with various explicitly non-countable activities. Michigan's violations were borne of incompetence, sloppiness, and misinterpretation.

That's not why the Free Press story was major news last year. No one picks up the story "Michigan could be slightly over their daily allotted maximum in countable hours." The lurid allegations that Michigan was not just exceeding but totally ignoring NCAA limits on football-related activities are the entire crux of the Free Press article. With one brief assertion that the players interpreted the technically voluntary activities as mandatory, the Free Press dismisses the idea that a non-countable hour exists. In this they were not only totally wrong but dishonest. Honesty requires framing the facts in a responsible way. No effort was made at this.

They omitted useful context like this statement from NCAA president Myles Brand:

"Once you get past 40 hours, you're really pushing it, I think."

It took two seconds to Google that. It came from an article in an obscure paper called "USA Today" that featured a survey that found D-I football players spent 45 hours a week on football-related activities.

They kept every player who spoke anonymous, even those who had left the program, except for the freshmen whose words they twisted badly. They ignored a raft of articles with quotes that provide context relative to other Division I programs:

To combat any complacency, Meyer has ordered strength coach Mickey Marotti to design the most difficult offseason that Florida's ever had.

"If there's any resistance," Meyer said, "that guy's not going to play."

And they didn't put the word "countable" in their story once. This was not ignorance: when I asked Mike Rosenberg if he knew what a "countable hour" was, he said yes. Mark Snyder, ironically, refused to answer.

They did all this in service of making Michigan's marginal rules violations—violations that college football coaches attest to SportsCenter anchors would befall 90% of Division I—seem utterly lawless. A newspaper that cared about journalism would fire everyone involved with the story now that the NCAA's worst-case scenario has definitively proven that the truth was a secondary objective in the Free Press story, if it was considered at all.

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As for the program: we don't know the details of what went on yet so I can't say whether or not this has a major impact on my opinion of Rodriguez. The NCAA allegations fall in a gray area where it's not immediately clear how bad the violations actually are or are not.

The in-season overages are laughable, consisting of some days that were slightly too long and exactly twenty minutes of actual extra time beyond the 20-hour weekly limit. If the out-of-season overages are entirely encompassed by extra conditioning for kids who missed class, they're stupid on the part of someone in the department but basically honorable. I think there will be other things, though, as there are overages for both "voluntary" conditioning and summer countable hours. What those things are will matter.

The situation with the quality control staffers—obvious here from day one as the most damaging section of the allegations—is potentially worse. I've heard plenty of potential mitigating factors and some of the charges, like "QC staffer helps players stretch," are self-evidently TRENCH WARRIOR-type violations. Others seem like organized efforts to avoid NCAA rules. If they are that's at the very least stupid.  If Michigan has a reasonable explanation for this that the NCAA accepts, fine. I've heard they will, but that remains the quintessential rumor you want to believe.

I'll withhold judgment on the program until then. My guess is that it will be sloppy on Rodriguez's part and worse for certain members of the compliance staff. After some heads roll and Michigan gives back some practice time, it will be over. Dave Brandon has quite a job to do reorganizing the department into something competent.

This is a softball strike against Rodriguez. Another NCAA investigation that turns up anything major and he's gone. Does it affect how much he needs to win next year? Not for me personally, and I don't think for anyone important.

What would change that? Sanctions, self-imposed or not, that seem to seriously impinge on the program's ability to compete the next two years. Scholarship reductions that last past 2010. (IE: are anything other than symbolic.)

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A final note: I can't emphasize enough how much of a hit job this was. Until such time as Drew Sharp, Michael Rosenberg, and Mark Snyder are no longer at the paper, if you are a Michigan fan with a Free Press subscription you should terminate it immediately. If you link to a Free Press article it should be the print page and it should be nofollowed. If you visit the Free Press website, you should have adblock on. If you write for Michigan's Rivals site you should not write for the Free Press. It's not because they took a swing at Michigan's program. It's because they were blatantly dishonest in doing so.

Comments

bacon

February 26th, 2010 at 2:58 PM ^

To me this is why the "boycott the Freep" idea won't work. But, advertisers do choose what sections to put their ads in and a section that doesn't get read will be in trouble. The boycott would probably work if the mgoblog community made list of companies that advertise in the Freep Sports section and threaten to boycott them unless they pull their ads from the sports section. It works for other politically oriented groups, why not Michigan Fans?

bronxblue

February 26th, 2010 at 3:39 PM ^

This is a fair take on the matter - there are quite a few "good" people at the Free Press who had nothing to do with the hit job, yet are being punished. And I'll admit that I do still visit the Freep at times just to keep up with the local news around my family.

But to be fair, there has been collateral damage on both sides with respect to this article. Student-athletes have been hounded by the press, at least one person at UM has lost his job, and the football program may experience serious repercussions stemming for a fact-challenged article. So while I agree that maybe people are overreacting a bit with the Jihad, let's not forget that there are quite a few people who might lose their jobs at UM (and perhaps their livelihoods altogether) because of this piece.

In the end, nobody is going to "win" here, but it looks like both sides are certainly going to suffer.

Ike613

February 26th, 2010 at 4:31 PM ^

There is zero accountability for the media here or in similar situations. Jobs could potentially be on the line for some of those involved with this at UM for the mistakes made. Nobody's job is on the line at the freep despite the mistakes they made... intentional ommission of relevant facts/background, the screwjob they did on the current students in their interviews, etc.

So long as there is no accountability and the media has a free pass to do whatever to whoever they want, it won't stop.

Time for the university to close the doors and shut these people out. They can't be trusted, period.

jonock14

February 26th, 2010 at 6:17 PM ^

Jamie, I 100% agree. There is a place for investigative journalism and "exposees" (2 e's equals accented e), especially with the corruption in the city of Detroit, and the, um, interesting situation of the auto industry. For example, their top notch work on exposing the tip of the Kwame corruption iceberg ended up getting a mayor removed from office, along with double digit numbers of his cronies thrown behind bars (and, if there is a god, the former mayor himself will join them again). It's just depressing and frustrating that a similar amount of effort was spent by the paper's employees trying to dig up another scandal at the U of M.

Reporters can always find "something" if they look hard enough. I just wish I understood why they felt the need to dig into the football program...

Steve in PA

February 26th, 2010 at 2:05 PM ^

Any information worth reading that is found there will probably be found somewhere else as well. Actually, they will probably just be reprinting someone else's story if it's something worth reading.

Moe Greene

February 26th, 2010 at 2:06 PM ^

I strongly suspect the days of people referring to the football program as THE FORT are about to return.

And Toney Clemons? He's been punished enough.
Look at his coach.

Ike613

February 26th, 2010 at 4:22 PM ^

I would rather go informationless than see the freep get even one bit of information they can use to write with. No open practice, no player interviews, etc. Let the rest of the media let the freep know just how grateful they are for F-ing up the great opportunity they had with a coach who finally opened the door to a previously locked down program.

MDubs

February 26th, 2010 at 2:11 PM ^

Throughought this mess I haven't been able to get out of my head an encounter I had with a Freep employee.

She was at a grocery trying to sign people up for trial subscriptions, I politely declined, noting that I took exception to their inaccurate and sensationalist coverage of the football team.

She responded by stating "Well...there has to be SOME truth to it right?!"

I just shook my head in disgust and walked off, not wanting to cause a scene, but in retrospect I should have pressed her on that point.

Is the Freeps goal merely sensationalized coverage with just SOME truth to it? Is that the standard of journalistic integrity these days? Do we no longer examine issues from multiple angles and explain certain concepts like the non-countable hour. and the real possibility that most of these athletes don't really know whats countable or not themselves?? Or should we, as consumers, be content with reading articles that contain SOME truth mixed with MOSTLY speculative crap?????

I mean, wow. I wish my job involved just getting SOME parts of it right and BS'ing my way through the rest.

MGoBird

February 26th, 2010 at 8:34 PM ^

If anyone reads the Muskegon Chronicle, it is just as bad as the FREEP. My cousins murder was written about in the Chronicle, and the only thing truthful they wrote was that she was murdered by her boyfriend, so we called them on their lies. They did not apologize, even though nothing they wrote had any truth whatsoever. They sensationalize stories to sell papers, and do not care about who gets effected.

Yostal

February 26th, 2010 at 2:10 PM ^

That the Free Press does not have an ombudsman so I could take this post, send them the link and ask for a response. Because I would love to see the official Free Press response to this.

I mean, I know what it would be, but I would actually just like to see how they shaped their "we were right, see!" argument in the face of "no, you really weren't."

Evil Empire

February 26th, 2010 at 2:10 PM ^

Rosenberg and Sharp (right?) attended UM. I expect they want us to have a good program.

Did they think that by tearing down Rodriguez they could get the school to dismiss him and hire somebody "better?" Sharp has always been a no-talent hack. Rosenberg used to write positive things, which seemed to turn the moment that Rodriguez was hired. Was he so tight with the Carr staff that he was simply grumpy about his inside sources getting the ziggy? Does he think that by chainsawing the program he'll get an in with the Rodriguez replacement staff? Or is he going to parlay his hatchet job into a lucrative career like Jim Carty did?

Ike613

February 26th, 2010 at 4:16 PM ^

They are out 100% for themselves. An alum that genuinely cared about the program would have put in the time and effort to at least be as factual as possible with a story like that. The complete lack of effort on their part shows just how much they cared to represent the program in an unbiased and factual way, something the kids devoting their time and energy to this program deserved.

The way in which they slung this dirt against the program shows how much they truly care about the student athletes' interests.

TESOE

February 26th, 2010 at 2:13 PM ^

that is on Bill Martin and LC (IIRC). I don't think he had the option to clean house to that extent. I don't know that having an established relationship with compliance would have caught this for RR - it wouldn't have hurt. Bottom line RR should have supervised QC to prevent this overage, but I can see how this could slip given the broad changes that were being instituted wrt football philosophy and the work by all to make that reality.
Regardless Brandon cleans this up, RR learns and the program moves on.

M-Wolverine

February 26th, 2010 at 2:30 PM ^

You can't have the coach that is supposed to be monitored by compliance hiring the compliance department...as if there isn't enough cheating in college sports... (And which coach gets to pick them? The football? The basketball? The tennis coach?).

Rich got to pick all his QC guys...and it seems his guys did him in more than anything. Yeah, compliance, and their supervisor, Bill Martin, have blame too. How does Lloyd even come into this mess?

TESOE

February 26th, 2010 at 3:37 PM ^

coaching? I think not. Push comes to shove football pays the bills and is the most highly culpable and regulated. Established coaches swing a huge stick wrt hiring most all AD personnel that work with the program. LC signed off on much of the non coaching staff hires prior to RR coming in. At least if there were issues with compliance performance he should have fed this back to Martin. Martin signed off on the RR transition plan.

I don't see compliance as an internal investigation group. The relationship is not antipathetic. Compliance is more secretarial. Quality wrt compliance is insuring that all the parties are informed and the organization at large is protected. In this case - failure by compliance (and yes RR). I don't think anyone in compliance owns binoculars or has pens with hidden cameras. Do you? Honestly, I would like to know if I'm wrong on the tenor of the relationship.

M-Wolverine

February 26th, 2010 at 4:48 PM ^

But there are two factors. The first is that Compliance works for ALL the sports. Not just one or two sports. Much like the academic achievement people. Does John Beilein want Rich Rod cronies following his squad, or say a more eggregious situation, does the football coach at Kentucky really want John Calipari guys telling them what's a violation or not?

Which leads into the other factor, that in an ideal situation you have the department working together, of course, but at an academic institution you want some checks and balances for the guy who makes the most money, and has that political power. Because otherwise you get a situation like this one (in the best case), where a coach/staff is unreponsive, and there might be concern whether that political power will come to bear if they report it, to a worst case situation where a Saban or his ilk have people who not only ignore violations, but can even help cover it up. If a bread winner was supposed to have THAT much power (and they already have A LOT), they'd just make the football coach the Athletic Director too. Not that some coaches don't become more powerful than their AD's, but that's not the model.

And if you think there was a lack of communication and clarity here (and there was), imagine if in addition to a new coach, staff, whole new huge training staff, and QA/Grad Assistant guys, you were replacing all the support staff every time you changed coaches. Effectively, for all sports. No one would know how ANYBODY does anything. Not to mention a lot of loyal people would be put out of jobs even if they were doing a good job, not only those who aren't. Heck, ND's Athletic Department could have employed everyone in Indiana, twice, by now. Yes, a big time coach who just can't get along with someone is probably not going to be the one reassigned...but I also frankly hope they have better things to do than Human Resources.

Sorry if I made it all sound a little too "Spy vs. Spy" there. However, at our University I would hope that if we DID have a coach cheating purposefully that we'd have a department that could catch it and report it to an Athletic Director. I DO NOT think Rich is such a coach; this whole situation looks like some embarrassing breakdowns in communication in a shotgun transition, and with the evidence at hand, I no more think that Rich was out to cheat any way he could than I believe all these tinfoil hat theories popping up that someone in Compliance is out to get him (because trashing the whole University and potentially getting fire for the mess up seems like SUCH a good plan). I find most screw ups in business root from a failure to communicate. And when it breaks down on multiple levels like this (coach to QA, QA to Compliance, Coach to Compliance, Compliance to AD, AD to Coach), you have a big honking mess. HONK HONK.

TESOE

February 26th, 2010 at 5:50 PM ^

First of all, let me say thanks for taking the time to address that.

I think the root of the "Pratice Gate" problem is a failure to commit to the change Martin set out to accomplish. Failure to commit by many factions. When the President of the United States comes into office - there is a wholesale change of personnel. This breeds a fat D.C. with many bureaucrats sitting out until the next regime change. I know you can't do that in A^2 with admin staff (or in any college environment.)

If checks and balances are to come to play, Brandon is RR's check - not Compliance. I think you are saying Compliance reports to Brandon as well as RR (if at all to RR).

Basketball pays for itself, Football pays for everything else. Like you said communication was an issue here. RR needs to have a clear communication with the Football rep in Compliance (who happens to have 80% or more of the compliance workload wrt NCAA scrutiny). If hiring a WV or RR person to do this would have eased this communication - that is an oversight of the transition plan. Clearly there was a miss by the extant staff here on the QC overage.

I'm not sure I follow you on best case scenario wrt RR. I don't think he was unresponsive. Overworked perhaps, in his first couple years -losing will do that to a D1 coaching staff- but not unresponsive. I don't see any evidence RR knew Herron was OOC. If there was I'm pretty sure Brandon would be much more critical, but I don't know the particulars yet.

It sounds like you have insight into the AD. I appreciate your insight as my main concern is Michigan integrity. To that extent I think we share the same concern.

M-Wolverine

February 27th, 2010 at 11:53 AM ^

Because I think we're pretty close. Just to clarify on one thing I left vague...the document from the NCAA says that Compliance showed concern, and asked for the letters to the Coaches showing that concern. Which says to me that they had questions about it, but didn't get clear response from Rich and his staff. Now, if the response to the investigation shows that they can't produce such letters, than the burden falls more on Compliance. But as the allegations are written, it seems to indicate that they knew some problem existed, just didn't get a response from coaching, or inform anyone else about it, that would do anything.

Just thought I'd clear the gray area up. Good discussion.

might and main

February 26th, 2010 at 2:14 PM ^

to discuss this situation and get it covered in other MSM. A panel discussion with Chait and John U Bacon to discuss ethics in journalism. Do we have any journalism students here?

aaamichfan

February 26th, 2010 at 2:19 PM ^

The Freep has another chance to gloat over its misdoings when, "Jihad The Third(The Final Fatwa)" hits theaters in August.

michelin

February 26th, 2010 at 2:19 PM ^

IMO, regardless of what happens from here—whether there are changes in the program or athletic department or not—the intellectually dishonest, self-aggrandizing attacks from the Freep will continue until they know they will pay a price for so doing. Even if UM makes changes--in fact, ESPECIALLY if UM makes changes-- the Freep will just find something or someone new to attack. Also, if they do not pay a price, it will just encourage others to pile on.

So, we should all think of what else we can do....

...I mean, of course (cough, cough), that we should think of how to extend a big helping hand to any newly unemployed Freep sports writers.

And the sooner the better.

As many AA News reporters learned, it’s a tough world out there for unemployed journalists (See link below). I heard that some of those guys even had to reinvent their careers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-lucey/how-do-laid-off-journalis_b_47…

BlueCE

February 26th, 2010 at 2:41 PM ^

You have no idea how many times I have half jokingly asked my boss at my fund to go out and buy the Free Press and put me in to handle the reorganization... I have literally had dreams about doing this and what I would do. Unfortunately it is such a piece of crap that no person in their right mind would make a bid for it.

Yostal

February 26th, 2010 at 2:56 PM ^

But when I read that, I took Brian to mean that the loss of scholarships, say a 3-2-1 loss over a three year period (similar to one of the two cases covered yesterday) will be showing that we're serious without necessarily deeply hindering Michigan's ability to compete on the field. Michigan will just need to do a better job when it comes to attrition (which you would hope) and perhaps not gamble on some diamonds in the rough.

If I am wrong, please feel free to correct me!

BlueCE

February 26th, 2010 at 2:37 PM ^

Thanks for the disclaimer at the end... in the end the only way to end what the Freep has done to UM is to boycott them. Either they change their way and understand that there is no reason to destroy the best thing that the state has going for it for they go bankrupt. I am hoping for the latter.

UMMAN83

February 26th, 2010 at 2:54 PM ^

the NCAA process is over. I'd even donate to take out a rebuttal ad in some media form. Also, what action can be taken with the NCAA? Are they that pompous they are not open to improvement? When you look at what these violations are, most sensible people in sports smerk. Does the NCAA not stand for equity?

HermosaBlue

February 26th, 2010 at 4:12 PM ^

Why not have everyone pitch in for a full page ad in the DetNews that does a side-by-side comparison of the Freep's allegations and the NCAA findings, illustrating quite fully the hit job as precisely that?

For Serious. A full page black & white ad in the DetNews, full run retail on Sunday is $31991.

http://www.detroitmedia.com/assets-global/pdfs/rates/retail/retail-sund…

OSUMC Wolverine

February 26th, 2010 at 2:55 PM ^

Someone needs to have a website where people can sign up to be known as persons that will not do business with anyone who advertises with Freep. Furthermore, the website needs to provide cheap advertising for those who compete with advertisers that utilize Freep. Penalizing their business associates is the best way to penalize Freep because they will seek other advertising venues and Freep will lose income.

jerasaurus

February 26th, 2010 at 2:57 PM ^

to Brian for being the best source of accurate and timely information on this whole deal. Yes, there are a few other folks in the Detroit and national media who are reporting this story with something resembling common sense and fairness, but nobody has dug as deep, or analyzed the facts and scenarios so thoroughly.

Don

February 26th, 2010 at 3:03 PM ^

Unfortunately, that's not how the outside world is going to view things. Aside from MGoBloggers and a few sane people in the world of sports journalism, who is going to read the great analyses Brian and M&BWahoo have done? You won't see the Detroit News put the time and effort into copying and pasting the work here—it's virtually unheard of for mainstream "professional" journalists to publicly criticize the work of their colleagues. The opinions of the vast, vast majority of Michigan fans and non-Michigan fans alike is going to be shaped by the Freep's "reporting"; if they live anywhere south of Traverse City they'll get their "news" from the Freep, and if they live in Illinois or California, their local news outlets will also get their stories from the Freep. For most college football fans, RR will forevermore be known as the guy who got Michigan on probation, unless he can manage to start winning large numbers of games starting this season. It's a shitty situation, but it's reality.

jfox

February 26th, 2010 at 3:06 PM ^

It seems to me that in part Rosenberg and Snyder had the courage to do this because they know that Michigan fans will do nothing about this. Imagine a dishonest story breaking out in Columbus about OSU, Dallas/Houston about Texas , Jacksonville about UF, Tuscaloosa about Bama. Freep thinks thinks they can write anything even if the aren't truthful. There has to be a repercussion for this from the fans. But because we are Michigan fans and hopefully civilized we need to Ban the Freep as a protest. The other markets would probably resort to violence or nasty threats. We need to hit them in the pocketbook. Take their advertising dollars away. This is how they should pay. Hopefully their first cutbacks on staff would be the notorious writers of fabricated details on a program that has done things the right way, and still does. Its just that other programs are not being witch hunted like UM has just had done to them.

mtzlblk

February 26th, 2010 at 5:22 PM ^

we should vocally boycott their advertisers.

I for one would participate in generating a list of them and then adding a petition to be signed by people that will no longer buy/use their product/services as long as they advertise with FP.

We can also offer them a promise to buy/use if they pull their advertising.

anyone else?

michelin

February 27th, 2010 at 11:30 AM ^

A form letter could be sent by email by each of us if you post the address of the CEO.

a weekly list of advertisers to boycott or to buy from. The latter should include those who refuse to put ads in freep in the first place.

Picket lines in front of advertisers would really open their eyes, I think.

Do these guys still advertise in freep?
Varsity Ford
Walmart
Humana