Omens And Precedents Comment Count

Brian

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA         raven

His blog is long defunct but a hat tip to ny1995, who did the legwork in the NCAA infractions database and unearthed these cases. Burgeoning Wolverine Star also highlighted the FIU case I'm about to and has a take on the similarities between the two cases.

UPDATE: I asked Compliance Guy to sanity-check this and have added his comments in below.

The accusations the NCAA has levied against Michigan are not unprecedented, so a look at a couple similar cases over the past decade might prove illuminating. But first, here's an example of what qualifies as a "major violation" these days. One of the things San Diego State got nailed for:

During the 1998-99 through 2001-02 academic years, the assistant coach provided impermissible apparel to the student-athletes who played the position of offensive line.  Specifically, at the commencement of training camp each year, the assistant  coach distributed  “flexi-fit” hats  embroidered with  the offensive  line’s theme for the particular year.  Themes have included “Big Block Boys,” “O-Line Finish the Block” and “Trench Warriors.”  Further, at the conclusion of the 2002 spring practices, the assistant coach distributed shirts embroidered with the phrase “Tuff 15” to only those members of the offensive line who attended all 15-spring practice sessions.  The fair market value of the shirts was approximately $35 and the hats, approximately $25. 

The following section explains the committee's rationale for deeming TRENCH WARRIOR hats a major violation:

The enforcement staff and the institution agreed that the apparel items were provided with no intent to violate a rule and provided little, if any, competitive advantage.  However, the violations occurred over a period of four years, was not isolated or inadvertent and thus could not be considered a secondary violation.

Takeaways: the chance that Michigan does not get hit with a major violation in August is zero. The QC stuff isn't going to be deemed "isolated or inadvertent." But "major" has clearly ceased to mean much aside from providing big scary headlines.

Compliance Guy: The term "major violation" has this big scary connotation. In fact, the default for a violation is major. It's up to the university to prove that it met the two criteria to be classified secondary:

- Isolated or inadvertant; and

- Did not provide a significant competitive advantage or provide a significant benefit.

Being a major violation means you start with a set of presumed penalties that are then argued up or down (usually down overall, the list is extensive) based on the facts of the individual case. In the past, most secondary violations did not have prescribed penalties so you had much more flexibility if the violation was secondary. Now there are prescribed penalties for most secondary violations as well.

At this point the biggest difference between a major violation and a secondary violation is public reprimand and censure. If you have a secondary violation, the NCAA doesn't announce it, and it's stored in a private database without the school's name attached. A major violation is announced and stored in a public database with the school's name front and center.

IMHO, the NCAA ought to either find a bigger distinction or do away with the distinction all together. In fact, there's actually three types of violations: Level I secondary violations (so small they are only reported to the conference); Level II secondary violations (reported to the NCAA and involve student-athlete eligibility or rules the NCAA is focused on); and major violations. I say expand the Level I list a bit and just have two types of violations: Level I and Level II, where Level II might include an infractions hearings and major penalties.

Florida International

Report

What They Did

1. An assistant coach—we'll call him Captain Dumbass—conducted "skill and technique workouts" with offensive linemen during the summer over the course of three years. 30 impermissible workouts over three years gave them a "competitive advantage."

2. Over the same timespan, Captain Dumbass conducted "impermissible technique activity" in the same fashion as the summer sessions, for another 27 impermissible workouts.

3. Captain Dumbass then lied to the NCAA and attempted to call another student athlete, disclosing the content of his interview and telling the kid to lie to the NCAA as well. He did, then he recanted.

4. Failure to monitor. "The football coaching staff, including the head coach, and members of the S&C staff were aware in varying degrees" of the sessions. The administration was not. "The majority of the coaches" were aware the sessions were not kosher, but not one said anything. Note this failure to monitor was directed at the university only.

5. A secondary violation because the S&C coach took attendance at voluntary S&C activities and periodically reported the information to other coaches.

What They Did To Themselves

They fired Captain Dumbass and eliminated the OL coach position for the entire 2004 season and 2005 spring practice. They reduced preseason practices by four, and gave up 171 hours (twice the number of impermissible hours logged by the offensive line) of mandatory practice or conditioning over the course of three years.

They also took one assistant coach off the road for the spring evaluation period for two years, put notes in folks' permanent record, and hit people with some pay decreases/finger wagging.

What Got Done To Them

Three years of probation for the university and a three year show-cause penalty for Captain Dumbass.

---

Compliance Guy: This is probably a good starting point for the penalties Michigan might face. Unlike the SDSU violation, this violation covered just practice violations (aka only Bylaw 17, the playing and practice limits bylaw). Michigan's alleged violations cover Bylaw 17 plus another (Bylaw 11, personnel limits) but the penalty is accounted for here: eliminating a coaching staff position for at least a year.

The COI didn't do anything of substance to FIU. Three years probation is one over the minimum and makes sense considering the violations lasted three years. And the three-year show cause penalty is pretty fair considering Captain Dumbass not only was involved in the majority of the underlying violations AND lied to the NCAA about it, but also tried to get someone else to lie about it too.

San Diego State

Report

What They Did

1. Over the course of three years, the offensive line coach conducted mandatory offseason "deep sand training" for an hour once a week May through July. (What is it with OL coaches?) Captain Dumbass #2 then sold videos of this training as part of a three-video package featuring current student athletes. He also wrote newsletters praising attendance and listing people who had perfect attendance records.

2. Before spring practice one year, several assistant coaches met with players to discuss "academics," but each meeting had diagrammed plays and chalk-talk and whatnot. An assistant coach conducted drills at least eight times for about fifteen minutes. It's unclear if this was Captain Dumbass or not, but someone videotaped one of the drills. Football coaches also had members of the football undergo impermissible 11-on-11 activities, simulating plays with a "taped towel" instead of a football.

In the committee rationale area, there is the implication that the assistant coaches misrepresented the meetings to the NCAA by claiming the students were just so excited about the new plays that they initiated the "chalk talk"; students did not echo this. The head coach acknowledged the activities were "pushing it" and compliance should have been consulted about the workouts.

3. TRENCH WARRIOR hats.

4. Failure to monitor levied at the institution, citing the sand practices being common knowledge with everyone except the institution. The head coach "observed at least seven or eight of these workouts."

What They Did To Themselves

SDSU self-imposed six total years of scholarship penalties: three the first year, two the second, one the third. They eliminated 21 practice days over the course of three years, took one assistant coach off the road for four days, suspended Captain Dumbass, and put notes in the offenders' permanent records.

What Got Done To Them After

Two years of probation.

------

Compliance Guy: The major difference is that the Trench Warrior hats are an extra benefit in addition to a practice violation. Giving material items as prizes for performance is not allowed, even though giving them to the whole team might be OK. They're a practice violation as well because you cannot punish or reward student-athletes for voluntary workouts.

Also notice the COI did even less than they did to FIU. Two years probation is the minimum imposed in a major violation case. There will always be a penalty of two years probation, so this is basically rubber-stamping the penalties. Why this is two years probation and not three is a big confusing, but probation doesn't mean much competitively. It means more work for the compliance office. It doesn't even mean a longer period of repeat violator status, which is always five years no matter how long the probation is.

The extra benefit piece is a big deal because it explains the scholarship penalties. Penalties have to match the violations. If you violation recruiting rules, you get recruiting restrictions, if you violation practice rules, you get less practice, and if you give student-athletes too much financial aid or extra benefits, you reduce your financial aid.

Based on the difference between these two cases, I would say reduced scholarships are still on the table, but are most likely to be self-imposed. Michigan might give up scholarships if they believe scholarships are worth less than practice and they can reduce the practice penalties somewhat by giving up something else

Michigan Versus Those Guys

Notice of Allegations

Unfortunately, it's tough to tell exactly what bits of the previous cases caused the punishments levied. FIU's two-for-one hours penalty is pretty obvious, but what exactly was so much worse about the SDSU case that saw them dump six years of scholarships when FIU didn't have to ditch any? Both violations took place over three years. And involved an actual assistant coach. The head coaches knew in both cases. Captain Dumbass #1 seriously pissed off the NCAA, as did #2. I don't get the discrepancy.

Anyway, some guesses:

Braithwaite's hire implies that Michigan might lose a coach for some period of time. Michigan turned around the notice of allegations instantly and Brandon said there wasn't anything in there that was a surprise, so Michigan knew full well what the investigation would show. Here's betting one of the self-imposed penalties is removing a coach for spring and possibly fall, and Braithwaite will be that guy.

(Compliance Guy: Oddly enough, Braithwaite might end up doing what the QC guys were supposed to be doing.)

Michigan will probably give two for one on the practice overages. They come to 66 hours, so Michigan will probably try to spread 132 hours over a few years.

(Compliance Guy: That penalty can take many forms: a later fall start date, additional off days, a shorter spring, or fewer hours per week (or a combination of any or all of these).

Could Rodriguez's "failure to monitor" actually be a good thing? My research over the past couple days indicates that failure to monitor is a charge that the NCAA levies against programs when they believe people who should be in a position to know these things didn't know these things. In the cases above both head coaches knew there were shenanigans going on, so they did not get a failure to monitor charge. Only the universities did.

In Michigan's case, both coach and university got charged with failure to monitor. On the surface this is one of the FIVE MAJOR VIOLATIONS. Underneath, it actually seems like a mitigating factor. Having people violate NCAA regulations without your knowledge seems better being aware of it.

This may be a straw I'm grasping at.

(Compliance Guy: Rodriguez is not charged with "failure to monitor." Rodriguez is charged with "failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance." It's basically a catchall that includes something like "failure to monitor" and "lack of institutional control" on a program level. Basically its to make head coaches take responsibility for their program, whether they knew about something and ignored it, failed to control the assistants at all, or ordered assistants to commit violations (how John Calipari has escaped this is beyond me).

It's not a mitigating factor and it's not a "good thing." But it's not necessarily going to be a very bad thing. If it is a very bad thing, it might mean some penalty directed personally at Rodriguez, like prohibiting him from recruiting off-campus for a period of time. Michigan might attempt to head this off by self-imposing internal penalties like establishing meetings between Rodriguez and the compliance office, suspending him, or withholding pay, raises, or bonuses.)

Alex Herron lying probably doesn't matter. If FIU had its coach tell a kid to lie and get caught for it and didn't get scholarship reductions, having one GA get caught being deceitful reflects on the GA, not Michigan.

(Compliance Guy: Agreed. He'll get hit with a show-cause penalty, unlike the two similar noncoaching staff members in the Central Florida recruiting violation who were not hit with show-cause penalties because they were so forthcoming.)

Scholarship reductions don't seem assured. FIU conducted 57 actual practices supervised by an assistant coach that the head coach knew about and didn't get much more than the practice reductions. However, since Michigan is capped at 84 this year due to some foul-ups with walk-ons I'm betting Michigan takes a small hit for 2010 only since taking that hit has zero impact.

(Compliance Guy: Agreed. It's possible that Michigan will just get coaching staff and practice penalties. But the goal of penalties is to erase a competitive advantage, and Michigan might add in a seemingly unrelated penalty to avoid an even bigger practice reduction, or the COI might deem it appropriate to impose the scholarship limitations to erase that competitive advantage (less likely).)

Whatever Michigan self-imposes is probably going to be the end of it. In both cases above, the NCAA looked at the penalties, said "okay," and tacked on some probation.

The above scenario is a worst case. I'm not sure how much credence to put into the rumors flying around that once the full report comes out Michigan will have seriously mitigated many of the charges—that's a classic example of something you want to believe—but they are out there and I've heard from a couple good sources that the details here will be less than damning. We'll have to wait for the Michigan response and self-imposed penalties to find out.

Again, tons of thanks to Compliance Guy for the clarity. His blog is The Bylaw Blog.

Comments

Don

February 25th, 2010 at 1:31 PM ^

violations is a testament to how pathetically ridiculous an organization it is.

Whatever.

From everything I've read, probation sounds like a virtual certainty. I have absolutely no faith that the NCAA will "go easy" on us. On the contrary, we're a perfect program for the NCAA to use to set an example. "Hey, if they can do that to Michigan, they can do it to anybody." will be the intended internal response at every school across the country.

I know Brian disagrees, but once the reality of Michigan going on probation sets in, I think RR's days are numbered, unfortunately. I don't think it will matter one iota to too many people that the violations were relatively small beer compared to what sensible folks think of as "major" violations. It's all in perception, and there's no way that RR can escape the fact that it was during his tenure that we have joined the ranks of all the other schools that we used to be able to make smug fun of. Being compared to USC and Alabama and FSU is of course truly ridiculous in the extreme, but that will be lost on people for the most part. MGoBloggers are few in number and we don't count.

I hope like hell I'm wrong, but I'm just too cynical to believe otherwise. My experience in life is that, with very few exceptions, whenever it makes sense for large organizations to take Action A, they will take the directly opposite and nonsensical Action Z.

maizenbluenc

February 26th, 2010 at 10:38 AM ^

I agree - I think we see even on this blog (an in my own mind) the benefit of the doubt has evaporated: time to produce.

There is going to be huge pressure to produce this year: even more than before.

Realistically, (given the defense) the risk of that not happening is very high. On top of that they will most likely loose practice time, have lost the QCs who have been contained back to gopher status, and will be short one assistant coach (where it hurts most, on the defensive side of the ball). Oh, and we haven't even gotten to that time of the summer where any news is usually bad news - guys getting in trouble, etc.

If he pulls off a solid season against these odds, with a successful (meaning over .500) Big Ten campaign, then he's shown real coaching ability. (By successful Big Ten campaign I mean: beating MSU in addition to ND, beating at least one of the heavies PSU, Iowa, Wisconsin or particularly OSU, crushing Purdue, and taking care of business against Indiana and Illinois.)

If he does this, I think he is safe and will be here for a while. (The only way I can see he'd be able to do this is through hyper-offensive production.)

If he doesn't, even if the University keeps him for 2011, I think the circus continues, it continues to impact the product on the field, and we end up in a slow Weis-like devolution, until he either moves on himself, or Brandon fires him. (By the way someone asked where would he go? I'd lay odds on back to WVU.)

Bottom line: Enough breaking the streaks we all are proud of already - let's get back to winning the right way please.

aenima0311

February 25th, 2010 at 1:32 PM ^

Great work Brian. This one continues to seem like it'll sound worse than it actually is. Did they NCAA ever think about having more than two types of violation? I understand that secondary violations seem to be dismissed without much thought, but the difference in severity among these "Major Violations" seems pretty large. Why not have Secondary -> Major -> Ultra Major, or something of the like.

A little extra practice time is a lot less severe than buying Reggie Bush a house.

Edit: Beat to it by Compliance Guy, it seems.

Fresh Meat

February 25th, 2010 at 1:31 PM ^

This all is reassuring, but I have to agree with Don that I'm not so sure they won't try to make an example of Michigan. I hope I am wrong but I just have an uneasy feeling about all of it.

Fresh Meat

February 25th, 2010 at 1:49 PM ^

Two different types of infractions. If they want to make an example out of someone for going over practice limits and having coaches at voluntary workouts and not filling out the paper work correctly etc...then Michigan.

That doesn't mean they still can't make an example out of USC for paying their players

Zone Left

February 25th, 2010 at 1:39 PM ^

I listened to the Solid Verbal with Brian on my way to work. He said Michigan had under 70 scholarship players at the end of last year. Let's just self-penalize 15 scholarships retroactive to last year and call it a day. Yes??

jtmc33

February 25th, 2010 at 1:42 PM ^

Now we finally know how San Diego St was able to play UM so tough in that 24-21 scare in '04... some of their OL had a competitive advantage in relation to the TRENCH WARRIOR hats.

GoBlueScott

February 25th, 2010 at 1:43 PM ^

August: "Those fabricating Freep bastards!"

Tuesday: "Huh, this doesn't sound all THAT bad, right?"

Wednesday: "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

Thursday: "OK. OK. Perspective. OK. It's not that bad."

willywill9

February 25th, 2010 at 1:46 PM ^

Many thanks to the Compliance guy at Bylaw Blog. I checked his site and there are some interesting pieces on it.

At any rate, thanks for a rational take on all this matter.

Crime Reporter

February 25th, 2010 at 2:13 PM ^

These type of posts are why I lurk at the blog so regularly.

I still have a hard time believing the NCAA will throw the book at us, but given the way things have gone lately, I am prepared for the worst.

G-Man

February 25th, 2010 at 2:29 PM ^

I agree that these cases make our situation look pretty good, considering.

But doesn't that require faith in the NCAA as a logical, consistent and morally-upstanding body? I don't want to instigate fear and loathing here, but I think people should still have in the back of their minds that the universe hates us and the NCAA is its minion of ineptitude.

Bennie

February 25th, 2010 at 3:09 PM ^

Michigan should self impose 60 minutes less of practice time for each of the next two years (3 times the violation each year). We can really fall on the sword and add another year.

I can't believe we get nailed for this. But at least it should be over soon.

Noahdb

February 25th, 2010 at 3:32 PM ^

"I know Brian disagrees, but once the reality of Michigan going on probation sets in, I think RR's days are numbered, unfortunately."

If he wins next year, no one will even remember this happened. If he loses, they'll have bigger problems.

The problem now is that there aren't any distractions. Come late August, that won't be the case.

Don

February 25th, 2010 at 4:38 PM ^

That totally depends on what "winning" is. If we're 7-5 with more losses to OSU and MSU, I think it's unrealistic to think that is going to lessen the sting of probation very much at all. Even 8-4 won't make very many people happy if we lose to Sparty and Brutus in that case. I really do think it will take a season significantly into the positive side PLUS a victory over OSU to ensure RR's coming back for 2011. Anything less than that is really dicey territory for him, absent bizarre strings of injuries to key personnel.

jmscher

February 25th, 2010 at 3:44 PM ^

But shamelessly flatter I will. Yeoman’s work these past couple of days Brian, it seems to make you haven't taken a wishful thinking we haven't done anything wrong approach, nor have you taken a relativistic stance that everyone else does much work. I feel much better knowing that the charges have been looked at seriously by you and they seem to be not serious but real and non crippling penalties are in our future. I’m ready for some football that is sadly still many months away. Anyway, really great work on your part as usual.

Thanks.

jrbulls

February 25th, 2010 at 8:56 PM ^

although I don't comment too much, if at all. Just wanted to thank you guys for the insight. It's nice to see informed opinions, information & an overall intelligent blogosphere. Great job to all involved.

jrbulls

February 25th, 2010 at 9:03 PM ^

although I don't comment too much, if at all. Just wanted to thank you guys for the insight. It's nice to see informed opinions, information & an overall intelligent blogosphere. Great job to all involved.

Edit: Sorry for the double post...

NMU Blue

February 26th, 2010 at 12:27 AM ^

If we get to a bowl this year, could we give up time during the extra practices and have it count? Or is that special and can't be counted towards the overall plan? I think I'd rather see one walk-on not get a scholarship as a reward for performance on the field for the next three years rather than lose practice time. Why punish the whole team when we can be short one or two scholarships? If we were a veteran team, I'd say cut the practice, but we're very young and every rep. counts for the freshman and sophomores.

EGD

February 26th, 2010 at 2:38 AM ^

In the FIU situation, the extent of the practice violations was much greater than what UM is accused of. The SDSU practice violations do look more comparable to ours, but the big difference between UM and both the FIU and SDSU situations seems to be the fairly extensive amounts of mendacity/denial/cover-up shenanigans at FIU and SDSU compared with pretty much the Alex Herron thing only at Michigan.

This dynamic of universities imposing self-punishments creates kind of a bizarre dynamic. I suppose it gives you the advantage of having more control over what the actual penalty is, but it seems you have a distinct incentive to punish yourself more than you really deserve, so that the will NCAA believe that you are taking the violations seriously enough and won't pile on more.

uminks

February 26th, 2010 at 3:10 AM ^

Brian showed that similar violations with self imposed penalties only resulted in probation. We have given up our LB coach. I'm sure the AD will announce restrictions on supervised and unsupervised practices for the next 2 to 3 years. I don't like giving up any scholarships but we could cut one for the next 3 years? I'm sure the NCAA will place us on a 4 year probation period due to the basketball programs violations.

The probation will cause RR to perform at a higher level and get many more wins, even this season. I don't think it is fair but our new AD will probably demand results quickly. My gut tells me that RR will have to win at least 7 games to keep his job at the end of this season. I would give RR through 2011 to achieve a winning record and by 2012 to get 9 or more wins. I'm hoping for a break out season with 8 wins...but the young defense worries me!

a2bluefan

February 26th, 2010 at 12:20 PM ^

The information, comparisons, analysis, etc. are certainly interesting. Thanks, Brian (and Compliance Guy), for another round of fine work.

However... all of this leads only to speculation. Informed speculation, yes, but speculation nonetheless.

Michigan will not, either in the response or the hearing, use the FIU and SDSU cases to make comparisons in an effort to curtail the harshness of penalties. It would be a pretty lame thing to do. If penalties come down overly harsh, then I could see M using these cases to establish (or rather refute) precedent during an appeal.

To be clear... I'm not criticizing the info provided here. It's really great stuff! And it's exceedingly normal to look at other cases in a effort to find similarities. But until the matter is drawn to its official conclusion, I prefer to avoid speculating about it. I'm going to assume that the result is going to be bad. If/when it turns out to be not-so-bad after all, I'll be all the happier.