Presser Instant Recap

There was much speculation as to how the Freep would portray this. I submit that all you need to know is that their headline is:

"NCAA: U-M football made 5 major rule violations."

I haven't read the story yet, but there you go...

And Brian summarily stops no fewer than 500 heart attacks in mid fribrilation.

saw the press conference. I wonder how he feels right now.

I was wrong.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20100223/SPORTS0201/2230404/Michigan-...

Fr**p Headline: NCAA: Michigan Football Made 5 Major Rule Violations

Detroit News headline: Michigan Football found to have exceeded practice-time limits

And how did the lousy Fr**p bastids come up with that?

Thanks for the info, Brian. You guys are always on the ball.

the Freep says that Michigan committed 5 MAJOR violations. I'll trust the learned, respected Freep over Brian. I mean how could Brian be so far off on this? Brian thinks they are just allegations, but actually violations have been found. Moreover, they were major, and there were five of them. I mean, come on Brian, stop drinking the maize and blue kool aid. The Freep is headed for a pulitzer here and thank god they are looking out for those kids. If not for the freep, the parents of those players would never have known that they should be angry at the football coaches for penalizing their kids when they don't go to class. Outrageous.

In case you didn't know, I was being sarcastic. ~Homer Simpson.

then the NCAA makes the Internal Revenue Service look like a model of clarity, common sense, and fairness.

At least ESPN got it right with their headline: "NCAA finds Michigan was not in compliance"

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4938956

for the inevitable retraction by Sharp and Rosenberg.....

.....any day now......

.....you know it's coming.....

UPDATE: Okay. Tim has just provided the documents and they explicitly state that the allegations "are considered to be potential major violations" and that if the institution believes any of them should be classified as secondary they should present that in their response.]

But won't that typically be the standard, and the actual result will be less so. Because, if all we have is 20 minutes to 2 hours per week (SOME, not every week), and QC personnel overseeing class attendance, well, where is the MAJOR, loss-of-institutional-control allegation? What were THOSE violations?

David "Shaft" Brandon was truly epic. The Freep was obvious.

I wish I worked closer to Ann Arbor to listen to TKA on the way home, to see how this will be covered. 1130 is unlistenable in the afternoon, for obvious reasons.

The allegations seem to claim that Michigan was actually over by an hour on those Sunday practices. Still, the way the overages were for the same things over and over, it seems that there was a discrepancy between what Michigan compliance and the athletic department thought was countable and what the NCAA thinks was countable.

The Freep's headline is beyond ridiculous. There appear to be two program alllegations of violations (the QC stuff and the small hours overages) along with an individual one directed at QC coach Herron for lying and the other two being "you screwed up by not having the systems in place to notice these violations you didn't think were violations".

collectively shitting in their pants.

Molehills ARE mountains.

(emphasis mine)

anyone who did a cursory google search on the topic that allowable practice limits are a supremely gray area that every program in the country does an end-around on.

I know some people may think this is nitpicky, but I don't care- voluntary practice is NOT a loophole, but a way of life for athletes in competitive collegiate programs. It is voluntary, not "voluntary." The NCAA practice minimums have been and always will be too low (if for no other reason than to err on the side of safety and academics), so any kid who is driven to be the best- in other words, any scholarship athlete at any Top 25 program- is going to volunteer, yes, VOLUNTEER to do more.

Voluntary hours are not an "end-around," they are simply the only way athletes achieve their goals. Please stop making it sound more skeevy than it actually is.

the national media outlets are just reporting the cut-and-dry "violations were found". I'm hoping some of the national columnists will get on the ball and get into the facts - slight oversights, misunderstandings of complicated rules - rather than massive institutional fraud like the Free Press has alleged all along.

"IF these aren't secondary violations I don't know what is" because COME ON!

could look at these violations and what USC's done and not just shrug them off. I can only hope the penalties are of appropriate magnitudes.

Wha? I thought the beef was at Wendy's. In the Union.

Having read through the notice, there are 5 allegations (not all of them directed at UM)

1. QC staff doing things they shouldn't have
2. Exceeding practice hours
3. Alex Herron provided false and misleading information to NCAA staff
4. That as a result of 1. and 2. RR failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program
5. That as a result of 1. and 2. the Athletics Department failed to adequately monitor its football program to assure compliance.

Having read through the allegations, 4. and 5. in particular sure sounds more serious than implied by Brandon.