Another Allegations Thread - Bylaw Blog

Submitted by gater on

I looked and didn't see this article posted anywhere:

http://bylawblog.com/2010/02/ncaa-alleges-five-major-violations-by-mich…

It gives a good breakdown and the person is a complete third party with no interest other than the case. He thinks Michigan knew what was in the report before they received it, which led to the fast turn around from receiving it to the press conference.

Good Quotes:

"Brandon’s performance, by the way, is terrific. He carefully presents the allegations and Michigan’s response to them so far, and does well despite an admitted lack of familiarity with the process."

"Many of Michigan’s violations involve slippery territory. Hire enough noncoaching staff members, give them enough coaching-like responsibilities, and leave them with student-athletes and these violations are bound to happen. It might sound incredulous that the coaches didn’t consider stretching and warm-up to be CARA, but other preventive measures like training room activities are not included."

Edit: Just found this funny: I noticed a comment left on an article yesterday from a user named "Brian @ MGoBlog" asking for an interview.

"Brian @ MGoBlog, FEBRUARY 23, 2010 at 3:34 PM
I run a sizeable Michigan blog and would like to interview you about the implications of the NCAA’s recent Notice of Allegations. If you could email me at [email protected] I’d appreciate it."

brown

February 24th, 2010 at 11:29 AM ^

I was looking for an NCAA compliance blog. Awesome.

The important part:

"I would expect a hodgepodge of significant but not devastating penalties including reduced CARA limits (either through a shorter season or reduced hourly limits), reductions in coaching staff members, recruiting restrictions, and reductions in financial aid. That Michigan is a repeat violator might only mean a longer probation of three to four years rather than the minimum of two."

Recruiting restrictions would probably hurt the most.

brown

February 24th, 2010 at 11:32 AM ^

Also, the guy who writes the blog seems to have the background to be giving his opinion:

"The author is a compliance professional employed at a Division I athletic department. Sooner or later someone will figure out who writes this, but until then, my opinion is completely my own as long as it is not attached to any organization. So I’ll attempt anonymity, for as long as the internet allows."

GunnersApe

February 24th, 2010 at 11:35 AM ^

Have I ever said that I work with weapons, and have been one of the few UM military point men (12 years!). Its been a joy having "The Michigan Difference" (rubbing peoples faces in dirt). But "the Horror" and the whole 2000's with the Buckeyes and the last two years have been misery. In summery thanks for the post and now I must go back to throwing Spartans and Buckeys off the gun range.

those.who.stay.

February 24th, 2010 at 12:20 PM ^

we have the best people in the business handling this.

We're about to see just how good Brandon is (my prediction: very).

Whatever the consequences of this witch-hunt, we will have done as well as we could have.

Geaux_Blue

February 24th, 2010 at 12:26 PM ^

can we stop the whole 'witch hunt' meme?

overblown FreeP accusations implied Godzilla was looming to destroy Ann Arbor. instead, a pissed off Komodo Dragon sauntered in. sure we're not going to go "runfoyolives Godzeeluh is attacking" but there's still a giant effing lizard heading towards Potbelly's.

joeyb

February 24th, 2010 at 12:45 PM ^

It's actually more like the Freep accused us of rape because they were pissed that we broke up with them. Then the cops determined that the sex was consensual but found pot in our house and so we are on trial for that now and the Freep says "See they are a bad person" even though what we are in trouble for has nothing to do with what the Freep accused us of in the first place.

Geaux_Blue

February 24th, 2010 at 1:00 PM ^

metaphor fail. they accused us of going over approximately 5-10 hours a week. we went over 2. etc and so on. like i said, you're implying that they claimed we beat up a student and the truth is he fell down while working out illegally. even that is a fail. here's a comparison

they accused us of going way beyond allowable hours. we barely/kinda went over. are they dbags for exaggerating? yes. were they 100% wrong? no.

it's not a witch hunt.

joeyb

February 24th, 2010 at 1:16 PM ^

We were accused of a major violation for over-practicing players. The interview up front even agrees that this will likely turn into a minor violation. The major violation that we have to worry about is the one involving our QC members being counted as coaches and thus having coaches at practices and such.

They accused us of having players practice 2-3x what is allowed. That means that they over exaggerated by 18-38 hours, which puts them at 90-95% wrong and the other 5-10% is explained by a misunderstanding of overly vague rules.

To use your metaphor, its like ZOMG Godzilla, then komodo dragon, then ZOMG MOTHRA! and Freep says KTHXBAI.

Section 1

February 24th, 2010 at 1:08 PM ^

Is that they are all essentially politicians. The Regents (and Brandon used to be a Regent, and may be heading for elective office some day in the future) all need to seek re-election on state-wide ballots someday.

And, as a result, any statement from any of them is likely to be, well, pussy. Every one of them, at some point, will sit with the Editorial Board of the Free Press, and beg for the Freep's editorial endorsement in a general election. Many of the Regents, the Democrats, are naturally linked to the Freep's political agenda. Six of the eight Regents are Democrats. Add Mary Sue Coleman and that is seven of nine.

The entire investigation is a one-way street. The University will be the subject of FOIAs, which it will be legally obliged to answer, while the Free Press and the NCAA, operate in virtual secrecy. The University will be motivated to be as hard on itself as possible, and because it is about the only enterprise in southeast Michigan that operates in the black, citizens and consumers outside of the University will love to pick on it. That is the description of the Detroit Free Press' readership.

Ares

February 24th, 2010 at 1:23 PM ^

I have been reading and following this site for over a year and figured that this would be the best time to chime in with an opinion that I haven't read. I know of the treacherous negbang and don't mind it as long as my point is made.

In his last few years as coach Lloyd Carr received a tremendous amount of criticism from the fan base for running a program that was, for the most part, underachieving. There were people who defended him but it seemed like most were hoping for a new man to run the show and bring the program into the 21st century.

Cue the hire of Rich Rodriguez and the hope that the spread and shred would take the Big Ten by storm and lead to vast amounts of success and wins. Then came all the baggage with the WVU buyout and paper shredding but he was our guy and we wanted to give the new kid in school a chance to prove himself.

Once he came in there was a ton of attrition and we lost most of our Offensive Line and a extremely talented quarterback. People still thought that we would take the World by storm but it was not to be.

We did not make a bowl in either of his first two years but it was cited that with the high levels of attrition that that task was nearly impossible to complete, so he received another free pass. The Feagan controversy reared its ugly head but lets face it, most schools have things like this happen and Michigan has had plenty of that happen in the past. That was blown out of proportion.

We move along to practice gate. It is still theory that there is a contingent working against our coach but as more time goes on it seems that that theory may turn to fact. The papers obviously took advantage of his willingness to open up the program and have it gain more exposure than previous regimes had done. I thought this was great and provided more coverage which was excellent, especially when the season had passed. He learned his lesson.

Now with the NCAA seeming like they are going to sentence us with some major violations the time has come to ask, when is enough enough? I have never met coach nor do I think I will be able to in the future. If our paths do cross I will treat him with great respect because he is the coach of my favorite football team, he has endured so much since he has come here and with all the things he had to deal with when leaving, and when I do get to see him speak he seems like a guy I could sit down, have a cold one with and be captivated by.

With all that in mind I have come to the realization that he is not the man for the job at this school. He has come in and lost to teams that there was no business in losing to (please don't bring up Appy State, it is irrelevant to this), he's brought an exorbitant amount of controversy with him, he's created a bad image for the University in the media, and now it looks as though the team may have to face penalties which will work against our recruiting efforts which are one of the most important things in college football now.

I will continue to rout for Michigan because I have done so since I was in grade school but I will not rout for this man because he took a great program and brought it to it's knees. To still be in his corner 100% seems completely irrational to me but when you're feed the same praise pieces over and over again it's clear to see why.

In closing, I would like to say that I don't believe coach is a Michigan Man. The people who coined this phrase have led everyone to believe that if you are one that you have great integrity and a moral compass that will not stray. With everything that has happened since it was announced that Rich Rodriguez would be our coach I haven't seen him do much to validate his thought that he is a Michigan Man.

Go Blue