OT: Familiar story at Maryland
Somebody get out the NCAA whippin' stick again. MAJOR VIOLATIONS at Maryland, which is now a program that has admitted to MAJOR VIOLATIONS. Specifically:
According to the Baltimore Sun, the Terrapin football program has self-imposed sanctions after minor violations that occurred under the previous regime were uncovered earlier this year. The biggest issue was in the area of practice time and how some areas of it were accounted for and interpreted by Ralph Friedgen‘s staff.
The school found that the Terps under Friedgen last season practiced an hour and 15 minutes above the in-season allowable time of 20 hours per week. As a result of the NCAA’s 2-for-1 punitive measures for these types of violations, the football team will only be permitted to practice for a total of 17 hours and 30 minutes per week throughout the 2011 season.
But wait! There's more! More MAJOR VIOLATIONS!
In addition to the practice time issue, it was also discovered that two interns and two graduate assistants improperly observed voluntary summer workouts.
DOOM. Doom and major violations. Although, presumably because a) it was self-reported, 2) it involves less practice time and d) it's a different coaching regime and one without idiot compliance staffers telling stories to investigators, it looks like Maryland's are being treated as secondary violations.
Still: OMG CHEATERZ.
http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/07/02/terps-self-impose-practice-time-sanctions/
RABBBLLEE FREE TATS DONT EQUAL COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE TRESSEL FELL ON SWORD FOR PLAYERS, HE IS SAINT AMONG SINNERS. PRACTICE IS DIRECT ADVANTAGE! TATS ARENT EVEN UN-REMOVABLE!
RAWWRRRR
/s
go upvote me, so I can upvote this!
Going by OSU's logic, they'll get off with a slap on the wrist.
I am assessing you MAJOR props for linking this story. Many thanks.
For a long time, one of the water-cooler topics at Michigan has been, "If only Rosenberg had been open with everyone about what he was questioning, instead of being on a secret personal-gotcha mission, and if Michigan had self-reported all the violations in question at an earlier time, there never would have been any 'Major' violations."
This new story out of College Park seems to have proven the truth of that Michigan speculation. To wit: that nearly identical kinds of allegations might have been "Major" or "Minor," depending upon the amount of splashy initial press stories that accompanied the case. In the case of Maryland, it was nil. In the case of Michigan, it was very nearly as splashy as USC or Ohio State.
People will attack the NCAA as nitpicky in some of these stories, I'm sure. But the punishments do, for the most part, fit the "crimes," such as they are. Maryland, and to a great extent, Michigan, are being sanctioned with mere practice-time reductions and not much else. If there is a difference, it was that in the Michigan case, the program had to endure the circus atmosphere of a long-running NCAA show trial before being mostly exonerated, at least in comparison to the early newspaper report. And the damage done to Michigan and the staff at that time was probably incomparably worse than what Maryland now faces, in terms of distraction. Misplaced focus on investigative matters, damages to reputations, damages to recruiting, etc.
Are you every going to give this crusade up?
If the main point -- at least as it relates to Michigan -- is not pretty much exactly as I described it, then what is the point of the Maryland story, on a Michigan message board?
[I have a feeling that I'll regret asking this, but there's always hope.]
Clearly the answer is no.
The freep "story" was a failure of epic proportions. I don't have the energy to keep calling it out, but thank goodness he does. It shouldn't be forgotten.
At some point, you have to put away the tinfoil konspiracy!!!!1! hat and move on. Was it a conspiracy? Maybe, but at this point, what good does it do anymore? If you hate the freep, by all means continue to do so. It just becomes tiresome when it gets shouted out all the time.
Voldemort will continue to be Voldemort whether Section 1 posts about it or not. There is no need for Constant Vigilance.
Maybe Section 1 wants the Defense Against the Dark Arts job here at MGoWarts. I'll teach Transfiguration.
I have been a memer here as long as you and seen many of your posts. Do you ever have anything to add other than sarcastic, argumentative posts? You never engage in intelligent conversation about the many sports UM takes part in but are always quick to ridicule anyone that does. Honestly, give me tin foil hat theories over your selfrighteous BS anyday.
i expected a section 1 thread; had to settle for a long, pretentious post.^
I expect a dumbass flamey post....and in most cases I get just that (this time included). I win this round of predicting the future jimbob. Better luck next time.
it's a different coaching regime and one without idiot compliance staffers telling stories to investigators
I assume the reference here is to Alex Herron. Herron was not part of Michigan's compliance department. He was on the football staff as a quality control assistant. The NCAA report largely exonerated the compliance department of any wrongdoing.
Is there a Rosenberg equivalent at the Washington Post / Baltimore Sun who will lay a huge guilt trip on the Terps? One wonders.
Maryland should count itself fortunate that it doesn't have a Sparty equivalent (AFAIK, anyway) within the state. Otherwise, they'd be hearing MAJOR VIOLATIONS (!!!) often. While we're at it, UNACCEPTABLE!!! Has Tom Dienhart weighed in on this yet, or is he waiting for a tip from his (Purdue, exclusively) sources?
- - -
To those trashing Section 1, I'd concede that his rants are predictable and sometimes tiring, but IIRC the Freep has never apologized for their (partial) hack job on UMich.
Why are people so insecure about what MSU fans think? Not just about this, but in general - whether it's recruiting, or the "controversy" about being a fan of a school without going there - why do people even care?
I'd say that the Spartans are, in the aggregate, merely annoying. I wouldn't guess that many people here (including blueheron) are feeling insecure about them.
But, some of that noise can make football life difficult. All of the high school coaches who declared RichRod aloof and arrogant probably had help reaching their conclusions.
Thankfully, Hoke has done a great PR job so far. While we're on the subject, look at MSU's lousy recruiting class (Pittman excepted):
http://rivals.yahoo.com/michiganstate/football/recruiting/commitments/2…
There's still time for them to catch up, but their effort is hilariously sucky when compared to UMich's.
I believe that most reporters who believe in regime change wouldn't take it upon themselves to implement same in the manner attempted by Rosenberg.
I also think that if anyone had enough time on their hands and a loud megaphone, they could probably find NCAA violations upon the filing of enough FOIA requests for public university football programs. There are so many "i's" to dot and "t's" to cross in the NCAA rulebook that sooner or later something will be amok.
It's not a matter of "guilt trips" or moral victories. It's about actively hurting the program. It's about the distraction, uncertainty, cost and effects (including recruiting) of dealing with a Notice of [Major] Allegations and everything that is involved with that.
It is too late (an odd feeling to even type it that way) for anyone to hurt the Terrapins in that way, at least as it pertains to this episode of self-reporting. (I have no personal wish to see the Terps hurt in any way.) The NCAA has accepted Maryland's self-imposed sanctions.
Lastly, as to any attacks stemming from a "Sparty" contingent. You're welcome to your own veiws. There may be fringe Spartypeople, like a Lynn Henning, who might occasionally be a nuisance to Michigan. But just personally, I'd give that a rest. Michigan's main antagonists for the past two+ years -- Rosenberg, Snyder and Sharp -- all have Michigan diplomas. Some of the antagonists ("current and former players"?!?) even have M rings.
Sparty, as it were, is not worth discussing.
I bet those kids at Johns Hopkins are smirking. And don't even get me started on the Yalies.
As sad as it is to say, I think this is going to eventually be a normal theme for NCAA sports. The current young generation does not have the desire and will to play the game out of love, they do so for the fame, glamour and money, and the universities are adapting to the style of the kids. I am not saying all the high school athletes are this way, but many in the major sports like football and basketball are because they see the ridiculous salaries the professionals are getting whether they deserve it or not.
This was about improperly recording practice time and having the wrong staff members supervising workouts. It has nothing to do with the "young generation".
Edit: In fact, this story has to do with an older generation not understanding/applying rules.
I am part of the young generation, so I don't want you to think I am criticizing the generation because it is not my own. I was talking about the major violations that have been coming out (Oregon, OSU, Auburn, etc) that have a direct relation with athletes, and money and fancy items. I should have made that clear and it was bad on my part. One point I want to make is that the coahces are so desperate to win that the laws of the NCAA are basically thrown out the window to get to that elite status. It starts out by getting the best recruits, and in many cases these coaches work unethically against what the NCAA says can and cannot be done just to satisfy the players to commit and play for their schools.
Those 18 year old kids are only like that because they've been showered with adulation as D-1 football players since their freshman year of high school. If playing trivia was a ticket to millions of dollars and a nationally televised event, we'd probably be complaining about that assholish Quiz Bowl team.
You post on Mgoblog because you love Michigan football, and presumably don't have the major bucks to become a big time booster.
It's those guys who cause some of the major issues. They are equally rabid fans, but they have more access and resources to do things that somebody on the interwebs cannot. I don't think you'll ever find a booster who was actively trying to harm their school.
Ok Im not just saying this because Michigan got in trouble for it, but the NCAA needs to change those bullshit rules on practice (Where's Allen Iverson when you need him)
Obviously, the extra practice didn't help us.
Anyone who thinks the Michigan violations were just about practice is seriously mistaken. It was just as much about Rich having 12 graduate assistants and one lying to the NCAA as it was the practice time. I agree that Rosenturd and Sharp made the damage worse and seemed to have a vandetta but rules were broken. Hoke has 2 GA's on his staff.
"The University hired Rich Rodriguez as head football coach in December 2007. At the time, the University had three quality control positions for football under former head coach Lloyd Carr -- offensive quality control, defensive quality control and special teams quality control. Rodriguez added two quality control positions (one for offense and one for defense) and filled all five spots with new persons. Rodriquez had five quality control staff members during the times relevant to this investigation."
~ University of Michigan Response to Notice of Allegations, Case Number M324, Introduction, p. 3.
Only one single graduate assistant figured in the Notice of Allegations. Response, 2.a.
As to the "quality control staff":
"The bylaws permit the coaching staff and the strength and conditioning staff to conduct skill devellopment during the winter and voluntary summer workouts. [Michigan's alleged] violations relate solely to who conducted skill development, and there would be no violations had allowable strength and conditioning staff conducted skill development."
~Id., Allegation One, p. 1-1.
In other words, Michigan's violations related almost solely to the job definitions of who was doing what. And at the same time, the violations, such as they were, were sporadic, were not even recalled by many of the student athletes who were present (although the University essentially accepted all of the 'worst case' testimony, even though it was not all entirely clear or uniform).