WVU presser about NCAA investigation at 1 p.m.

If there's one thing I've learned over the last few years is to not be cocky about the teflon-ness of our football program.  If something is found, it does affect our program because our coach would be implicated.  It'd be foolish to think that the charges would have a bigger impact to WVU, and not to the (almost) entire coaching staff that, you know, actually broke the rules, and ended up at Michigan.  Again, if anything is found.  And even though this is West Virginia we're talking about, don't assume that they haven't figured out how to keep soft copies of records that go back more than a couple of years.

They have too many graduate assistants, etc, just like every single other school in the entire country. They have continued to have them since Rodriguez left. No issues with practice time, etcetera. Like every other school, they had graduate assistants helping out in places they shouldn't be.

Yeah, this is totally expected and won't hurt anyone. I'd be surprised if the NCAA even gives WVU a stern look over it.

says basically nothing.  though it does include some of the bill stewart years.

The not all Coach Rod leads me to believe that WVU didn't know the proper rules.  That said, perhaps this is partly why we're running into issues here - that Coach Rod's general understanding of the rules were impaired by his time at WVU. 

Blatant speculation, but still possible.

EDIT: Our compliance department clearly had dysfunctionality too.  I didn't mean to imply we only face issues due to actions/inactions of Coach Rod.

The NCAA has already made their decision on whether to accept our punishment. They'll announce in less than a week. They're NOT going to punish Michigan for things that took place at WVU, ESPECIALLY not things that nobody had any way of knowing happened at WVU before they hired Rodriguez, and also especially not things that have only in the last year or so become clear as to why and how they are violations.

6. PROFIT!!!

So only the first three allegations would apply to a time when Rodriguez was there, correct?

EDIT: Nevermind, he was still there in 07-08.

and a little from Column B, I should think.

I'm sure that most athletic programs operate in a nebulous gray area with rules like these. I'm sure there's somebody in the AD whose job it is to tell the coach, you can have X number of grad assistants, etcetera. I'm sure they're told to find every loophole to make the program the best they can, and maybe sometimes they take it too far.

I doubt if RR or many other coaches have ever intentionally broken rules on assistants, practice time, etcetera, but I'm sure almost all coaches are quite happy to toe the line as closely as they can.

Edit: Allow me to state I am not actually "SURE" about anything here, no matter what I say. I don't know. But it seems the most logical.

NCAA has a hard time trying to put numbers on things when every school's athletic department is different in terms of the number of sports they sponsor, the makeup of them, etc. How do you impose hard rules when every situation is different? And then with the rules they have now, they're ambigious enough so that each school can interpret things their own way based on the makeup of their AD. Then factor in tight budgets and trying to get people to do multiple jobs across different sports to save money ... I don't envy the jobs the complaince folks have.

...while I believe Rich Rod is at fault for some of this, the Compliance people should be a "checks-and-balance" on all the athletic teams.  The fact that these charges are being levied at programs where Rich Rod was a coach, shows that the rules are so vague that: 1) the coaches aren't fully aware of the rules and 2) the Compliance people who are supposed to oversee the "student athlete" don't understand them completely either.

I'm not saying "everybody does it" as an excuse, what's wrong is wrong and I believe that, but I think that this instance alone shows that its a problem that isn't limited to just one coach. That fact that Stewart is wrapped up in this is further evidence.   

Reason one is that I don't expect anything of consequence from the NCAA, beyond what Michigan has self-imposed for the petty allegations that actually stuck.  The only remaining outstanding allegation is the one against Rich Rodriguez for failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance.  Which the University is joining in opposing.  If anything serious transpires, I'll be very, very surprised.

Reason two is that I don't expect the NCAA to behave as if it is the Star Chamber, and issue double secret probations, based on unstated findings, for unstated reasons.  It might; I don't know.  But that's one hell of a way to operate the disciplinary arm of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.  The NCAA ought to be explaining very clearly what it does.