Who knew and said what when about the lack of practice logs?

Submitted by fatbastard on
The press release from UM (http://www.vpcomm.umich.edu/pa/key/universityaudit.html) makes clear that the football team did not report in log form the CARA (practice and countable hours) for the 2008 season. It is also clear that it is being reported now. We should assume that following the audit letter dated July 24, 2009, that all logs have been timely filed. The relevant quote: "During a May 2009 audit a concern was identified regarding an internal process for tracking athletic activities logged by the U-M football team. The compliance office did not receive the football team’s Countable Athletically Related Activities (CARA) forms for the 2008-2009 school year. The CARA form is an internal mechanism developed by the University to help track the total time players spend in required practice and is standard across all U-M sports." The Freep article came out August 29. In it, the forms which will be looked at in the absence of logs were mentioned, without a source: "The players said they had not personally reported their concerns to the athletic department’s Compliance Services Office — and, in fact, had signed forms stating that rules had been followed. “They were making us sign those — you’d get in trouble if you didn’t sign,” one player on the 2008 team said. “We signed that and joked about that: ‘We work out way more than this.’ We can’t do anything. We were trying to play.”" According to Stokes quote, there wasn't a change beteen his arrival in June until he was intereviewed in fall camp: "“Hooooo!” Stokes said. “A typical week is working from 8 a.m. in the morning to 6 or 7 at night, Monday through Saturday.” And that was starting in June? “Yes, sir,” Stokes said. “We do the weight room at least three times a week, and seven-on-sevens and one-on-ones. Speed and agility on the other days. Every day we have something new to get ready for the season. The coaches have done a great job of stressing the importance of getting us ready for the big season that we’re about to have.”" The issues, then, are: 1. Did anyone at compliance let the football coaches know what had to be filed? Was there any follow-up between compliance and the football staff on this issue? 2. What other records exist that ocnfirm the countable hours put in before July 24, 2009? If they were too much before July 24, 2009, did they become less and when? 3. When the lack of a practice log was noted in May 2009 by University Auditors, who knew about it? 4. When the lack of practice log was noted in May 2009, did anyone advise Compliance/Football staff about it before the memorandum of July 24, 2009? If not, why not? 5. When did the free press get this story and from whom? The timing of the story and the nonissues presented make it look like someone with an axe to grind put the issue out there like this: "hey Rosendouche/Freep the football program can't dispell rumours about practice time because they didn't file logs required by the university audits, you should probably go write an investigative journalism piece which takes out of context quotes from freshman and talk to all these guys who just transferred" The real questions I have focus not so much on the actual issue, which is how many CARA were reported, but, instead, how and who leaked what info to Rosendouche? The article did't come until after the issues would have been known to University Audit, Compliance, and the football staff, and the log issues would have been resolved, presumably, by the end July or early August.