Are all NCAA rule breaks mistakes?
In big recruiting battles, NCAA’s wrist slaps might be small price to pay
Tennessee head football coach Lane Kiffin directs his team practices during the first day of football spring practice Tuesday, March 10, 2009 in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)
Wade Payne/AP
Written by SETH EMERSON
Posted on 07.09.09
Dino Vournas/AP/
** FILE ** In this July 28, 2007, file photo, then-Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin talks to his players during the Raiders' NFL football training camp in Napa, Calif. Tennessee and Kiffin have reached a tentative agreement with the formerRaiders coach to lead the Volunteers, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. A formal announcement was expected early next week, said the person, who requested anonymity because the deal had not been finalized. (AP Photo/Dino Vournas, File)
In violation
Football-related secondary violations reported by SEC schools between Dec. 1, 2008, and June 30, 2009:
| Tennessee | 6 |
| Mississippi | 5 |
| LSU | 4 |
| Mississippi State | 3 |
| Georgia | 3 |
| South Carolina | 3 |
| Arkansas | 2 |
| Florida | 1 |
| Kentucky | 0 |
NOTE: Auburn and Alabama did not respond to the survey. Vanderbilt, a private school, is not required to release secondary violations.
SOURCE: KNOXVILLE NEWS-SENTINEL
When Jennifer Stiles, USC’s assistant athletics director for compliance, last week released a list of secondary violations committed by Gamecocks teams during the past six months, she knew one would stand out:
During a weekend in late May, the football program hosted recruits who walked through a refurbished tunnel that simulated the entrance onto the Williams-Brice Stadium field. The tunnel had “2001” piped in, along with a smoke machine.
The re-enactment was never intended for recruits, according to the school, and no longer will be part of recruiting tours. Nevertheless, USC had to report it as a secondary violation.
According to USC, the incident fit the NCAA’s definition of a secondary violation: inadvertent and isolated; basically, an innocent mistake.
But a few events at other schools have been perceived to be more flagrant violations of NCAA rules — and yet are still classified as secondary violations.
A series of football recruiting incidents the past few months have led some to conclude that something is wrong with the secondary-violations system. They say some coaches have decided the punishment for a secondary violation is a small price to pay for impressing recruits.
Auburn held a pep rally for recruits in late May, complete with introductions, before about 100 fans and with police conducting traffic control. Washington brought in a fog machine to simulate a game-day introduction for recruits.
In some cases, it’s a buildup of incidents. Tennessee has racked up six secondary violations since football coach Lane Kiffin took over in December. Ohio State has averaged more than 40 secondary violations per year, in all sports, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Not that there will be much concern among those programs; secondary violations typically carry a minimal penalty or none.
A coach who commits a secondary violation is typically taken off the recruiting trail for a short period, or the entire staff is restricted from recruiting a certain athlete for a few days.
Kentucky coach Rich Brooks, whose program did not report any secondary violations for the past six months, recently told the Knoxville News-Sentinel he believes the SEC or NCAA should review the system.
“I think that some of these things are not accidental,” Brooks said. “Everybody that is a head coach or a recruiting coordinator in this league understands what the rules are. Something really should change. If not, it’s going to force everybody to have secondary violations because there’s no question they can gain a slight advantage with some of the things that have going on.”
To be fair, many secondary violations are minor in nature. Georgia Tech recently reported one when the mother of a basketball recruit made 16 phone calls from a hotel while the athlete was on an official visit, and Tech paid the bill without knowing the calls had been made.
This year USC committed a violation involving “impermissible snacks.” Three years ago, the school had to report a violation by coach Steve Spurrier’s wife, Jerri, when she wrote letters to signed recruits.
But if schools don’t report any secondary violations, then coaches and compliance directors “probably aren’t doing their jobs,” Stiles said.
“We have to operate within the rules, and with all the interpretations, mistakes are going to happen,” Stiles said. “You have to let common sense prevail, and usually it does.”
While schools are required to self-report secondary violations to their conference or the NCAA, not everybody makes them public. USC and Clemson release theirs every six months.
Stiles said there was discussion during the SEC’s meetings in May about “re-committing” to compliance and integrity, based on the public nature of the secondary-violations issue.
“These sorts of trends are watched,” Stiles said. “They’re watched at the conference level, they’re watched at the national level.”
Major violations usually require the NCAA to become involved and can result in programs going on probation, missing the postseason or losing scholarships.
The NCAA looks at secondary violations as something that does not represent “a competitive advantage,” according to spokesman Stacey Osbourn. If they rise to the level of being “purposeful or representing a significant competitive advantage,” they become major violations.
“When considering penalties for NCAA rules violations, the guiding principle is that the sanctions should be broad and severe if the violations reflect a general disregard for the rules,” Osbourn said.
Those would qualify as major violations. So would repeated violations of minor rules. For instance, former Indiana men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson was found to have made repeated phone calls to recruits during periods when coaches were not allowed to contact them. Normally a phone call or two would constitute a secondary violation, but Sampson’s repeated infractions — at Indiana and at his previous employer, Oklahoma — triggered major violations.
The SEC has instituted minimum penalties for “higher-profile” secondary violations, such as text-messaging, which was banned by the NCAA last year. For example, USC reported an assistant coach who responded to a text from a high school player, not knowing the message was from a potential recruit. When USC asked the SEC for leniency because of the circumstances, the league denied the request. The staff was forced to not recruit the player for a few days.
Still, not everyone thinks the hammer needs to come down harder on secondary violations. Vanderbilt men’s basketball coach Kevin Stallings said he didn’t see them as a growing problem.
“I’m guessing that some of the same coaches that think a secondary violation is worth getting a big-time recruit for are the same ones who would think a major violation is worth getting one,” Stallings said.
“A violation’s a violation.”
Reach Emerson at (803) 771-8676.
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