Reporting secondary violations to the NCAA has become a way for athletic departments to save face with the governing body. The hope is the NCAA views the self-reporting as institutions paying close attention to detail and being honest.
If the program sheds light on minor infractions, it must be on top of preventing the major ones, right?
Compliance officials at each institution work for these reports, exhibiting they are doing their job keeping their department officials, coaches and athletes in check. Better it be a slap on the wrist for what inconsequential wrong is known rather than a knockout blow from a serious lack of institutional control.
Alabama’s athletic department recently reported 19 secondary violations, five of them involving the defending national championship football program under Nick Saban. None of the infractions were earth-shattering developments. In all, 11 different sports at Alabama during the 2015-16 calendar year committed a minor infraction the school revealed.
A former football player provided personal training to current student-athletes free of charge. Corrective action taken: Additional rules education and restitution paid to charity by involved student-athletes. A coach sent a text message at an illegal time to a prospect (two separate times). Corrective action taken: The coach was prohibited from making recruiting calls for two weeks, and no calls, recruiting materials or electronic communication sent to the involved prospect for 30 days.
A trophy was temporarily placed in an area where prospects taking an official visit would be, which resulted in an impermissible recruiting decoration of that area. Corrective action taken: Additional rules education for staff were implemented and prospects involved were declared ineligible until reinstated by NCAA. A coach called a prospect a second time during a week. Corrective action taken: Provided additional rules education. The coach involved was prohibited from calling any prospects for two weeks and no phone calls could be made to the involved prospect for two weeks.
Last year, Ohio State’s football program self-reported six violations, all minor in stature, including an Instagram post by Braxton Miller promoting AdvoCare products, as well as Cardale Jones making an appearance at Joe Haden’s celebrity softball game in Cleveland despite the athletic department telling him not to be seen there.
In May 2015, before Jim Harbaugh coached his first game with Michigan, the Wolverines admitted the football program committed four minor infractions. One of them: Harbaugh sent an autographed team helmet and jersey to an auction organized by a former high school classmate to benefit suicide prevention and awareness. The donation was not reviewed beforehand by Michigan’s compliance office, and the items that were auctioned ended up being used to assist a scholarship fund in the name of a student who had committed suicide, something Harbaugh was not aware of, according to Michigan’s self-reported violation. Per NCAA rules, programs/coaches may not personally donate items to benefit high school scholarship funds.
All of these self-reported violations among major college football programs were not front-page news. They weren’t juicy enough. Another objective for institutions with these admissions of minor guilt is to avoid embarrassment and uphold a win-by-the-rules image.
Generally, major infractions are not revealed in these reports. The schools and NCAA would rather keep the major infractions under wraps until a ruling is made. Image is everything.
When the NCAA went to a new violations structure in August 2013, most of what we learn of the self-reporting by institutions are infractions of the meager Level III and Level IV variety. Level III is a breach of conduct that is an isolated violation that includes minimal benefits and a limited advantage. Level IV includes incidental infractions that result in a negligible, if any, competitive advantage.
Level I includes a serious breach of conduct that undermines the NCAA collegiate model and provides a substantial recruiting and competitive advantage. Level II violations provide more than the minimal but less than a substantial impermissible benefit.
The relatively new structure replaces the old model of only “major” or “secondary” violations. Under that old model, the NCAA was often criticized for the length of time it took to complete an investigation, especially for the “secondary” infractions. The governing body was also criticized for handing out seemingly arbitrary punishments, in some cases issuing different penalties for similar violations at different schools. The four-tier structure makes it simpler especially for the Level III and IV violations to skirt through without recourse.
Institutions now have those two lower-tiered levels as a means to admit guilt with limited repercussions and to save face. Alabama’s recent self-reported violations are an example of that opportunity. The corrective actions taken are like a Band-Aid over a seemingly small scratch. The hope is the NCAA will take into account nothing of major consequence is going wrong or will take place.
Some may view the self-reporting as the old parody of children showing their parents they cleaned their bedroom, when in reality all the toys were stuffed in the closet with the door about to bust open spilling a mess on the floor.
For the sake of the major football as a whole, including those self-reporting programs Alabama, Michigan and Ohio State, let’s hope their closets are in order.
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