True Crime or Media Hype?

Upon hearing of the NCAA findings regarding alleged violations of the football program at the University of Michigan, I did what I always do with these types of stories: I read the comments section. It’s a great way to get biased, anonymous, and genuine fan reactions. I have to admit my own bias towards Michigan as there is no real sense in hiding it in a blog. Scrolling through the pages of comments on numerous sites I got a sense that there were 3 groups of “commenters”. There are the two extreme sides: the Michigan supporters who think the violations are a bunch of bullshit, and the haters that would pounce on any opportunity to impugn the football program and want their pound of flesh (many OSU fans). These groups are expected and appreciated by any college sports fan. Then you look at the middle group. The group that knows the university broke the rules but realizes the true nature of the violations and the incompetence of the NCAA. I am no apologist, and I’m not going to use the brain-dead argument that “every school breaks the rules so it’s OK”. I merely think we need to put the violations and subsequent media uproar into perspective and I don’t mind defending Michigan’s reputation while I’m at it.



Here is my summary of a summary from ESPN of the 5 violations with my own commentary:

1. Michigan had too many “coaches”.
--Essentially this boils down to a blurred line between Quality Control Staff and actual coaches.
2. Coaches attended summer workouts, players went 2 hours over practice limits during 2 WEEKS over the summer, on one occasion players went over the weekly limit by 20 MINUTES, and on four dates the players practiced for 30 MINUTES too long.
--In reading a few articles on the NCAA report, I found that these 20-30 minute overages were caused by having coaches present when players were stretching before practice meaning that they counted against the total. The coaches attending practice was another blurred line between the aforementioned Quality Control staff and coaches. Since that staff did “some” coaching, they could no longer attend the summer workouts.
3. A graduate assistant said he didn’t attend summer workouts, when he actually did.
--Uh Oh! A grad student lied!
4,5. The last two violations aren’t really “violations” per se. The first says that Rich Rodriguez failed to monitor his staff because of 1 and 2, and the second says the athletic dept. did the same thing because of 1 and 2.

Michigan obviously broke rules, but I attribute it more to incompetence than to any form of cheating, but some will obviously say otherwise. This occurred in Rich Rod’s first year and I can imagine he was pretty preoccupied with trying to win a game. Unacceptable either way, but with the media hype, you'd think RichRod shot JFK.

If these are the allegations, I can’t wait to see the punishments. Michigan is the cleanest FBS school in the nation and people would love to see that taken away. It has never had a major violation in over 120 years!! In contrast, EVERY other big name program has violated major rules in only the last 20 years! Think of a school and there is something there. Holier than thou Notre Dame was on probation under Bob Davies, while Alabama was put on probation 2 years ago because players were selling school supplied text books and they were hit before that when boosters paid a high school coach $150,000 to get a player they wanted. The Big 12 is riddled with cheaters (Texas Tech, Oklahoma, A&M) and that includes Texas, which was on probation in the late 80’s. The Pac-10 has their violations as well, most notably USC and most surprising: Cal. (Here is a great ranking I found at Fanhouse)

I must reiterate that I am in no way condoning Michigan’s actions. I just wanted to point out that if the allegations they are accused of are considered “major” violations then what would you consider paying players, illegally recruiting, coaching sex scandals, physical abuse of players, cheating on tests for athletes (real classy, LSU) and having starting lineups consisting entirely of convicted felons? Urban Meyer has had 28 players arrested over the past 4 years! (Chip Kelly is doing his best to win that battle) But seriously, which do you believe has the bigger negative impact on the sport: the Michigan allegations or playing convicted felons? USC is in its own league when it comes to improprieties. The amazing thing about USC is how open they are with their violations, literally throwing their basketball team under the bus in hopes that the NCAA would go easier on its football team. The reason the NCAA is scared to go after them is obvious if you know anything about LA fans. If USC was suddenly hit hard with penalties like post season bans or massive recruiting limits, the entire LA market would tune out of College football, just like they do with every other sport when their team is out of it (LA Dodgers anyone?). This means the 2nd largest TV market in the country disappears. Meanwhile you have players driving cars they can’t afford and parents of players buying houses they can’t afford; essentially players getting paid to play college football, something the NCAA is supposed to prevent at all costs.

In my own opinion, these are 5 minor violations and the NCAA decision should reflect that. For a little perspective, Ohio St. has had 375 minor violations since 2000 so let’s not go crazy if the NCAA doesn’t come down hard on Michigan, because obviously Ohio St.’s violations have hardly been dealt with at all. Michigan broke the rules and should be punished, but the punishment needs to fit the crime.