UAlbany tagged for football rules violations

[Syntax Error]

http://www.championshipsubdivisionnews.com/index.php/2009/01/27/division-i-committee-on-infractions-issu?blog=2

Football coaches sent text messages that resulted in 331 messages sent and 220 prospective student-athletes.

The NCAA accepted UAbany's instituted penalties...
• Two years of probation (Jan. 27, 2009, to Jan. 26, 2011). (Institution imposed).

• Limit of number of football official paid visits to 28 for the 2008-09 academic year. This represents a reduction of 12 from the average number of official visits (40) during the previous four years.

• Temporary suspension of recruiting activities for the involved football assistant coaches, as noted in the public report.

• Suspension of football recruiting activities for four weeks from December 2007 to February 2008.

• Reduction in the number of football coaches who are allowed to engage in off-campus recruiting at any one time for one year from February 2008 to February 2009.

• The university suspended recruitment of each prospective student-athlete to whom a message was sent for two weeks for each week during which an impermissible message was sent.

Baseball got tagged too.

[danefan]

http://www.championshipsubdivisionnews.com/index.php/2009/01/27/division-i-committee-on-infractions-issu?blog=2

Football coaches sent text messages that resulted in 331 messages sent and 220 prospective student-athletes.

The NCAA accepted UAbany's instituted penalties...
• Two years of probation (Jan. 27, 2009, to Jan. 26, 2011). (Institution imposed).

• Limit of number of football official paid visits to 28 for the 2008-09 academic year. This represents a reduction of 12 from the average number of official visits (40) during the previous four years.

• Temporary suspension of recruiting activities for the involved football assistant coaches, as noted in the public report.

• Suspension of football recruiting activities for four weeks from December 2007 to February 2008.

• Reduction in the number of football coaches who are allowed to engage in off-campus recruiting at any one time for one year from February 2008 to February 2009.

• The university suspended recruitment of each prospective student-athlete to whom a message was sent for two weeks for each week during which an impermissible message was sent.

Baseball got tagged too.


I was waiting for this to become public.....xrolleyesx

I heard about it 2 or 3 months ago.

Seems to me like it was a misunderstanding of the rules as opposed to a blatant violation. It was self-reported and handled properly. We were discussing this when we first heard and wondered how many schools partake in the same actions but never self-reported as they didn't know what they did was improper.

Apparently it had something to do with a text-messaging feature of the recruiting software that was used. Here is the football portion as described in the school's press release:


With respect to the violations involving the football team, the University disabled the text-messaging feature on the recruiting software tool used by the football staff and through which the majority of the impermissible text messages were sent, restricted the football staff's ability to recruit during the key football recruiting contact period for 2008, and reported the infractions, including a series of additional self-imposed corrective actions and penalties, to the NCAA. Further, given the nature of the violations, the University concluded that a two-year probationary period consisting of attention to enhanced rules education and compliance monitoring and the submission of annual written reports to the NCAA was appropriate.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Seems to me like it was a misunderstanding of the rules as opposed to a blatant violation...

xrolleyesx

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2850555


INDIANAPOLIS -- College coaches will have to recruit the old-fashioned way next year.

The NCAA's board of directors approved a ban Thursday to eliminate all text messages from coaches to recruits beginning in August, then left open the possibility of revisiting that legislation as early as 2008.

"One of the abuses that was described to us were text messages from a coach to a player saying, 'Call me,'" Division I vice president David Berst said on a conference call.

...

April 26, 2007, 9:30 PM ET

[danefan]

xrolleyesx

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2850555

Apparently the misunderstanding of the rule was on my part. xlolxxlolxxlolxxlolx I thought the violations occured before the ban went into effect, but apparently I was wrong.


Then no excuses - they f'ed up and punished themselves.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Apparently the misunderstanding of the rule was on my part. xlolxxlolxxlolxxlolx I thought the violations occured before the ban went into effect, but apparently I was wrong.


Then no excuses - they f'ed up and punished themselves.

No prob. I know it must be small comfort, but rep points for you :o

[Go...gate]

Seems like the NCAA employed a howitzer when a flyswatter might have been more appropriate. Why not simply a warning?

[danefan]

Seems like the NCAA employed a howitzer when a flyswatter might have been more appropriate. Why not simply a warning?

The violations were self-reported and the penalties were self-imposed, many of which have already run their course.

The University decided on the extent of the punishment and the NCAA, as expected, agreed with them. From an outsiders perspective they probably could have gotten away with less punishment, but apparently went for the sure thing to avoid the NCAA imposing additional penalties.

[Syntax Error]

Seems like the NCAA employed a howitzer when a flyswatter might have been more appropriate. Why not simply a warning?NCAA didn't do anything but agree with how UAlbany penalized themselves. Kinda hard to hide that much illegal conduct.

[UAalum72]

Kinda hard to hide that much illegal conduct.
Actually only had to 'hide' 36 acts, the software multiplied the number of messages. If indeed they were hiding. More of a failure of supervision.

[Syntax Error]

Actually only had to 'hide' 36 acts, the software multiplied the number of messages. If indeed they were hiding. More of a failure of supervision.I meant the 331 messages sent to 220 prospective student-athletes. I don't think it could have gone overlooked or unnoticed. UAlbany did the right thing and avoided further NCAA action.

[DetroitFlyer]

So, if Albany wins the NEC in 2009, will they be eligible for the Gridiron Classic?

[UAalum72]

So, if Albany wins the NEC in 2009, will they be eligible for the Gridiron Classic?
Nothing mentioned about post-season restrictions.

Apparently the assistant coaches thought they were OK because they used their computers to send the messages instead of their phones. So emails would have been allowed?

The baseball coach was penalized because he texted recruits who had verbaled, but he was supposed to wait until he had their NLOI.

[danefan]

Article with the details:

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=764307&category=REGION

Does appear that it was some sort of misunderstanding (at least that's how it was characterized).

[Green26]

I assume contact via phone, email and letter/mail/fax are okay, at least during the open recruiting windows. Or, are there restrictions and limitations on those things too?

From the article, with my comments in brackets:

"McElroy said his football coaches thought they weren't breaking the rule because they were sending the messages from a computer instead of a cellphone." [This excuse seems a bit weak, but if they really believed that, the violation was unintentional.}

"However, McElroy said none of the contacted recruits ended up attending UAlbany." [The texts didn't give Albany any advantages.]

"Meanwhile, Mueller thought he was correct in sending texts to five baseball players who had already verbally committed to the university, according to McElroy." [While an apparent violation of the rule, this one seems very minor.]

This seems like pretty minor and petty stuff to me. Of course, that's my view of the ncaa too.