Okay, that is the end of a very long day indeed.
Media started with a different aura around the room today. First, we met with new Chief Compliance Officer Jody Sykes and Bill Clever conducting a rules seminar for the media.
While there are some very strange rules that must be complied with by the athletic department, the number of situations that may result in a student-athlete being declared ineligible is staggering.
Most of the time, these situations are resolved within hours. As an example. Prior to the inaugural Pac-12 Championship Game between Oregon and UCLA, Fox spent time interviewing players from both teams. As part of the interview, Fox asked the players to tell people to “watch on Fox” which became an endorsement of a Fox television! That’s right, every player from both teams that made statements on camera were technically ruled ineligible for a brief period of time!
That, folks, is the labyrinth of NCAA rules that must be looked at for multitudes of situations.
Ever noticed that the camera crowd doesn’t pan down to visiting recruits? They can’t because that could be construed as publicizing the recruit. Recruits cannot be interviewed while in attendance either.
If we are at a prospects high school game, and notice a coach, we can say hello to the coach, but we cannot interview him while he is there; that’s a violation.
From the Compliance Seminar, we moved back over to Autzen Stadium for media day. Tons of interviews, which we will cover on Duck Sports Authority over the rest of the week.
I spent some time, though, talking to Mike Jorgenson, former Duck quarterback and current broadcaster. I got his “official” view of the new Football Operations Center for the record, but we talked for a bit off the microphone. One thing that was interesting, after a SINGLE practice with Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator, Jorgy said he knew “the program has changed.” One practice is all it took to know that Kelly had made his mark. Jorgy was gracious and insightful today and I appreciated his time.
I also spent a little time after the tour of the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex talking with Craig Pintens about some of the negative commentary that he has seen, as we all have, about the cost.
Well, I will discuss that more in depth this Friday in Flock Talk.
In the mean time, there was football today. Football season is officially here!
In most cases the school self reports, deems the student-athlete ineligible and then follows established guidelines and can reinstate the student on their own without the NCAA getting involved.
The NCAA only gets involved in certain situations… and even then, most of the time (i.e. a student-athlete gets a benefit worth in excess of $100), the process is pretty straight-forward and is handled without an "investigation"
The only things that get investigated are those things that are either not self-reported or are too egregious to be handled internally…
But, yes, EVERY school commits secondary violations ona regular basis… not through intention…
Most of the time, these situations are resolved within hours. As an example. Prior to the inaugural Pac-12 Championship Game between Oregon and UCLA, Fox spent time interviewing players from both teams. As part of the interview, Fox asked the players to tell people to "watch on Fox" which became an endorsement of a Fox television! That's right, every player from both teams that made statements on camera were technically ruled ineligible for a brief period of time!
That blows my mind! The NCAA reminds me of the IRS… So then in reality, every University breaks rules every year and the NCAA is responsible for what, deciding which rule breaker to go after dependent on how bad? How can a school keep up with all the rules, I know they have people in place, but it just seems like a daunting task… Anyway, thank you Scott, I really really enjoy everything you write and this is icing on the cake! tsherman1(Tony Sherman)