planomateo
Member
Could Oliver Luck going to the NCAA be a coincidence? 14 of 18 sports on probation. These text occurred while the football team was on probation as well. Still think Oliver Luck is a good hire for the NCAA? Only time will tell...
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http://www.athleticbusiness.com/college/wvu-placed-on-probation-for-recruiting-violations.html
MORGANTOWN - Violating rules that for the most part no longer exist have gotten West Virginia'sathletic department in hot water with the NCAA.
In fact, the violations were so numerous that even though taken individually they are not considered serious, because of the volume of the violations the school will have to serve two years of probation, in addition to a variety of other minor penalties.
The misdeeds involve text messages and phone calls sent to recruits in virtually every sport the school sponsors, although most were committed in women's gymnastics, football, women's basketball and women's soccer.
The school self-reported the violations - which it blamed primarily on a computer program and to an extent the complexity of the NCAA rules - in January of 2013 and cooperated with the NCAA during an investigation that lasted nearly two years.
West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons, in just his first few weeks on the job after replacing Oliver Luck, issued a statement following the release of the NCAA's report, which the school accepted grudgingly but without appeal.
"While I am disappointed with today's NCAA report, I do take note that our department found the infractions, self-reported them and worked with the NCAA in full cooperation to address and correct the issues," Lyons said in the statement. "I am confident that the department has taken the necessary steps to correct its compliance and recruiting software program, reeducate the staff on updated NCAA changes on the rules surrounding text messages and phone calls and fulfilled our obligations to the NCAA concerning the situation long before I started as athletic director back on Feb. 2.
"I was aware of this issue when I interviewed for the job and it did not deter my confidence at all in West Virginia University. We are and always will be committed to the legislation policies of the NCAA. Moving forward, I expect our department to continue its strong dedication to NCAA compliance.
West Virginia self-reported the violations in January of 2013 when they were discovered and traced back to 2010. By themselves, the violations are considered by the NCAA as Level III, or minor, infractions, but two factors apparently went into the penalties being enhanced.
First, the volume of infractions in those four sports raised the violations to Level II, according to the NCAA. And second, at the time of the violations and when they were reported in 2013, the school was already serving two years of probation for the football program allowing non-coaching personnel to perform coaching duties. Part of the penalty for that was a stipulation that other infractions would result in stiffer penalties.
And so the school, which agreed to the penalties and thus cannot appeal, will now serve two years of probation, or until Feb. 17, 2017. The probation was prescribed by the NCAA, along with a two-year show-cause order for an assistant gymnastics coach, Travis Doak, during which he will be limited in various ways regarding recruiting.
The NCAA report did not allege that the school failed to monitor its athletics programs, nor did it allege a lack of institutional control or failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance. Those are generally the violations that result in the harshest penalties.
The school itself also prescribed self-imposed penalties which the NCAA accepted. All have already been instituted and include:
-Reduction of telephone communication in all 14 involved sports during portions of the 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years.
-Reduction of off-campus recruiting in football, women's soccer, women's basketball and men's basketball.
-Restrictions to official visits for the women's soccer program.
-Reduction of one football scholarship for the 2013-14 academic year.
The violations occurred between June 2010 and February 2013 and included 294 texts and 66 telephone calls sent by coaches in 14 sports at the school. Counting track and cross country as one sport, as well as swimming and diving (because they are overseen by the same coaching staffs), the only sport at the school that was not flagged for a violation was the rifle program.
Of the 294 texts, 153 came from gymnastics, 14 from football, 43 from women's soccer and 17 from women's basketball. Women's basketball (26) and football (23) accounted for most of the impermissible phone calls.
Doak, who served as an assistant under former gymnastics coach Linda Burdette and now under current coach Jason Butts, was cited as responsible for 151 of the combined 154 text and telephone violations attributed to gymnastics.
West Virginia told the NCAA that the reason the texts and phone calls went unchecked or undiscovered for more than two years was the fault of a computer software program designed to monitor such calls and texts. When the school got the software up and running, the program flagged potential violations and the compliance office addressed them with the coaches involved.
The trouble was, different flagged texts or calls were displayed in different areas of the program, one of which school officials overlooked. When the designer updated the software in 2013, all of those flagged messages were displayed in the same place in the program and the school realized that it had been missing some flagged messages since putting the program in operation.
That's when the school launched its in-house investigation and reported the violations to the NCAA, a process that took two years to complete.
The primary rule that was violated is NCAA by-law 13.4.1.2. During most of the period in which the violations occurred, that rule stated that electronically-transmitted correspondence with prospective student athletes was limited to e-mails and faxes. Text messages were clearly and strictly prohibited.
In the past two years the rule has changed. First it was softened last year to allow text messages in basketball, then this year to permit text messaging in all sports except track, cross country, swimming and football. In those sports - as well as all others - direct Facebook and Twitter messages are permitted, but not text messages.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734, dphickman1@aol.com or follow @dphickman1 on Twitter.
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http://www.athleticbusiness.com/college/wvu-placed-on-probation-for-recruiting-violations.html
MORGANTOWN - Violating rules that for the most part no longer exist have gotten West Virginia'sathletic department in hot water with the NCAA.
In fact, the violations were so numerous that even though taken individually they are not considered serious, because of the volume of the violations the school will have to serve two years of probation, in addition to a variety of other minor penalties.
The misdeeds involve text messages and phone calls sent to recruits in virtually every sport the school sponsors, although most were committed in women's gymnastics, football, women's basketball and women's soccer.
The school self-reported the violations - which it blamed primarily on a computer program and to an extent the complexity of the NCAA rules - in January of 2013 and cooperated with the NCAA during an investigation that lasted nearly two years.
West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons, in just his first few weeks on the job after replacing Oliver Luck, issued a statement following the release of the NCAA's report, which the school accepted grudgingly but without appeal.
"While I am disappointed with today's NCAA report, I do take note that our department found the infractions, self-reported them and worked with the NCAA in full cooperation to address and correct the issues," Lyons said in the statement. "I am confident that the department has taken the necessary steps to correct its compliance and recruiting software program, reeducate the staff on updated NCAA changes on the rules surrounding text messages and phone calls and fulfilled our obligations to the NCAA concerning the situation long before I started as athletic director back on Feb. 2.
"I was aware of this issue when I interviewed for the job and it did not deter my confidence at all in West Virginia University. We are and always will be committed to the legislation policies of the NCAA. Moving forward, I expect our department to continue its strong dedication to NCAA compliance.
West Virginia self-reported the violations in January of 2013 when they were discovered and traced back to 2010. By themselves, the violations are considered by the NCAA as Level III, or minor, infractions, but two factors apparently went into the penalties being enhanced.
First, the volume of infractions in those four sports raised the violations to Level II, according to the NCAA. And second, at the time of the violations and when they were reported in 2013, the school was already serving two years of probation for the football program allowing non-coaching personnel to perform coaching duties. Part of the penalty for that was a stipulation that other infractions would result in stiffer penalties.
And so the school, which agreed to the penalties and thus cannot appeal, will now serve two years of probation, or until Feb. 17, 2017. The probation was prescribed by the NCAA, along with a two-year show-cause order for an assistant gymnastics coach, Travis Doak, during which he will be limited in various ways regarding recruiting.
The NCAA report did not allege that the school failed to monitor its athletics programs, nor did it allege a lack of institutional control or failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance. Those are generally the violations that result in the harshest penalties.
The school itself also prescribed self-imposed penalties which the NCAA accepted. All have already been instituted and include:
-Reduction of telephone communication in all 14 involved sports during portions of the 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years.
-Reduction of off-campus recruiting in football, women's soccer, women's basketball and men's basketball.
-Restrictions to official visits for the women's soccer program.
-Reduction of one football scholarship for the 2013-14 academic year.
The violations occurred between June 2010 and February 2013 and included 294 texts and 66 telephone calls sent by coaches in 14 sports at the school. Counting track and cross country as one sport, as well as swimming and diving (because they are overseen by the same coaching staffs), the only sport at the school that was not flagged for a violation was the rifle program.
Of the 294 texts, 153 came from gymnastics, 14 from football, 43 from women's soccer and 17 from women's basketball. Women's basketball (26) and football (23) accounted for most of the impermissible phone calls.
Doak, who served as an assistant under former gymnastics coach Linda Burdette and now under current coach Jason Butts, was cited as responsible for 151 of the combined 154 text and telephone violations attributed to gymnastics.
West Virginia told the NCAA that the reason the texts and phone calls went unchecked or undiscovered for more than two years was the fault of a computer software program designed to monitor such calls and texts. When the school got the software up and running, the program flagged potential violations and the compliance office addressed them with the coaches involved.
The trouble was, different flagged texts or calls were displayed in different areas of the program, one of which school officials overlooked. When the designer updated the software in 2013, all of those flagged messages were displayed in the same place in the program and the school realized that it had been missing some flagged messages since putting the program in operation.
That's when the school launched its in-house investigation and reported the violations to the NCAA, a process that took two years to complete.
The primary rule that was violated is NCAA by-law 13.4.1.2. During most of the period in which the violations occurred, that rule stated that electronically-transmitted correspondence with prospective student athletes was limited to e-mails and faxes. Text messages were clearly and strictly prohibited.
In the past two years the rule has changed. First it was softened last year to allow text messages in basketball, then this year to permit text messaging in all sports except track, cross country, swimming and football. In those sports - as well as all others - direct Facebook and Twitter messages are permitted, but not text messages.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734, dphickman1@aol.com or follow @dphickman1 on Twitter.
