Oklahoma's Practicegate
So what they are saying is take a week off and we're all good. We don't want to waste a year of our time and give you 18 months of bad press over piddly bullshit. Grrrrrr.
NORMAN, Okla. -- Oklahoma's football team has been required to give players a week off from athletic training during the offseason after reporting a series of secondary NCAA rules violations.
The Sooners reported to the NCAA that four assistant coaches had improperly questioned players about their lack of participation in voluntary offseason workouts, and that some players had been working out more than the allowed eight hours per week.
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The violations were included in documents released to The Associated Press on Tuesday following an open records request.
According to a letter sent to NCAA director of secondary enforcement Chris Strobel, the university started an investigation after a player refused to sign a weekly practice log and then provided Oklahoma's compliance director with a recording of defensive backs coach Willie Martinez asking why he had missed a voluntary workout.
The investigation found that receivers coach Jay Norvell and offensive line coach James Patton also discussed attendance at the workouts with players, and defensive tackles coach Jackie Shipp received reports from the strength staff on who was participating.
Oklahoma also informed the NCAA that secondary violations occurred when football players went through Pilates sessions in addition to their offseason workouts, when strength coaches observed players' independent agility training and when seven players were required to repeat a conditioning drill. All three resulted the players going over the NCAA's eight-hour weekly limit on guided offseason workouts.
Other violations included a handful of self-reported impermissible text messages and phone calls by assistant coaches to recruits and their fathers, and the team's website posting links to recruiting websites on signing day last year.
The men's basketball team, which was on NCAA probation until May and is again being investigated, also reported secondary violations resulting from two assistant coaches placing two impermissible recruiting calls apiece and three violations related to official visits by prospects.
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:20 PM ^
Oklahoma is a BCS powerhouse. They are above the law.
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:25 PM ^
No one is above the law.
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:22 PM ^
Did the NCAA order them to take that week off, or was that the school's own self-imposed sanction?
February 23rd, 2011 at 2:13 AM ^
Originally, the NCAA ordered a Code Red, but after Stoops told them they couldn't handle the truth, they agreed to let them take a week off.
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:24 PM ^
Wasnt the problem and the majority of the sanctions the fact that a quality control staff member deliberately lied to the NCAA?
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:47 PM ^
A quarter of the problem at best...IIRC, there were five major violations, and a grad assistant lying to the NCAA was one of them, then the "atmosphere of compliance" (whatever the hell that means) violation was dropped.
What I don't understand is why these violations aren't considered major.
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:53 PM ^
They reported the violations. Getting caught is a big deal.
February 23rd, 2011 at 12:04 AM ^
but if I'm not mistaken, that's not how the NCAA defines the distinction between major and secondary violations.
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:46 PM ^
Unless they were over-stretching as well, nothing to see here.
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:58 PM ^
I feel like I've heard this story before. Can't be though because the one I heard of has a shitty ending.
February 23rd, 2011 at 12:42 AM ^
This needs to happen way more often.
February 23rd, 2011 at 2:12 AM ^
Jesus Tap-dancing Christ. Thank goodness our degrees actually count for something.
February 23rd, 2011 at 12:57 AM ^
When is OU moving to the SEC?
February 23rd, 2011 at 1:13 AM ^
Wow want to talk about hypocritical, the NCAA Committee is composed of a bunch idiots. What did we do STRETCH LONGER? to get put on 2 years of probation, and then OU has to give a their players a week off. Usually I don't spas out but damn these guys are morons, you would think they would treat each program fairly and put stop to this bull shit over signing/grey shirting, I cannot wait until were good again so we can practice longer.. Oh wait at least Michigan has balls and imposes self input penalties for a year, not a fucking week!
February 23rd, 2011 at 1:41 AM ^
Holy cow, can we all just let this go already? Whining about it for the next four decades is just going to give you an ulcer and make the Michigan fanbase look like a bunch of crying children.
It's in the past. Move on.
February 23rd, 2011 at 1:50 AM ^
Unfortunately the NCAA's issues with selectively enforcing its rules are not in the past. The system is inconsistent and incomprehensible, and in need of reform.
February 23rd, 2011 at 2:15 AM ^
This is 100 percent true. But what is whining and complaining about how unfair it is to Michigan going to do?
February 23rd, 2011 at 2:22 AM ^
We will confine our discussions to topics that present Michigan in a favorable light from this day forward. Hopefully no one will think we are "whining and complaining" when we have genuine greivances with the way the NCAA enforces its rules and regulations.
February 23rd, 2011 at 6:54 AM ^
The university started an investigation after a player refused to sign a weekly practice log and then provided Oklahoma's compliance director with a recording of defensive backs coach Willie Martinez asking why he had missed a voluntary workout.
That's right Coach Stoops. All of the players in your "family" now wear wires.
February 23rd, 2011 at 9:05 AM ^
Was the player "Fuzzy Dunlop"?
February 23rd, 2011 at 9:27 AM ^
Only big difference I can see is that in our case, the Freep first reported the "violations." In Oklahoma's case, they themselves first reported the "violations" to the NCAA.
February 23rd, 2011 at 10:01 AM ^
The thing that leapt out to me is that it was full coaches at Oklahoma who questioned students about participation in "voluntary" practices, while at Michigan it was "quality control" personnel, (who were basically graduate assistants) who simply observed the practices.
February 23rd, 2011 at 10:31 AM ^
Yes, if anything these are more serious violations. Of course, ours were ongoing over a much longer time period.
However, OU coaches questioning attendance should make all of the "voluntary" workouts mandatory thus putting OU way, way over the threshhold.
February 23rd, 2011 at 12:05 PM ^
The NCAA sets its sights on destroying another another tennessee sports team. They already hit UT football, basketball, and now they move on to baseball.
February 23rd, 2011 at 12:45 PM ^
Terrelle Pryor on 3 separate occasions gets pulled over by the police. Each of those times he was driving a nice loaner car. It seems his Dodge was in the shop each time. I'm sure it was just a coincidence. He also got to test drive an SUV... all the way to his hometown in Pennsylvania. However, he was only borrowing it, so everything is good.
You would think this would have set off alarms at the NCAA. However, this is what happened,
OSU to NCAA - "We have investigated and found no wrong doing. Everything is above board."
NCAA response to OSU - "Works for us."
The NCAA... Bastion of hypocrisy.
February 23rd, 2011 at 3:28 PM ^
The NCAA and their "enforcement" staff, like most entities or people, always act in their own self-interest. "Fair" or "equal" enforcement has nothing to do with it. They obviously feel that OU is OK as a cash cow, and that they should do nothing that impedes milking it.
As for the TSIO mini-thread, if they really wanted to be "fair," the NCAA would force TSIO to vacate the Maurice Clarett years, and there would finally be a serious investigation of Terelle Pryor's finances. They would also have declared the Memorabilia Five permanently ineligible. And they would definitely investigate TSIO's "recruiting" of rent-a-players on their way to the NBA.
TSIO has been so dirty for so long that one would think the NCAA would eventually put them on probation by accident, if nothing else. Since they haven't, one can reasonably deduce that the NCAA has no interest in making TSIO face any consequences for their behavior.