MSU's Izzo to sit out tonight
The other day I shared an article that discussed how secondary violations could carry suspensions in certain cases. Just a few days later there is news that a Head Coach will need to serve a one game suspension for a secondary violation. That coach is Tom Izzo, men's basketball coach at Michigan State.
There are two interesting aspects of this violation, which involved an Individual Associated with a Prospect (IAWP) being employed at a MSU summer camp last June. The IAWP legislation is under Bylaw 11 on Personnel, 11.4.2 specifically, and is currently specific to Men's Basketball. Which states that for a two year period before a PSA's planned enrollment date, and for two years after that PSA's enrollment, an institution cannot hire (or enter into an agreement for future employment) with an individual associated with a prospect. The person in question at MSU appears to have been employed at a summer camp, though the legislation bars employment in "any athletics department non-coaching staff position".
The other interesting piece of this case is that the one game suspension is a prescribed penalty for employing an IAWP. There are several secondary violations that carry prescribed penalties, or penalties that must be imposed if there is a violation of a certain Bylaw. The most common prescribed penalties are for exceeding phone call limits with a prospect (2 for 1 withholding) or allowing an ineligible athlete to practice (1 for 1 withholding). Prescribed penalties may often be just a starting point when imposing corrective actions, the University may always decide to impose additional (or more restrictive) actions in addition to the prescribed penalty.
