Oklahoma FB Loses Week of CARA Activities

Oklahoma Football Tracks Voluntary Workouts

The OU football team has been required to provide football players with one week off from countable athletically related activities this spring for secondary violations in the program.  The biggest issue that seems to have resulted in this penalty is that several coaches were asking players for reports on voluntary lifting or practice sessions resulting in exceeding the 8 hour a week limit for out of season CARA activities.  It appears another coach may have been receiving reports on the practice sessions from a strength & conditioning coach, which would also be a violation. Please remember that strength coaches may conduct voluntary workouts, but may not provide reports to the coaches on either attendance or performance at those sessions. While a week off from practice activities may seem harsh for a secondary violation, please remember that exceeding the weekly limit caries a prescribed two for one penalty.  Since they are in their eight hour per week timeframe, it doesn't seem unreasonable that the practice limit was exceeded by four hours.

The article also talks about several other secondary infractions that may have occurred including exceeding the phone call limits to PSA's and texting PSA's who have not yet signed NLI's.

NCAA Enforcement Staff Expands Its Focus

Enforcement to Look Into Football Recruiting

In the near future, members of the NCAA enforcement staff are going to team with people from the NCAA's Agents, Gambling & Amateurism (AGA) department to take a look at recruiting issues in collegiate football.  This article outlines what they hope to accomplish, but it appears that their goals are to work with agents and other influential groups in prep football to build relationships and develop policies in conjunction with these outside groups.

It is not clear at this point if they will develop a "Football Focus Group" similar to the "Basketball Focus Group" that is currently in place, but looking at the impact the BFG has had on basketball recruiting it seems like a logical next step to look deeper into football issues.

Northeastern Hockey Coach Suspended

Hockey Coach Suspended Pending Investigation

Greg Cronin, the head Men's Ice Hockey coach at Northeastern, as well as one of his assistant coaches have been suspended by the school after impermissible phone calls and text messages were discovered.  From what has been publicly released so far, it appears that the school is working with their all-sports conference, the Colonial Athletic Association, and not the Hockey East.  Coming from a hockey school myself, I know that sport specific conferences don't have the same staffing as a full conference would have. 

In any case, the school appears to be taking their finding very seriously as they have suspended two coaches right after finding out about the potential violations.  That does not sound good for the school or the coach, there very well could have been prior instances of impermissible phone calls at Northeastern, or what they uncovered was a large number of impermissible calls/texts over a short period of time.  The investigation could very well go on for weeks, or even months, it will be interesting to see if Coach Cronin is back on the bench at all this season with conference tournaments in just two weeks.  The serious actions by the school right away signal that the school is taking the matter very seriously.

Compliance Tip of the Week #9

Today's tip of the week is regarding the delayed enrollment proposal that was passed around this time last year.  It was called 2009-22 a year ago, and it carries an effective date of August 1, 2011, when it be called Bylaw 14.2.3.2 covering delayed enrollment.  If you are not familiar with the text of the bylaw, here is how it will read in next years NCAA manual:

14.2.3 Criteria for Determining Season of Competition.

[14.2.3.1 unchanged.]
14.2.3.2 Delayed Enrollment -- Seasons of Competition.

14.2.3.2.1 Sports Other Than Men's Ice Hockey, Skiing and Tennis, Swimming and Diving and Women's Volleyball.  A In sports other than men's ice hockey, skiing and tennis, a student-athlete who does not enroll in a collegiate institution as a full-time student in a regular academic term during a one-year time period after his or her high school graduation date or the graduation date of his or her class (as determined by the first year of high school enrollment or the international equivalent as specified in the NCAA Guide to International Academic Standards for Athletics Eligibility and based on the prescribed educational path in the student-athlete's country), whichever occurs earlier, shall be subject to the following:
(a) The student-athlete shall be charged with a season of intercollegiate eligibility for each calendar year after the one-year time period (the next opportunity to enroll after one calendar year has elapsed) and prior to full-time collegiate enrollment during which the student-athlete has participated in organized events competition per Bylaw 14.2.3.5.3 14.02.9.
(b) After the one-year time period, if the student-athlete has engaged in events competition per Bylaw 14.2.3.5.3 14.02.9, on matriculation at the certifying institution, the student-athlete must fulfill an academic year in residence before being eligible to represent the institution in intercollegiate competition.

If you remember our discussions from last spring, it means that students will have a one year window following their high school graduation date to compete in outside competitions.  If they continue to compete in outside competitions beyond that date, they will be subject to the penalties listed in (a) and (b) above.

We are currently checking graduation dates of students who have signed NLI's or who we know will be enrolling in the fall to determine who we may need to follow up with.  If your sport has a PSA in that situation, we will be in touch with you about that.  If there is a student who you feel we should get in touch with, please let us know who they are so that we can follow up as well.

Compliance Tip of the Week #8

Fruits, Nuts & Bagels Video

Please take a minute and watch this video on the Fruits, Nuts & Bagels bylaw, also known as Bylaw 16.5.2 (h).  I will let the video explain the rest, but please remember that providing fruits, nuts or bagels is permissible at any time, however, we are not allowed to provide them with spreads and toppings for the fruits, nuts and bagels.

The video is courtesy of the LSU Compliance office.

Compliance Tip of the Week #7

This weeks Tip of the Week concerns book scholarship and the recent adoption of NCAA proposal 2010-75.  Below is the actual text of how the bylaw will read, but to sum things up, when calculating scholarship values the cost of books will be changing from the current $400 to $800.  Also, once this becomes effective any student recieving any portion of a books scholarship will be counted as $800/$800; in other words, there are no longer any partial books scholarships (for purposes of calculating the equivalency).

Practically, if you are an equivalency sport and you are offering a student a partial scholarship with no books, it will decrease all of the other values in that student's equivalency.  Similarly, if you are offering a student a partial scholarship with books, it will bump that value up a little bit.  And for students on a full scholarship, obviously it will have no effect.
Please note that proposal 2010-75 has an effective date of August 1st, 2013.

Here is the text of the legislation:

Bylaws: Amend 15.5.3.2.1, as follows:

15.5.3.2.1 Additional Requirements. The following additional requirements shall apply to equivalency computations: 
[15.5.3.2.1-(a) through 15.5.3.2.1-(b) unchanged.]
(c) Books shall count for calculation purposes as $400 800 in the denominator.  If a student-athlete receives any portion of a full book allowance for the academic year, the institution must use $400 800 in the denominator and numerator for books, regardless of the actual cost of the books.  If a student-athlete receives less than the full book allowance, the institution must determine the fraction of book aid and must use the appropriate numerator based on the $400 denominator to reflect the fraction of the book allowance actually received.

And here is an interesting link that discusses the impact of 2010-75:

CCACA Discussion of 2010-75

If you are interested in hearing more about Proposals from this years legislative cycle with effective dates of August 1, 2011, please come to the Legislative Review session next Tuesday February 15th at 11:00AM.  The Review will be held in the conference room at the Athletics South facility.

Two-Year Transfer Concepts Revisited

NCAA Looks to Revamp Two-Year Transfer Legislation

If you remember back to December, the Compliance Office asked for your input on some proposed changes to the two-year transfer legislation.  The NCAA's Academics Cabinet met to review feedback that was provided and decide on the best way to move forward.  It now appears that if any changes are adopted, it would likely come with an effective date of August 1, 2013.  They also have some additional insight into the "academic year of readiness" that has been proposed for NCAA Nonqualifers who attend a Junior College.  There is some interesting information provided on how that might be implemented.

We have our monthly BigSky compliance call tomorrow morning, and we expect to hear more about what type of discussion went on at the Academics Cabinet meeting.  I will be sure to pass along any additional updates I get to you at the New Legislation Review, which is going to be held next Tuesday February 15th at 11:00AM in the Athletics South conference room.  Another good reason to attend the legislative review.