Michigan’s Self-Imposed Sanctions: SBN’s Maize N’ Brew Explains What It All Means

1. First: what exactly happened to prompt this self-punishment anyway?

All this nonsense started in 2008 with a couple of misunderstandings of the NCAA rule book. First, Rodriguez and Michigan didn’t think that quality control staffers counted as coaches under the rules. Second, Michigan’s training staff didn’t believe that stretching and warm up routines were countable minutes towards he off season workout restrictions (the university emphasizes this by pointing out that the staff actually counted stretching time as a safeguard during the season to prevent overages). Third, Michigan was internally very, very sloppy. The AD staff and football staff didn’t confirm that its training paperwork was up to date for over a year. It won’t surprise you that this particular faux pas is the one the galls Michigan fans the most.

The result was offseason workouts going about 15-20 minutes too long due to stretching and a few instances of quality control staffers overstepping their bounds during voluntary summer workouts. One other thing that’s worth mentioning is that the NCAA counted Michigan punishing its athletes with extra-heavy-duty workouts for missing class as extra practice time. Yeah. So there’s that, and that’s generally how we got here.

2. With that established: how exactly is Michigan punishing itself here?

As Michigan’s AD, David Brandon, has basically put it, Michigan is matching the punishment to the crime, and then doubling it. Michigan has self-imposed two years of probation on the football program, reduced its “quality control” football staff from five persons to three, self-imposing a reduction of 130 hours of training and practice time on the program for the next two years, and terminating the member of the quality control staff who lied to NCAA investigators. So what does that mean? We’re punishing ourselves at the times we broke the rules. Where Michigan went over during the football season (maybe five hours total), they’ve taken away 10 hours of practice. Where Michigan went over during the off-season, the bulk of the infractions, Michigan will double that up as well and reduce practice time during the coming off seasons. The grand total of reduced practice time 130 hours. That’s what will affect the athletes.

The University, gets a swift kick as well. Michigan reduced it’s quality control staff from five to three members and canned one of the QC guys who misled the NCAA investigators for no real reason. Personally, I think reducing the QC staff is a good thing. This will put more of the onus on the coaching staff to be on top of things and get rid out overzealous grad students. There’s a joke there, but I’ll let you make your own. As an additional punishment, seven members of the administration will be told they are bad, in letter format, and not be allowed to have any cake at office birthday parties for a whole year. Actually, there are letters of reprimand going in several people’s files, many within the athletic department, for their involvement. It’s not a hammer on the head sanction, but it does effect career prospects in some ways and this is basically having their boss sit them down and say “your ass is on thin ice”, at least for the non-coaching staff recipients. As for the Coaches, they know that already, so wins and losses this coming season and carefully documenting everything will determine their future.

3. Has this ever worked with the NCAA? More importantly, when hasn’t it worked?

No. No. A thousand times no. We we’re extremely cooperative with the NCAA’s investigation of the Chris Weber/Ed Martin scandal and we not only got hammered, but because we voluntarily left the NCAA investigation open until the Feds nailed Ed Martin, the NCAA actually extended the time we were under investigation and the period of time for us to be a “repeat offender.” How does that make any sense? When USC is given a bouquet flowers and an apology for putting them through such a tough investigation by the NCAA, you’ll see just how much it sucks to work with the NCAA voluntarily.

4. Really, on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being “used cardboard cutouts of a recruit illegally” and 10 being “the 1981 SMU football program,” how bad is this?

I’d say it’s a three. In terms of stupidity, it’s a five. The fact that Michigan, yes, Michigan, was so sloppy that it couldn’t find paperwork on NCAA requirements is inexcusable by any standard. I mean Michigan State gets this sort of stuff right. In terms of competitive advantage? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… /wipes tears from eyes/ ….. Oh… good one. It’s really been helpful to have all that extra stretching. I don’t think these were serious violations and some of it can be chalked up to a misunderstanding of the rules, but it’s still a systemic issue. And because of that it ratchets up the seriousness of the violations. But in terms of violations on the college football landscape, these infractions aren’t of the “OMG BARRY SWITZER IZ N UR HOUSE” variety.

5. Based on your hunches alone: should Michigan have punished themselves further, or will this be enough to keep the NCAA away?

Based on the crime committed… these self-imposed sanctions are probably the right move. I think they fit the circumstances and I’m happy with the way the University responded. I think there will be an uproar outside the Michigan ranks about scholarships and why UM didn’t take away any in their announced sanctions, but I don’t think those were warranted. Another reason taking away a scholarship or two doesn’t make sense is because Michigan is currently short of scholarship players as it is, so taking away scholarships that Michigan currently isn’t using might be seen as a transparent attempt to circumvent any real penalties. However, logic and the NCAA are usually two separate things. Look at Alabama’s text-book scandal or Auburn’s psychology grade scandals in the last four years. Crime and punishment don’t usually match up when the NCAA is involved.