Michigan Gets Popped By NCAA

Freep.com - The NCAA has issued a notice of allegations to the University of Michigan alleging five major violations in its football program. University officials just released the report this afternoon. Incoming athletic director David Brandon said the school would be sticking with head coach Rich Rodriguez. “We view these allegations seriously,” Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman said. "We will make all necessary changes. What we will not do is make excuses. Among the allegations:

-From January 2008 through this past September, the program exceeded the permissible limit on the number of coaches by five. The NCAA alleges that five quality control staff members illegally engaged in on- and off-field coaching activities.

-From January 2008 through at least last September, the school permitted football staff members to illegally monitor and conduct voluntary summer workouts and impermissible activities outside the playing season. The NCAA also alleges that U-M required players to participate in summer conditioning for disciplinary purposes, and exceed time limits for countable athletically related activities during and outside the playing season.

-Graduate assistant coach Alex Herron provided “false and misleading information to the institution and enforcement staff” during the investigation.

-Coach Rodriguez “failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program and failed to adequately monitor the duties and activities of quality control staff members, a graduate assistant coach and a student assistant coach, and the time limits for athletically related activities.”

-From January 2008 through at least this past September, the athletics department “failed to adequately monitor its football program to assure compliance regarding the limitations on the number, duties and activities of countable football coaches and time limits for countable athletically related activities.”
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Well this is turning into one hell of a day. I'm back at work after a week off and this shit is the worst. I wish I could just sit at home and sling smut all day. Instead I gotta get up each morning and motivate the youth of New York to not be morbidly obese. Will somebody hurry up and make me famous already so I can quit this shit and move into a penthouse apartment overlooking Comerica. God damn I could do some serious damage with my finger on the pulse of the city like that.

But anyway the real reason I am writing this is cause the hammer has finally come down and the NCAA announced that Michigan did all the things that the Detroit Free Press claimed they did in regards to violating NCAA regulations. This has a lot of Wolverine faithful real worried and getting all defensive about the Freep taking up pitchforks and torches in a Rich Rod witch hunt.

I definitely will say that I think its weird that the Detroit media has a hard-on for digging up dirt on Rich, but what I won't do is sit here and nitpick over minor details that don't mean shit. The bottom line is that we broke rules and they got us. Yeah, other big schools do it too but for some reason they didn't get popped, we did. If we didn't want this to happen then we should've been more careful because we know better. No one cares whether or not is was a 8.5 or 9 hour practice day that pushed us over the edge. No one cares whether the workouts were voluntary or required. Nobody cares whether there were 4 or 5 coaches too many supervising workouts. The time to cry over that has passed. The matter of the fact is that Michigan violated rules that they knew existed. Rich can sit and say that he wasn't aware that he was breaking them but he was. And it is what it is. The first thing that should've happened after Rich was hired is that there should've been a sitdown between Bill Martin, Mary Sue and Rich Rod to go over this situation exactly. It should've been drilled into his head from day one that he better tread lightly because people smelled blood in the water during this coaching transition. And if you give them anything, absolutely anything than you're toast. And that's exactly what we did. We gave them a whiff and now we are knee deep in shit. I put this on Bill Martin because it ultimately falls on him. You hired a renegade as a coach and didn't keep an eye on him. Shame on you.

Where do we go from here? Well, I don't have an easy answer for that. I definitely wouldn't panic and fire Rich and the new AD, David Brandon, has said as much. I think we just take our lumps from the MSU and OSU slappys and move on. Yeah it is embarrassing that we weren't smarter than this but I'm more embarrassed by the Rich Rod Pity Party Pep Rally that he threw himself at the Michigan Theater last week. I mean who the fuck does that? Is this JV football where we need to paint our faces and pile a student section onto a school bus for away games? Like what the hell? This is the Big Ten we're talking about here. Nobody needs to hear Larry Foote and Rick Leach whisper sweet nothings into Rich's ear so he doesn't go home and kill himself. Fuckin amateur hour out there. But the real take away is this. Know that we're gonna hear it from everybody next year and if Rich fucks up on the field he is doneski. But you know what the perfect cure all for shit like this is...winning football games. There you go Rich, I told you I didn't have an easy answer for you but you better believe I have the right one.

PS - The Freep was advertising this shirt along with the news of the violations. I fuckin dare anyone to wear it right now.