Filling In The Blanks

Is speeding a major violation?

The WVU football team has been charged with committing five "major" violations by the NCAA, under previous coach Rich Rodriguez and current coach Bill Stewart. The allegations claim that WVU did not "promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program."

Most of the allegations center around the illegal use of graduate assistants and student managers. Among the charges were: 1) during the summers of 2005 to 2009, West Virginia allowed graduate assistants, student managers or others to monitor or conduct voluntary football players' summer workouts and 2) that graduate assistants were allowed to analyze video with football players and some staff monitored and conducted skill development with players during the spring and summer.

WVU broke the rules and will have to pay a penalty.

Fair enough.

But, what will that penalty be?

If I get a ticket for exceeding the speed limit by 5 m.p.h. I don't expect to pay the same fine, or face the same punishment, as someone who was ticketed for reckless driving. Both are against the law, but one is certainly more egregious than the other.

The acts allegedly committed by the Mountaineer football program, though they are labeled "major," seem more like speeding violations. They are violations, but when compared to the intentional and unscrupulous acts that have occurred in the past at other universities, these seem rather trivial. Some of the worst acts committed elsewhere like, point shaving, recruiting violations, receiving gifts (taking money), fixing grades, altering transcripts, plagiarism, to mention a few, are rather more significant by comparison.

I feel confident that the coaching staff was not intentionally trying to gain a competitive advantage. I think it was a failure of someone (presumably in the compliance department) not having a thorough understanding of the rules. The reason I feel this way is because the same violations occurred under Rodriguez and Stewart. If they would have only occurred under one or the other, then a better argument could be made that the coaches were not promoting an atmosphere of compliance. I don't believe that to be the case.

I'm not suggesting WVU receive a free pass. On the contrary, they violated the "law," so to speak, which does warrant some action from the NCAA. I'm just suggesting that the punishment should fit the crime.
We should have a pretty good idea of what to expect within the next couple of months. Michigan just testified before the NCAA for similar allegations and the NCAA is expected to dish out sanctions within the next six to eight weeks. Pay close attention to the penalties they receive, because WVU can probably expect the something very similar.