Clip Show: Keeping an Eye on the Tribe’s AAA Squad – 6/2/09
June 2, 2009While We’re Waiting… LeBron James’ Surgery, Jim Thome’s 550th, and the NBA Draft
June 3, 2009
If you frequent the site, you know that many of us come to the defense of our teams when we feel that they’re being wrongly portrayed or attacked with bias and malicious intent. We see it all of the time during football season as it seems as if the entire nation hate the Ohio State Buckeyes. For one reason or another (usually based on BCS nonsense), the Scarlet and Gray are at the forefront of the blog-wielded crowbar.
But after reading a recent report by the Columbus Dispatch, it’s pretty tough to disagree with anyone who finds some of the programs tactics a bit on the shady side.
Since 2000, Ohio State has reported to the NCAA more than 375 violations — the most of any of the 69 Football Bowl Subdivision schools that provided documents to The Dispatch through public-records requests. Most infractions were minor — a coach called a recruit too many times, for example. Others, however, left athletes benched, fined or at least embarrassed.
The public likely will never know the specifics, because records of all the violations were heavily edited by Ohio State in the name of student privacy. Ohio State says the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ties its hands. If OSU releases what it thinks is private information, the U.S. Department of Education could withhold federal funding.
FERPA, as the privacy act is named throughout, claims that releasing student names is an invasion of privacy. Thus, when a NCAA investigator comes to campus to look into a possible “special treatment” (as was the case in question), they’re given reports that have the player’s identity, dates, and time of visit all edited out.
Thus, when you hear Jim Tressel say that a player has “violated team policy,” this can range from anywhere between being late to practice and getting arrested for flipping cars and thrashing neighborhood garage doors. A similar tactic is claiming that a player is injured – or is suffering from an academic issue – when in fact he is not.
The Dispatch also reports that “About 4,000 violations a year are reported to the NCAA, many of them unknown to the public because of FERPA. But one thing is certain: Ohio State has more than most. Florida, for example, reported 112 violations since 2000, and Oklahoma reported 224.”
As expected, many are starting to come down on the institution for the way that it is handling these issues. The university spends an amount on athletes that is tenfold that of a non-athlete. As it is these athletes that then turn around and bring a large amount of revenue, thus ensuring that these cash cows continue to provide may be a bit of a conflict of interest.
—
Oversight vs. privacy at OSU [Columbus Dispatch]
17 Comments
The other issue to that (I heard Disptach reporter Todd Jones on 97.1 yesterday) is there’s no way to see if the university is giving preferential treatment for violations to “star” athletes versus lesser-known athletes.
Not to sound presumptuous, but I know that pic was for me. All in all it was for everyone…but come on, admit it.
College athletics are a joke. They should just pay these kids (as if a free ride to OSU and that educational system isn’t enough for them, I pay my way through BG and can’t wait till I get that mountain of debt with my degree) and then there wouldn’t be so many violations. Look at the OJ Mayo, Derrick Rose, and even the LBJ hummer fiasco. The high school and college recruiting industry is a joke and things need to be reworked.
Even the players at BG whether it be football, basketball, soccer, softball, etc. get special treatment. It’s not like it’s really hidden. Ask any college kid who is in tune with their schools athletics.
@ S-Dub… ummm – wouldn’t it be easier to just not pay the athletes and get rid of athletics? Just let everybody get turned into minor league athletes outside of schools and let the bloodbath begin. The whole cottage industry is so non-sensical it’s outrageous.
@Bridge: In a sense yes, but that means there’s gonna be a ton of money that these schools would lose. I mean they make billions every year off of college athletes, you think they’d just let that go by the wayside? I don’t think so.
Trying to avoid sounding like a homer here, but what school doesn’t do exactly what tOSU does in this regard? If they all do the exact same thing, where is the story here?
Unless you’re posting pictures of EA under the guise of recruiting violations. In that case, well played sir.
im not as troubled by the OSU aspect of this as i am the inconsistency of the law across the country.
In light of actually paying student athletes, the NCAA should, AT LEAST, allow student/athletes to receive endorsements. If companies want to pay a star athlete to endorse a product for them while they are at colleges than the NCAA has no right to interfere with that.
@8 – not practical. They become paid. That’s what professional sports are for.
Also – it gets really hard to pay some and not all. There are so many lawsuits there it’s insane. Not happening. Ever.
@5 S-Dub. “there’s gonna be a ton of money that these schools would lose” Factually incorrect. Very few schools profit from athletics, or even break even. There are widespread costs that come from general funds in over 95% of the schools in the nation. This is fact. Hence the arms race to build bigger arenas, stadiums, pay coaches more, is insane. I’ve worked in a d-1 program and at one time had access to all the data. I don’t think anyschool took sports “profit” and gave it back to the student fund. You could say it serves as advertising, but that’s a whole other ball of wax.
I guess I’d rather cheer foer a school that reports every supposed infraction than one like USC or Alabama who continually get busted for big violations ( Of course, until those charges charges completely disappear and the NCAA goes back to busting on the likes of big bad Eastern WA).
Man, I ‘m having trouble typing ( broken finger) Sorry guys.
For kicks you should see me try to play piano 😉
I wrote this on the TBL in response to this:
Anyone who knows me or knows my blog will know I will take potshots at OSU when necessary. This however, isn’t really one of those situation where it is deserved. It’s actuallly not a bad thing that they have so many violations, b/c the overwhelming majority of those violations are run of the mille and considered “minor” by the NCAA. Is they weren’t, the NCAA would punish the institution.
You might want to be asking why so many other schools seem to be so low. Probably b/c their compliance office isn’t doing a very good job of self reporting..which makes you really question what’s going on at those other programs.
Not saying these violations are a good thing for OSU, but your take that OSU is using a loophole to get away with anything, just isn’t accurate. What exactly are they getting away with? The NCAA would have come down on them if they were guilty of impropriety.
Seems like you were just eager to let everyone know that OSU was guilty of more minor infractions than any other school actually admitted. Big deal.
Now..If they stop shaking hands after games, then I’ll make a big deal out of it! (JK)
First time on this website, is this for sports enthusiasts or sports bashers? Agree with Chris M, not sure there’s a story here….appears common place to report these minor violations which NCAA considers non-actionable. Comparison to UF and OU also invalid, no way of knowing how many of these violations other schools “actually” report and what their internal criteria is…..who knows, maybe OSU is actually more honest and thorough than other schools.
Just because Ohio State reported more violations, doesn’t mean they actually committed more violations. Its possible that they’re being extra diligent with these because of the troubles they had in the early part of this decade. I’m not try to be a complete homer, but let’s just assume that could be the case.
In regards to making money, OSU is one of the only athletic departments annually in the black and that may have more than a little to do with why compliance is so meticulous with reporting violations. When you’re actually making money you want to be as careful as possible to make sure you keep making money.
And let’s not forget that OSU has, I do believe, literally every single D1 scholarship sport that’s available. Very few other schools can say they have men’s volleyball, men’s and women’s ice hockey, men’s field hockey, etc. I’d like to see how their per capita violations stack up.
can’t believe i’m doing this, but i actually have to completely agree with cursed (for the second night in a row!)
i thought the same thing as you when i read the article… maybe its not that OSU is “covering anything up” but rather the other schools simply aren’t being as strict.
on a completely separate note:
ASDRUBAL!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!
sigh. the sports gods hate us this week.
It’s a Cavs lost, Tribe sucks, and can’t get any info from the Browns story.
There simply is no story here.