Punishment severe, but Georgia Tech made its own mess
Georgia Tech's athletic director Dan Radakovich (right) and president G.P."Bud" Peterson were upset with NCAA's findings and language, but admitted errors. (Johnny Crawford/AJC)
There are a number of disturbing words that can be found in an NCAA news release. Booster. Agent. Academic fraud. The dreaded string: Lack of institutional control.
But this one ranks as one of the most troublesome: Manipulate.
If you believe the NCAA, Georgia Tech officials not only failed to cooperate with an investigation into possible impermissible benefits, they impeded, obstructed and tossed up road blocks.
The public infractions report reads like it was crafted by a performance-enhanced novelist. Claims that Tech attempted to “manipulate the information surrounding potential violations.” Claims that the school “hindered efforts to get to the truth.” Claims that former general counsel Randy Nordin, “adopted an obstructionist approach” to the investigation and referred to an NCAA staff member as “demonstratively untruthful.”
Maybe some of that is blather. But too much of it is truth.
Tech and its athletic department were slapped Thursday. They deserved to be.
While a case certainly can be made that the punishment is excessive – the Yellow Jackets effectively were stripped of their only ACC football championship in 2009 because one player received $312 worth of merchandise more than 20 months ago – a better case can be made that they had it coming.
Sorry. But a school whose title includes the words “Institute of Technology” should know how to read a manual.
Jackets coach Paul Johnson lost his ACC title. (Johnny Crawford/AJC)
In 2005, Tech went on two years’ probation because it used 17 athletes in four sports (11 in football) that it should have ruled academically ineligible. It lost scholarships and was forced to vacate rules. Now it has been hit with four years’ probation in football and basketball, fined $100,000 and must vacate records from the last three games of the 2009 football season (including the ACC title-game win over Clemson) because it acted stupidly when confronted with charges of using an ineligible player (Demaryius Thomas) and having a former basketball grad assistant involved with an on-campus AAU tournament.
Tech president G.P. “Bud” Peterson and athletic director Dan Radakovich both largely disputed the findings of the NCAA. (Tech had an official 53-page response to a 26-page infractions report.) But they were remorseful and Radakovich even apologized to the football team for the lost ACC title.
Paul Parker, the Jackets’ compliance officer at the time of the infractions, left the school in April to take a job at (ironically) Auburn. Radakovich did not publicly place any blame on Parker. But neither he nor Peterson were as kind to the school’s former counsel, Nordin, who has since retired.
“Perhaps we should’ve done some things differently,” Peterson said. “He didn’t have a great deal of experience in issues like this, and I believe if we had to do this all over again we would’ve hired an outside consultant to advise us and serve as legal counsel.”
He also cited the NCAA report saying that Nordin failed to inform the players of the consequences for lying. “Someone who had the experience working with the NCAA would know that’s their expectation,” Peterson said.
Actually, that seems more like common sense.
So is this: When the NCAA told Peterson and Radakovich not to inform anybody in the football program that an investigation was coming, that wasn’t merely a suggestion. But Radakovich told coach Paul Johnson. It trickled down from there. Radakovich said he never intended to influence the investigation, but he admitted it was a mistake.
Tech’s hearing took place at the worst possible time: the off week before the Georgia game, two weeks before the ACC championship. Thomas, a wide receiver, and safety Morgan Burnett both were the focus of the investigation into the football team. The Jackets rolled the dice. That was a mistake. (Georgia, in a similar situation last year, held out A.J. Green in the season opener before the NCAA suspended him four games for “Jerseygate.”)
Peterson was led to believe the players were innocent. He now says the school should have at least declared Thomas ineligible and then appeal for his immediate reinstatement. (Thomas denied the clothes were given to him by former Tech player Calvin Booker, whom the NCAA considers a runner for an agent. There were no findings with Burnett, but the NCAA blames Tech for letting the players know that investigators were going to ask them questions.)
It all may seem way too convoluted and the punishment too severe for what the NCAA admits ultimately could be a secondary infraction. But the mess is Tech’s doing.
“We could’ve done better,” Peterson said.
A tough lesson to learn.
By Jeff Schultz
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431 comments Add your comment
Stinger2
July 15th, 2011
4:32 am
No one who has posted on any of these blogs about this incident know the facts or knows for sure what really happened. This includes Jeff Schultz. Tech will appeal and the penalities could be significantly reduced. Wait and see before making a final judgment. Meanwhile who cares about what UGA fans think or say.
Cmon man
July 15th, 2011
4:35 am
Tech fans may be pretty sharp in math but their reading comprehension skills suck. Tech was given a heavy punishment because they ignored the instructions of the ncaa. If your employer tells you specifically not to do something and you do it anyway and you try to cover it up what do you honestly think is going to happen? say what you want about cmr but the man has high character. Cpj needs to set a better example for his players leadership starts at the top!
Thomas Brown
July 15th, 2011
4:48 am
REPEAT VIOLATOR
LENGTHY PERIOD OF PROBATION
SUBSTANTIAL FINES
VACATE FOOTBALL RECORDS
AGAIN SUBJECT TO REPEAT VIOLATOR YET AGAIN NOW
FOUR (4) YEARS OF PROBATION from 7/14/11 – 7/13/2015
RECRUITING DAYS REDUCED BY 2
NO COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS TO 1ST BASKETBALL HOME GAME
LIMIT OF ONLY 10 PERMISSIBLE OFFICIAL VISITS BOTH 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 BASKETBALL
Here is the real kicker :
Vacate all games WON after November 24, 2009 and ending after the bowl game.
FUNNY Georgia tek
You LOST all those games except against Climpsum Farmers and so now there is 1990 only, because that win 2009 over Climpsum Farmers is VACATED just after South Carolina beat Climpsum and just after Georgia beat Georgia tek with said Thomas the focus of all the incomplete passes to end the game with a LOSS to UGA.
Vacate 1 win.
Yes, small penalty – because you LOST all the other games, nerds.
PAUL JOHNSON cannot count the win over Climpsum Farmers in his total.
No team who subsequently HIRES Paul Johnson can list the win over Climpsum or the ACC Championship, now VACATED.
Cupcake Conference anyway.
That is like saying you are the best sportswriter at the AJ-C.
INFORM ALL PROSPECTS THAT GEORGIA TEK IS ON NCAA PROBATION.
PUBLICIZE THE NCAA PROBATION IN FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL MEDIA GUIDES ANNUALLY.
REPEAT VIOLATOR – FOR 5 YEARS FROM 14 JULY 2011 THROUGH 13 JULY 2016.
AJ-C ?
Where in the blazes was there ever any mention of this ever in the newspaper I have thrown down in the street in front of my home ?
Answer. There never was.
Buzz ME
July 15th, 2011
4:50 am
Shultze you are a dawg loving moron with an agenda
TiredofreadingbouttheDawgs
July 15th, 2011
4:51 am
This is hilarious!
Thomas Brown
July 15th, 2011
4:55 am
RedandBlackDAWG 3:52 am,
The news publications under OPEN RECORDS LAW are supposed to protect ALL EQUALLY, not just publish about UGA but specifically to publish what was obviously KNOWN to the AJ-C.
AJ-C failed sir.
Didn’t they ?
I am not saying that Georgia institute of technology did not disclose that which they must now disclose, but that the AJ-C PURPOSELY FAILED to tell us what they knew.
You get that, sir ?
funny...
July 15th, 2011
5:33 am
LOL
Reap what you sew Jackettes.
So holier than thou, and you still lost to Georgia.
Free Stuff
July 15th, 2011
6:17 am
The good old NCAA looks like they are going to investigate every single school to make sure no kid gets any clothes, food, transportation etc for free. THere is a rumor swirling around, hasn’t hit the press yet that a middle linebacker out in the mid west had an accident in his pants and the NCAA is investigating this….the team is to lose its championship. Those dirty players. How dare they want clothes and pizza. What a load of crap. The NCAA is really scared that the players are going to get something of monetary value and they feel a though they should get the Damn value themselves. How dare these kids get food or clothes or other stuff that regular students get. Remember that student athletes school schedules are a bit different than some students and they don’t have too many opportunities to make any extra spending money.
georgiadawg70
July 15th, 2011
6:22 am
Wait till lthe facts comne out about Auburn. They will make movies avbout it. Can you say Death Penalty
Hedgepruner
July 15th, 2011
6:36 am
UGA better be careful casting stones. Wasn’t that long ago that Mark Richt butt dialed a recruit… what a joke.
Davis Mac
July 15th, 2011
6:38 am
“damn… just damn” – Royal Marshall
georgiadawg70
July 15th, 2011
6:39 am
The ironic thing about letting Thomas play in the Georgia gamee in 09 is that he cost Tech the game by dropping the ball late in the game on what was an easy catch. Best is remember it was fourth down and it gave Ga. the ball back to run out the clock.
Michael
July 15th, 2011
6:42 am
Radakovich: If we had known then, what we know now, we would have just stated that the player’s dad was a preacher, the preacher may have received the $312, we don’t really know where $312 went, and therefore he was only ineligible for a couple hours.
Free Stuff
July 15th, 2011
6:44 am
Can the NCAA please stop investigating student athletes for petty crap like this. If a kid gets a free pizza the NCAA wants to come down on him and his school. Since when isn’t the kids stuff his own? He can’t sell it or give it away without an investigation? Well there is going to be a big story break out of the mid west where a linebacker for a mid western team had an accident in his pants…school is to lose their championship….real stinky situation. Lets see….the country is Trillions in debt, our political leaders are spending every penny we have along with our children and grand children and we are worried about a kid getting a free shirt or pizza. What really needs to happen is that college students should be investigated by congress for the dastardly actions. Go away NCAA. Why not investigate what your doing with all the billions your making off of college athletes who play sports. Lets look into what your eating, looking at…any dirty pictures…any prostitutes???? yikes.
Next they will come out and say student athletes can’t have sex because it has a monetary value!!!! Can you imagine a football coach today..worrying about where one of his players got a pair of socks or upon making a visit to his dorm room and low and behold they find a filthy empty pizza box…investigation…call the NCAA . Can student athletes have yard sales?? NOOO…that would break all NCAA rules I bet. Who does all these petty investigations? Its got to cost everybody a fortune…over a shirt or a pair of pants….at first glance it seems very stupid. What we could and should do is appoint the NCAA to investigate our congressional leaders for their spending habits. Now that could be really meaningful. Lets put NCAA spending restrictions on congress!!
Michael
July 15th, 2011
6:47 am
Can a player bring his clock radio from home and sell it for $500?
georgiadawg70
July 15th, 2011
6:52 am
The NCAA is very selective with its indignation. Suspending one player for selling a ring and let an admitted felon and cheat like Newton go unpunished.
RedandBlackDAWG
July 15th, 2011
6:55 am
Thomas brown,
Has anybody on the AJC said they knew about it before hand? Not to my knowledge. Maybe they didn’t know enough to insure what they heard was factual.
Public disclosure laws, do not apply to a news story about a university being reported by a private company. They apply to public and federal govt. institutions. The last I heard, AJC was not one of those.
I would ask you, why Tech. did not even bother to at least make public, that they were under investigation. I think they are a public institution aren’t they?
The AJC has no obligation to break a story at any time. They do because they are in the business of reporting news, but they have no legal obligation to do so. They were not the ones under investigation.
You get that SIR?
GT
July 15th, 2011
7:08 am
Tech will appeal this. In law there are sentencing guide lines because the judges have a tenancy to be too lenient. I think it is based on the weighted average of the sentences that have been handed out before on this subject. If this is the case here this decision is an elephant compared to the crime. Ohio State and any other school under investigation would have to get the death sentence to equal justice. You cannot operate with this kind of scale. What are you trying to stop? Is Tech a rogue program out of control? Isolated in this one story it may look that way but compared to the rest of the NCAA, like the program itself it barely makes a splash. The alumni don’t really expect too much here, that is why we took seats out of the stadium. There needs to be an appeal, even if Tech is guilty. There needs to be a public airing out of this. When schools like Tech who have no real overblown ambitions are the subject to this there needs to be a better explanation. This will rock the entire NCAA, which is on thin ground now. I don’t think there is any real hate for Tech, like there might have been for a U of Miami. We are not good enough and basically most people realize we sacrifice winning to education. I think the NCAA has picked the wrong battle; this one will come back and bite them. I think Tech is one of the few schools that can gather public support in these kinds of matters.
Kevin
July 15th, 2011
7:13 am
I Must been not allowed….Im a ramblin wreak from Gt and i don’t give a darn it was 32,000 dollars gave to Thomas who is denver now payed him n agent got Yech in trouble go back 1990 they find same by when coach was oh that fellow who Tryed be N.Dame coach n was fired when found he cheated at Gtech on his job he wrote in resume n ND atl. dept fired him after 1 day..Smart from Tech people…U got it and if u caught again next probation be all games forfeited from 1999 to 2010….
Alex Trebek
July 15th, 2011
7:14 am
Cheating for $500:
What do Beverly Hall and DRad have in common?
bitter BUGG
July 15th, 2011
7:17 am
NEXT—————–HAHAHAH———-all-burn pay for play==yaaw “R” finished
—————————DEATH PENALITY————–AND THE OHIO ST——–FINISHED
———————–THUGGS AND TROLLS———hahahahahahahahahah
k483
July 15th, 2011
7:18 am
So, let me get this straight: Tech had to actually cheat to be mediocre?
LAST
July 15th, 2011
7:18 am
TECH is an embarrassment to the ACC, opps I forgot about North Carolina!!! Don’t worry Tech fans baseball is just around the corner!!!
Buckeye
July 15th, 2011
7:29 am
And Chris Weber didn’t call time out but Urbane Meyer did, right dogs??
TIME OUT TIME OUT TIME OUT
Buckeye
July 15th, 2011
7:31 am
Free Stuff,
“Lets put NCAA spending restrictions on congress!!”
THAT IS BRILLIANT. The most productive comment EVER on these blogs!
GT
July 15th, 2011
7:35 am
You know the Beverly Hall thing is not that far off. If you are cheating to get the average student looking good what are they doing for the high school football player? Atlanta may be ground zero for corruption all of a sudden. No wonder it is so hot. How many schools are playing APS grads?
Cherok
July 15th, 2011
7:49 am
If this is what GT gets for the activities stated, then THE Ohio State should be pretty worried about now. Equivalent judgment would be the Death Penalty, eh ?
Thomas Brown
July 15th, 2011
7:51 am
RedandBlackDAWG
With all due respect, the AJ-C has never let that stop them from saying what they found using the Georgia OPEN RECORDS LAW about UGA.
Please quit making up excuses – stretches at best, by only you – to try to defend the fact that I pay this newspaper $350 a year and that the AJ-C
COVERED UP this story, yet every single AJ-C “sportswriter” was well aware of this NCAA investigation for almost 3 years now – since November 11, 2009.
OPEN RECORDS LAW for this state says that they HAVE THE FACTS on this and have had. Yet, not 1 word until it catches the recruits who have committed to Georgia tek by “surprise.”
It ALSO took every single reader of the AJ-C by surprise and despite your poor attempts to dream up possible EXCUSES for it, the AJ-C is clearly caught
NOT REPORTING the news of the Georgia institute of technology
right on the same street in the same block as this newspaper.
Sad reporting indeed.
Thomas Brown
July 15th, 2011
7:53 am
1 year 8 months of
COVERING UP
and
FAILING TO REPORT THE NEWS
on Georgia tek
by the AJ-C
That is what this story is all about.
Bizarre.
Choke on this, Fat Girl Cathy
July 15th, 2011
7:59 am
Abolish the NCAA! The source of the “corruption” was an SEC transfer from Auburn.
Jackets 2011
July 15th, 2011
8:03 am
Well speaking of messes, our economy cannot function evidently without the government running one trillion dollar deficits. Both Reagan and Clinton averaged a trillion dollars in deficit spending per 4 year term. Then W topped them all, nearly doubled the debt run up by all the other presidents, by adding $5,365,000,000,000.
Is that enough zeros?
What will the penalty be for our nation’s lack of discipline?
The dollar will no longer be the world’s reserve currency as some predict?
And our inflation will jump the next day.
Enjoy paying off the debt, not Obama, but decades of irresponsibility have given us.
Reality Stinks
July 15th, 2011
8:04 am
Cheaters
Have always cheated, and it continues.
Ive always stated you cannot have those so called high academic standards and bring in thugs to your program and then want to act like they are in the engineering school
If the NCAA would do a complete investigation they would find the GT Business school is where the cheating really goes on since 90% of Tech football players are in the business school
Dumbo
July 15th, 2011
8:22 am
It is so funny to see the sanctimonious self righteous Tech taken down a couple of notches!!!!!!!!!!
Chi Town
July 15th, 2011
8:26 am
Great job on breaking this story, Schultz.
Atlanta media is a joke.
Maybe you should concentrate more on real journalism vs writing about Harvey Updyke every week.
Douche bag.
Topp Dogg
July 15th, 2011
8:28 am
I am so mad i could punch myself in the face, GT still sucks.
BuzzBelle
July 15th, 2011
8:28 am
Glass Houses People – NCAA didn’t stop with USC, Ohio State or Tech. Be careful who you guys laugh at, they may be coming to a university you think does no harm either!
RogersParkRob
July 15th, 2011
8:30 am
NCAA told D Rad and Bud not to tell anyone about the pending investigation. What is this, 5th grade? And to hit tech with 100 large fine!!! Based on what I read, the NCAA wanted to flex its muscle and slap someone down. So who came up with the $312 number? Seems like a weird one, is this including tax? and should Tech be investigated for tax fraud. NCAA, what a fraud.
As I was saying before I was so rudely interupted
July 15th, 2011
8:34 am
GT has not been really decent in football on a CONSISTANT basis since the mid 1950s. Decent to me and most college football fans means MAJOR BOWLS like the Cotton, the Sugar or the Fiesta ( on in the last 20 yrs) or the Urange, Rose or Capital One and possibly the Outback Bowl. The Gator and Chic Fil A and Music City and Boise Blue Carpet Bow, the Shoney’s Weedeater Bowl, or that wierd Micron Bowl in SF do not count.
The lone exception is their 1990 NC shared that year by 3 or was it 5 other schools? That LONE 1990 year dating all the way back to the mid 1950s proves that GT has not been a factor since President Eisenhauer’s era and BBBB…………..meaning Before Barrack Being Born.
GT has nothing to show for being a major program over like 55-60 years beyond 1990. The ACC title in 09 is non existent now ……………….so, as I was saying before I ………………..
This is so funny. GT cheating and getting CAUGHT TWICE in less than 10 years. THUGS they are with NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHA
Reality Stinks
July 15th, 2011
8:37 am
Tech would be better off spending their money on cleaning up their neighborhood and investing in more security guards instead of trying to pay players
Cheaters
Cheaters
Cheaters
Jackets 2011
July 15th, 2011
8:38 am
Thanks for reminding me Jeff why I pay for the MDJ but read the AJC only if its free.
RedandBlackDAWG
July 15th, 2011
8:41 am
I really don’t get the cover up. Did the AJC know 1 year and 8 months ago, what the NCAA would do? Why didn’t Tech. come out with an announcement at that time if they knew.
To me, the thing that bothers me, is the fact, that tech. violations are rather minor in comparison to some other institutions and the fines, although, heavier because of the repeat violations clause, are a little steep for the penalty. Other schools that have already admitted they did a lot of worse things, are still waiting for the NCAA’s hammer to fall. If Tech. got hit this hard, imagine how hard it will come down on THE OSU if they are indeed an even handed task master.
Topp Dogg
July 15th, 2011
8:41 am
I might kick my own ass.
Tommy
July 15th, 2011
8:44 am
What a joke. The NCAA gives players free stuff at all bowl games.They get it free from sponsors.Whats the difference.I can remember when two GA football players showed up their senior year with new vehicles with designer plates.Photo in AJC.I believe it was Hastings and Hurst but not positive.AJC archives are probably available.
Reality Stinks
July 15th, 2011
8:47 am
Cheaters
Cheaters
And you still cannot beat a sorry UGA team
juvenal
July 15th, 2011
8:48 am
like speeding tix, it’s the randomness that’s most annoying………
Hal
July 15th, 2011
8:48 am
I would like to know how this got started. Who told who what? I don’t see anybody at Tech really admitting any big wrongdoing. The suspected players don’t admit any wrongdoing. I don’t see the NCAA proving any wrongdoing. You had a clear violations at UGA and OHIO State. If the items in question were returned then who cares? I would suspect that the NCAA after learning the items were returned was not satisfied. They wanted to keep looking until they found a violation and that’s why all you have is a failure to cooperate with the NCAA because Tech told them to take a hike. If they want that type of control they should be like the Communist Party and have a NCAA “party” political officer at each institution to keep an eye on things.
anthny's weiner
July 15th, 2011
8:52 am
Where exactly did you get that Tech was paying players?
GT grad
July 15th, 2011
8:52 am
My father and I are Tech grads. This is a sad day for Tech. The AD and coach need to be dismissed. Integrity is more important than winning.
Topp Dogg
July 15th, 2011
8:53 am
I guess naming the stadium after CPJ is out of the question now damit.
Who's To Blame
July 15th, 2011
8:55 am
Take a look these folks are/were the legal advisors. They’re suppose to know what the legal ramifications would be.
http://www.admin-fin.gatech.edu/AFOverviewSpr09.pdf