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
Harvey
July 15th, 2011
10:28 am
The maturity level of the UGA fanbase never ceases to amaze me. LOL
RambleOn84
July 15th, 2011
10:30 am
Sean Bedford is absolutely right…the NCAA is pathetic.
They like picking on the small schools like Tech, cuz it won’t cost them anything.
On the flip side…
USC got a relative slap on the wrist after giving Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo hundreds of thousands in benefits.
Auburn continued to play Cam Newton when in the midst of an investigation concerning at least $100,000 in benefits, and nothing.
Perhaps most egregious is the ruling that Ohio State players are FOUND GUILTY in a scandal, yet allowed to play in the bowl game?!?!?!?!?!
RambleOn84
July 15th, 2011
10:32 am
I still remember when they made a huge fit over the UGA players selling their own SEC championship rings, too. And then the AJ Green “scandal,” again concerning selling HIS OWN PROPERTY.
The NCAA’s priorities are ridiculous.
collegedude
July 15th, 2011
10:33 am
BankerDawg – Definitely agree that the NCAA is broken. However, when you cooperate with the investigation, your punishment is less than what it will be if you refuse to cooperate. If you refuse to cooperate with an investigation, your punishment is still going to be less than if you actively attempt to manipulate and impede an investigation.
That’s what I’m trying to say. The punishment fit the crime in terms of what the NCAA has doled out to other schools. If Tech would have assisted with the investigation, rather than impede it, you would have seen little to no punishment by the NCAA on this.
hairydawg92
July 15th, 2011
10:37 am
Nobody hates tech as much as I do, but losing an ACC title for $300 worth of clothes that “might” constitute as an infraction? Ridiculous. The NCAA is an absolute joke. AJ Green has to sit out 4 games but Terrell Pryor (and others) are allowed to play all games AND a bowl game! Now tech has to vacate a conference title because of a sack-ful of t-shirts. Random and inconsistent punishment does not a worthy organization make.
techfan
July 15th, 2011
10:40 am
The NCAA should make players ineligible on the spot or not have the ability to retroactively make them ineligible. It puts teams in situations where they have to guess on the NCAA’s findings which is a horrible process.
NCAA: Hey guys, we think one of your players got some shirts and shoes. We don’t really know who they came from though. Maybe you should make him ineligible for your most important games.
GT: Well, we checked with everyone we can think of and we determined you are wrong.
A year and a half passes.
NCAA: Yeah, we finally decided we were right. Give us 100k and your ACC trophy.
It’s just stupid how this process works.
Coach Hewitt...
July 15th, 2011
10:45 am
As for GT fans who think the punishment is too harsh….Thomas caught a 70 yard TD pass on a 1 play drive in a game decided by five points in which he should’ve been sitting down pending the outcome of his investigation. Even UGA had the good sense to sit A.J. Green while the NCAA was investigating….
If you want to blame someone, blame the ACC for telling you it was ok to play a player that the NCAA recommended you sit till they were thru looking into the allegations.
Brogens Hero
July 15th, 2011
10:46 am
What a surprise Tech get’s busted and it’s not there fault. Techies love to come to the dog blogs and vent but they get so defensive when UGA fans do it to them. Techies are all a bunch of insecure, whining, erector set playing babies.
techfan
July 15th, 2011
10:46 am
“The punishment fit the crime in terms of what the NCAA has doled out to other schools.”
Can you give an example of another school with such a small infraction that got such a harsh punishment because the NCAA decided they were impeding things?
Big Dawg...
July 15th, 2011
10:54 am
If Aaron Murray farted in his car in the drive thru at Wendy’s it would get a mention. This investigation was going on for 20 months before AJC got a sniff of it…. Maybe this is why the AJC & the newspaper industry as a whole is dying. It no longer provides the service it claims to provide….
Brock
July 15th, 2011
10:59 am
after reading the question and answer comments by the “student athlete” I highly doubt they were coached on how to answer the questions. I thought I was reading another tweet from Caleb King.
RedandBlackDAWG
July 15th, 2011
11:01 am
The NCAA is on it’s own personal agenda now, after how poorly they handle THE OSU and Auburn matters last year. It is painfully obvious, that if it involves a big money situation, that they will bend their rules to keep the big bucks floating and make so many exception that only a member of the NCAA enforcement committee would believe they are on the level.
With all the darn rules they have, I do not see how any school can avoid some sort of violation or another. The problem comes, when they ignore or delay investigation into the big violations and act like they did the right thing. They are now trying to insert themselves into the pictures as the end all to all and saying, if you lie too us or hinder our investigation, we will chomp on you. That is all fine and dandy if they use an equal and just approach to this and apply it evenly to all schools. I would think with the investigations they have now going on, they would not have been that concerned about a relatively small matter like Tech. was involved in. I think they are trying to send some type of message, that they are not allowed to be mislead, lied to or thwarted in their investigations. Seems a little late in the game for them to now try and recover their reputation.
collegedude
July 15th, 2011
11:01 am
techfan – I can show you a lot of examples of reduced penalties when schools cooperated with NCAA investigations and performed some level of self-imposed punishment. Very few schools have been either stupid enough, or arrogant enough to try and impede an NCAA investigation. What started off as a very minor infraction became exponentially worse as GT made attempts to cover it up.
Here is a major point that the AJC has thus far glossed over:
The report also alleges that staff members violated NCAA rules by giving the athlete details of the investigation before NCAA investigators interviewed him. According to the report, Radakovich told the head football coach, Paul Johnson, about the investigation — itself a violation of NCAA rules — and they had a closed-door meeting with the player to tell him about the investigation, which constituted another violation.
Violation after violation to cover up the initial violation results in a harsher punishment than if GT had just cooperated.
BankerDawg
July 15th, 2011
11:08 am
It is my understanding that DRad telling CPJ about the investigation is in no way a violation of NCAA rules. Rather, it is something that was asked of DRad by the investigator regarding him telling anyone of the impending visit.
DRad chose to tell CPJ based on his need to know around scheduling, etc.
Again, this, to my knowledge, is not an NCAA violation. It seemed to be, though, what ticked the NCAA investigator off.
I guess ultimately my problem is that nothing was proven…not the dealing with an agent, not the ineligibility of the player(s), not the manipulation of witnesses…nothing.
So I would argue the punishment is absolutely disproportionate based on the fact that Tech wasn’t found guilty of comitting any infractions. A rather BIG point, I think.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOO DAWGS! SIC ‘EM!
Zac
July 15th, 2011
11:13 am
collegedude:
And those examples are…..
growing older, but not up
July 15th, 2011
11:22 am
The report says Tech “appeared” to manipulate. . . . and it’s a “cautionary tale” for the other member institutions? They can say what they want, but they are using Tech as an example in hopes that Ohio State, UNC, Auburn, etc. get the message.
collegedude
July 15th, 2011
11:26 am
Zac, watch what happens to Oregon & Ohio St. If it’s a slap on the wrist, then you have a complaint about the punishment GT received.
What do you want examples of, teams getting less punishment if the cooperate? Look at Tennessee a few years ago for an example.
I don’t recall the outcry by GT fans last year when AJ Green received a 4 game suspension for selling a jersey to a guy claiming to be a “memorabilia collector”. UGA self-reported & cooperated, HELD AJ OUT OF A GAME BEFORE THE NCAA RULED (unlike what GT did with Thomas), and he gave the money he received to charity, yet the NCAA stuck with the harsher punishment. But in the eyes of many Tech fans, AJ should have received an even harsher punishment. So spare me. GT didn’t lose a scholarship. All they have to do is pay a fine (not that large really when you look at the size of their budget), and erase a win or two from the record books. Boo Hoo.
Buzzzed
July 15th, 2011
11:36 am
Was the agent jilted when Bay-bay didn’t sign with him? Was the agent the informant?
Who was the nark?
UGA X
July 15th, 2011
11:45 am
But, but, Mississippi State says Auburn cheated. Why hasn’t Auburn been punished.
Arrogance
July 15th, 2011
12:24 pm
One thing I’ve always noticed about Georgia Tech is their Arrogance. You get the feeling after living in the ATL for awhile that GT thinks they engineer the universe. So when they find out they done something wrong in football and basketball instead of Tech following the logical course to resolve it, they just throw the ole Tech arrogance at it thinking that this will work because we at GT and a hell of an engineer. Well Georgia Tech just call yourself Forrest Gump. Arrogance will always lead GT to Total Stupidity… As it did in this case of Arrogance on the Flats!
Zac
July 15th, 2011
1:31 pm
collegedude:
Why look to see what happens in the future when I can look to the past and see what has happened with similar infractions (precedence).
The main point is the NCAA got butt hurt when we decided to not just bend over and take it. This punishment is nothing more than the NCAA trying to grasp what little power they have left.
matt k
July 15th, 2011
1:39 pm
So lets see, UGA had what, 10 players arrested throughout the year last year AND Green was caught selling merchandise for money. Where was the NCAA then? If the NCAA is supposed to stand for integrity they should of been all over UGA for their horrible personalities, lack of conduct and just overall poor actions from their players. Tech’s Thomas recieved some free tee shirts. Yes that is wrong and yes I think some people should get fired, but to strip the ACC Championship away is wrong to do, no matter what school.
GT is a 4th rate high school team
July 15th, 2011
1:59 pm
It’s all a karma from your red panty tirade, GT fans. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHA
RedandBlackDAWG
July 15th, 2011
2:00 pm
Matt K.
Don’t confuse civil misdemeanors with NCAA by laws. The NCAA will allow schools to handle their own civil matters if it does not involve a case of breaking an NCAA rule.
A. J. Green was self reported by UGA and he was suspended, by the university, even before the NCAA had ruled on the punishment he would receive. There is the difference. There was no attempt at any time to hamper or misguide the investigation. The NCAA says that is what Tech. administrators did. Tech. did not suspend the player involved prior to a decision being made by them on punishment.
Tech. can appeal the ruling but who knows how long that will take or whether they will get a favorable ruling. Also, against Techs. favor, is the fact that two years ealier they had just been on probation so the repeat offenders ruling must have applied. It doesn’t do any good to try and point the finger at other schools. If the Tech. administration had handled the problem right in the first place, the punishment might not have been so harsh.
Damage for Georgia Tech’s future should be limited | Oregon News
July 15th, 2011
2:05 pm
[...] when Tech returns the ACC championship trophy to the conference. But really, what does it mean? The problem with the NCAA forcing a team to vacate victories as a penalty is it’s just a symbolic gesture. The games have been played. The revenue has been generated (and [...]
kevin
July 15th, 2011
6:32 pm
UConn got caught giving 6K to a player but had better lawyers. Yeah, it makes sense to punish GT more – at least in Jeff’s universe.
fosterjoiner
July 15th, 2011
11:59 pm
Tech got caught by a NCAA that was embarrassed by the USC situation and loss of institutional control like Tech did by not cooperating with the NCAA on the issue is a sin. Tech should have suspended both football players and talked to the investigators to prove they are innocent. Auburn will soon face the consequences for Cam Newton’s dad wanting pay to play.
fosterjoiner
July 16th, 2011
12:03 am
I thought the AJ Green punishment did not fit the crime. The investigation committee was head hunting and the suspension should not have happened. I twittered the NCAA after the corrupt ruling and told them they were trying to make examples out of some athletes who did not do anything wrong compared to what Tech did. Tech did not talk to the investigators so they were punished.
Ryan
July 16th, 2011
12:45 pm
It blows my mind that Tech fans still think this is an issue about clothes. The NCAA specifically told Radakovich not to tell ANYONE that there was an investigation, and he does the exact opposite of what he was told by the NCAA.
You should be smart enough not to disobey the NCAA when you see schools all around you getting sanctioned. You don’t obey the NCAA, you get screwed. I’m not sure why this is so hard to grasp.
Ed Law
July 18th, 2011
1:09 pm
Mr. Schultz, when are you and Mr. Bradley going to end the AJC honeymoon with Paul Johnson? The best it can be for him is that he knew it was in violation to “talk” to the Tech player prior to the NCAA or he did not know the rules after coaching at the Naval Academy for ten years and being in coaching for 32 years. That is incredulousl. He has been given a pass by your paper. Had that been Coach Richt he would have been crucified then drawn and quartered publicly by your paper .Yes I am a UGA fan but I respect Ga. Tech and Coach Johnson but fair is fair and he was/is the head coach and he has been given a pass by both you and Mr. Bradley.
Paul Johnson slams NCAA for Georgia Tech’s probation | Jeff Schultz
July 19th, 2011
2:14 pm
[...] understood why the NCAA might be upset that athletic director Dan Radakovich informed him of the impending investigation after he been told not to, but said, “I knew [...]