Damage for Georgia Tech’s future should be limited
NCAA sanctions can't change this picture (or reality).
A few random thoughts while Georgia Tech fans try to wrap themselves around the fact the Yellow Jackets officially never won the 2009 ACC championship. (Yeah, whatever.)
1. Damage for the future should be limited.
It’s going to be painful 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 spent). Tech beat Clemson 39-34 for the title and moved on to the Orange Bowl. Done. The NCAA put Tech on four years probation but is not stripping the football program of any scholarships, limiting recruiting or banning bowl appearances. Coach Paul Johnson can’t advertise his conference championship but it doesn’t lessen him as a coach to recruits.
2. More fallout isn’t likely
A few readers have asked if I believe athletic director Dan Radakovich is in trouble because of this and whether he may lose his job. I don’t think so. Radakovich fell on the sword on a little Thursday but he also denied that he or anybody at the school intentionally tried to obstruct the NCAA’s investigation, which is what led to most of the penalties. There was a strange mix of remorse and anger in the room at Thursday’s news conference. But I never got a sense that there was a division between Radakovich and Tech president G.P “Bud” Peterson, who ultimately signed off on wide receiver Demaryius Thomas playing the last three games of 2009. Tech’s general counsel (retired) and compliance officer (left) at the time of the infractions and investigation are gone. Peterson also alluded to a changes in the athletic department’s structure. I sense that will be the extent of the fallout.
3. Did the punishment fit the crime?
Repeating: It’s an oversimplification to say Tech lost the ACC title because one player allegedly received $312 worth of clothing. Dennis Thomas, who chairs the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions, conceded it might’ve been a secondary infraction if school representatives had acted more professional during the investigation. That said, there obviously are MUCH worse things going on in college athletics right now, and if the NCAA doesn’t slam programs Ohio State, Oregon and North Carolina for infractions far more blatant than what Tech did, something is wrong.
4. Something we’ll never know …
Radakovich is a competitive guy. Johnson is a competitive guy. The 2009 season was shaping up as one of Tech’s biggest in years. The Jackets maintain that they would’ve declared Thomas ineligible if they believed he might’ve committed an infraction but were convinced otherwise. Here’s the issue: At the time of the interviews with the NCAA, Tech had its three biggest games coming up: Georgia, the ACC championship and potentially a BCS bowl game. It’s reasonable to speculate they might’ve been more cautious if the stakes weren’t so high. Peterson only admitted that, in hindsight, Tech should’ve declared Thomas ineligible and immediately sought reinstatement from the NCAA, hoping for a quick resolution.
5. What next for basketball?
Could things possibly get worse for the basketball program? New coach Brian Gregory inherits a program that not only slipped under Paul Hewitt, it’s on probation. Again, the violation was minor: A grad assistant helped run an AAU tournament on campus. The sanctions: Two fewer recruiting days during the summer period; a limit of 10 official visits for two seasons; no complimentary tickets for high school coaches and individuals associated with recruits for the first home game of next season (self-imposed). The penalties are minor. But it’s not exactly the morale boost the program was hoping for.
By Jeff Schultz
♦
In case you missed . . .
– Punishment severe but Georgia Tech made its own mess
– Chipper Jones doesn’t want to let another October pass without him
– Is it good news that Tereshinski prompted Georgia player to quit?
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178 comments Add your comment
Tech Fan
July 15th, 2011
11:44 am
Sean Bedfords letter to the NCAA was great!!
Mark, Mark---The Hair Lip Dog
July 15th, 2011
11:46 am
When you have kids who grow up po, that is more than poor, immature and cannot spell cat, unless it has been stated as I be, then $312.00 is quick money. One only needs to look at the players on these teams to realize slavery is still a big business for College football. The ncaa is a joke.
Les W. Moore
July 15th, 2011
11:48 am
Time for Obama to step in and provide some leadeship.
What? This isn’t Cynthia Tucker’s column?
collegedude
July 15th, 2011
11:51 am
Don’t know why the tech fans are crying so much. This isn’t a major penalty. Guess when you win so few football games it sucks when you have your only ACC crown taken away for playing ineligible players.
Les W. Moore
July 15th, 2011
11:51 am
Jeff, hypothetically, can the NCAA require a team to return the BCS trophy?
Keeper
July 15th, 2011
11:52 am
Impartial observer here (i.e., neither an SEC or ACC grad). Seems to me that the NCAA’s inadvertent message is that “Tech, you’re not an experienced enough cheater to understand how powerful we are. So we’re going to make an example of you.” I understand why the NCAA would crack down on any form of obstruction – they have to. But it’s pretty sad that if only Tech were more knowledgeable about playing the NCAA infractions game – i.e., if they’d cheated more often in the past and knew better how to respond to an NCAA inquiry – then they’d likely still have their title. Big-time college athletics is so far out of control that I have no confidence whatsoever in the NCAA’s policing ability – it’s going to take a lot more than actions like this for the bureaucrats to convince me they’re remotely serious about reigning in the abuse.
Veteran Fan
July 15th, 2011
11:56 am
This committee is a joke and their findings are severly flawed! As a graduate, I urge Tech to appeal and put this before another committee with cooler heads who are not on a witch hunt! I have read the report and it is doublespeak at its best! This is what passes for integrity in academia these days! Please call their bluff and force them to defend this to others! Someone must put a stop to this, but be careful! Remember UNLV and them going after Coach Tarkanian just because he called them out! They don’t seem to be able to find Columbus, Opelika, and Lexington! To HELL with the NCAA!!!!
Ramblin Recluse Road
July 15th, 2011
12:00 pm
damage no different than penalty called during football game or foul called during basketball game that temporarily sets back teams, but has no bearing on the rest of each of those games that have to be culminated; if team played games and never were penalized, they would have played perfect game, about like pitcher pitching no-hitter; all Tech’s games will be played this Fall and Winter w/o damage, w/o any albatross hanging over Tech’s back neck and shoulders
GTBrad
July 15th, 2011
12:03 pm
@collegdude, Can you name any team that wouldn’t be upset for having their conference championship taken away??? Good try though.
Steven
July 15th, 2011
12:07 pm
I’m no Tech fan, but this is amazing. They got clobbered for what appears to be a secondary violation. As always, from Watergate to Monica Lewinsky it’s not what you did but the cover-up. It seems to the NCAA that Tech tried to interfere or obstruct the investigation. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s a huge blow to the program. The big problem now is public perception. They must stay absolutely clean for a long time. Still in my mind with what’s happening at Oregon, Ohio State and Auburn, this is extraordinary.
DC
July 15th, 2011
12:10 pm
maybe AJC should interview Sean Bedford..Im no tech fan or UGA fan..but that letter was LEGIT!
DentalDawg
July 15th, 2011
12:14 pm
Oh I would LOVE to see this article had this been UGA. The Paul Tech love is endless
Inept
July 15th, 2011
12:16 pm
It seems to me that Tech had an inept legal staff dispensing advice. Any fallout it seems to me should be in the legal department. I don’t really belive that Tech’s retired general counsel provided all of the “bad” advice by himself. There is a sizeable legal staff at Tech.
Ted M
July 15th, 2011
12:24 pm
Man, Tech’s basketball program stinks right now…they are the likely last place team for a couple of years.
Maybe they’ll get Bruce Pearl in 3 years.
still wondering
July 15th, 2011
12:25 pm
how this clothes transaction came to the attention of he nzaa…did a dog hear someone talk (brag?) and notify the nz boys?
Jingle Dingle
July 15th, 2011
12:28 pm
All I have to say is it will be interesting to see how UNC and OSU are handled. If they are found to have committed the MAJOR violations that they are charged with, the correct response should be the death penalty. I mean if we are talking proportional responses her, then it only seems fair.
Chuck
July 15th, 2011
12:38 pm
I love it, when the NCAA is chippy with UGA, the Tech fans cheer them as the noble champions of justice, smacking down the ne’er do-wells with mighty justice.
Now that the same anal-retentive hammer is pounding them, the NCAA is suddenly the very devil himself.
Hilarious and entertaining. More popcorn please.
The next time the jerks from the NCAA come calling, you should just commit sepuku like we do in Athens, it saves time and anguish – because if there’s one thing to be learned, the NCAA’s brand of dartboard justice can NEVER be predicted.
Chuck
July 15th, 2011
12:41 pm
Dental, rest assured, much like when it comes to the arrests in Athens, had UGA been on the receiving end, the Seargent here would be gleefully admonishing the UGAA for getting caught and punished and NOT apologizing for the severity of the punishment despite the absurdity of the “crime.”
But with the Sarge you gotta take what you can get.
Reebok
July 15th, 2011
12:42 pm
if Johnson is smart he will use this ridculous example of NCAA overreach to fire up his guys and give them a pi$$ed off, us-against-the-world mentality…work the players into a fury that THE MAN is against them…that’s what I’d do, anyway.
juvenal
July 15th, 2011
12:43 pm
got my yellow jumpsuit ordered(dickies has them), will be easy to spot at games–get some for the team, they won’t need other clothes…….
juvenal
July 15th, 2011
12:44 pm
so, Jeff, what law school did corbin go to?
KLStewart
July 15th, 2011
12:56 pm
There is an irony here in that without Thomas, Tech MIGHT have beaten Georgia in ‘09. Yes, Thomas made a big play for a touchdown, but it was answered immediately (which kept Tech from taking control of the game as they had in ‘08), but he (Thomas) also dropped the critical 4th down pass that ended Tech’s last gasp. (To hear Tech fans talk, he dropped the winning TD pass, but last time I checked, points are not awarded for making the 30 yard line … that’s another story.)
A lot would have had to fall in place in 2009, of course, but it would have been a different game plan and maybe the “genius” [sic] Paul Johnson would have stayed with the ground game more and the outcome MAY have been different. Undeniably, it would have been a different game and Georgia probably would have won considering that Tech was about the only team in the country with a defense worse than UGA’s that year — but you never know. Either way, the outcome was just and set the world back on its proper axis.
I wonder how this scrape with the NCAA all jives with the Tech’s inspirational “Total Person” program?
Gman
July 15th, 2011
12:59 pm
Jason
July 15th, 2011
11:36 am
tech fans should drive to ncaa headquarters of the office where the idiots who made this ruling and take off all their clothes and walk in naked to show them what exactly it is they punished them for.
Well, if nude tech fans “shows them what they punished them for”, I’m sure all concerned would realize how impossibly small this thing really is.
Big Dawg...
July 15th, 2011
1:03 pm
NCAA takes aim at UNC….
misses & hits GT…
Banks
July 15th, 2011
1:15 pm
@ Big Dawg… HAHAHAHA
Lilburn Dawg
July 15th, 2011
1:16 pm
Yeh I graduated from the Dog School, but I don’t like to see this happen to our good ole Ga Tech buddies!! The NCAA is just going bonkers over the petty stuff while bigger infractions take the back seat. Seems to me that penalties such as losing your conference championship or other wins should occur if something against the rules happened that had a direct bearing on the outcome of the game…..such as a player in the game who was ineligible, players found to have taken performance enhancing drugs, “dirty” playing, etc. If somebody gives some clothes to a player who shouldn’t accept them, but it was an infraction outside of an actual game……then punish that person and/or the player but not the entire team and school. If it was covered up by the school administration or coach……then think of a way to punish them without it affecting the other innocent kids on the team who have worked their hearts out for years for their accomplishments. Sure……fine the school $100,000 for an infraction worth $312………seems about right for the NCAA doesn’t it???
wes durham's gigantic bottom
July 15th, 2011
1:26 pm
hey Goldwreck…if Thomas had not played in 2009, he also would not have scored on the 70yd TD run after catching a hitch route and burning Vance Cuff….remember, Caleb King had his career highlight run after that….GT would not have won without Thomas….GT cheated and still lost….accept it.
Buckeye
July 15th, 2011
1:44 pm
Pryor says what Bedford wrote.
JonRann
July 15th, 2011
1:45 pm
Simple. Tech has demonstrated unethical behavior in myriad ways, for years. After this debacle, the coach and “Bud” should both be fired and blacklisted.
The Taskmaster
July 15th, 2011
1:45 pm
Radakovich said ““The lesson learned from all of this is that when you get that inquiry, the initial phone call is to bring in someone like a Chuck Smrt [a former NCAA investigator who now counsels those being investigated and who was retained by Tech] … someone who is skilled in that kind of forum. You need a different set of eyes. As good as any university attorney is, this is not their forte.”
That is deeply disturbing to hear from the AD. He should have said “The lesson learned from all of this is to follow the rules at all times and this kind of thing will not happen. We are sorry and apologize. We will not let thiskind of thing happen again.”
It sounds like Peterson and Radakovich are still trying to manipulate the truth to the perception they are trying to sell and to their shame the players are following suit. Students learn what they are taught.
Tech has always acted like they were better than everyone else and apparently they now believe their own lies including the one about they do not have to follow the same rules as everyone else.
Pride comes before the fall.
GT HFC Bill Curry Circa 1985
July 15th, 2011
1:50 pm
We will bring the cheaters to their knees. Whoops it us – again!
WnE...
July 15th, 2011
2:01 pm
I love the spin that we GT fans use. Although we have 3 majors as defined by the NCAA, we’re really not cheating like the “factories” are. Is it our overall record (W’s – L’s) that make us think that way? After all,the REAL cheaters (Auburn, OSU, etc.) play for national championships and we don’t, therefore our sins somehow MUST be lesser,right? Is this the rationale? In my mind, 3 repeats, even of different flavors, constitute a trend. I would imagine that thre are many schools with 0 during the same period.
Wreckbuzz
July 15th, 2011
2:03 pm
I guarantee you that the administration and athletic departments at GT take these punishments way more hard than USC did theirs, because of the integrity hit. USC could care less about the PR hit. They care only about how it affects their on field product. At GT they care that their integrity has been called into question.
As for the supposed infraction, I think it’s bullsh*t. The NCAA is posturing for future schools to make sure everybody complies with every request. Do you honestly think Auburn has answered every question and request from the NCAA? Of course not, because they know the price of complying will be on par with USC. But by slamming the integrity of a school like GT the NCAA is sending a message that not responding exactly as requested can be punished just as easily as committing an infraction in the first place.
GTBrad
July 15th, 2011
2:03 pm
@Taskmaster, the president and AD both thought that they WERE following the rules. They held an institutional counsel about the issue and numerous people (including the ACC) told them that the players were not in violation. Watch the press conf. vids. And what’s really ridiculous is that the NCAA ended up declaring that indeed both players were not in violation after the fact, so this whole retarded investigation never should have been started in the first place. If they don’t see the players doing anything wrong (they definitely did not since the gifts were permissible) why would they keep them off the field??? Absolutely the only thing that went wrong was DRad telling Paul Johnson (who told Burnett) about the interview, but PJ explained numerous times that he stressed to Burnett to make sure he tells the truth. The NCAA are full of a bunch of unreasonable, money grubbing pricks.
superDawg
July 15th, 2011
2:06 pm
boo hoo!NUFF SAID macriod.
GTBrad
July 15th, 2011
2:07 pm
@Taskmaster, the president and AD both thought that they WERE following the rules. They held an institutional counsel about the issue and numerous people (including the ACC) told them that the players were not in violation. Watch the press conf. vids. And what’s really ridiculous is that the NCAA ended up declaring that indeed both players were not in violation after the fact, so this whole retarded investigation never should have been started in the first place. If they don’t see the players doing anything wrong (they definitely did not since the gifts were permissible) why would they keep them off the field??? Absolutely the only thing that went wrong was DRad telling Paul Johnson (who told Burnett) about the interview, but PJ explained numerous times that he stressed to Burnett to make sure he tells the truth. The NCAA are full of a bunch of unreasonable, money grubbing pricks…
GIVE ME A BREAK
July 15th, 2011
2:07 pm
Most people know the NCAA is way out of line on this. Tech is not damaged at all. NCAA only looks more foolish.
Stinger2
July 15th, 2011
2:07 pm
Jeff: How many more blogs about this from you and other AJC writers. Unless there are new developments that are
newsworthy, find something else to blog about. This could have been said yesterday in your first post. By writing multiple stories, you are just givving UGA fans some more to crow about. Everyone knew yesterday that DRAD is not going to be fired over this incident.
Jacket Man
July 15th, 2011
2:16 pm
Between the NCAA and GA Tech, over $100,000 was spent handling a $350.00 misunderstanding. Something’s terribly wrong with this equation. At some point, the NCAA has to realize there’s an economy of scale in what they’re doing, especially in this economy. It’s time to stop the witch hunts.
Atlantawolf
July 15th, 2011
2:25 pm
Wonder what will happen to UNC in light of all of the major infractions?
ClinchCountyDawg
July 15th, 2011
2:35 pm
Buckeye
Down here in Homerville, we don’t criticize other folks livestock. Deion can’t help if his cows are a little on the peaked side. Hot weather and drought have probably hurt his pastures.
Charlies Hayes
July 15th, 2011
2:40 pm
Paul Johnson will never win another ACC trophy. He better take some photos of the one he has now before they come get it….Everyone is up on the option now (we havent seen it since high school) and GT will not win.
What’s that coming down the track….Big machine that’s red and black….Nothin finner in the land than watching a GT crying fan! Go Dawgs!
Buckeye
July 15th, 2011
2:42 pm
Clinch,
My main Dilly Bar man. Sup, Dude?
Charlies Hayes
July 15th, 2011
2:44 pm
Jacket Man – Did you read the report? It is not the shirt or money that was received in which created the major problem. It was the fact that GT didn’t report the issues when they knew about them. GT didn’t self displine the two kids that casued the violations……If GT would have sat the two kids out of the final three games that season then the title would still be yours…..
Two Words
July 15th, 2011
2:44 pm
Two words for Dawgtards: red panties.
Okay, two more: Jan Kemp.
Sorry, only two more: Jim Harrick.
Bee Hive
July 15th, 2011
2:44 pm
Paul Johnson told us it’s OK to smack any NCAA employee in the head.
Seems it’s his answer to everything that disappoints
Two Words
July 15th, 2011
2:54 pm
I knew the, oh so fresh, Jan Kemp comment would sting. After all I’ve been beating this dead horse every single day for the past 30 years (though Jan has been dead only 3 years). Can’t imagine why Dawg fans are cracking on us now….
Buckeye
July 15th, 2011
2:56 pm
Two Words,
Here are a few more for you……………..
King Ealey
Six Seven
Nineteen Eighty
Inferiority Complex
Buckeye
July 15th, 2011
2:58 pm
Two Words,
Ok, one ( okay two) more
Red Neck
Kelly Hall
Buckeye
July 15th, 2011
3:00 pm
Can’t help myself…………..
Gym Dog
Ladies Softball
Time Out!