Is Richt on a slippery slope when it comes to secondary violations?
Did Mark Richt forget UGA has a guy on staff whose job is to make sure the rules are followed? (Associated Press)
So what did you think of Mark Richt being tagged for an NCAA rules violation in the recruiting of Isaiah Crowell?
It’s a given that the violation, considered “secondary” by UGA and unlikely to draw any further punishment from the NCAA, is pretty picayune compared with some of the stuff going on these days in college recruiting.
The vast majority of UGA fans appear to feel it was definitely worth Richt crossing the line in order to land a must-have recruit like Crowell. A lot of folks admire his gumption in pushing the envelope.
But it’s worth noting that the true “missing man” in Richt’s recruiting stunt was Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance Eric Baumgartner, who’s there to advise coaches what’s a violation and what isn’t.
The problem is that Richt didn’t bother to check whether his little skit was allowed. According to Athletic Director Greg McGarity’s letter to the NCAA about the case, “Coach Richt knew that the team could not use equipment or run a play to create a tryout activity but did not not check with the Compliance Office beforehand about the offensive alignment. … Coach Richt knew that the activity could not occur in the stadium, for the public to view, equipment to be used or for an actual play to be run and did not believe this constituted a game-day simulation.”
The SEC disagreed and ruled that Crowell donning a Georgia jersey and joining an offensive formation was indeed a “game-day simulation,” even in an indoor practice facility. A quick call to Birmingham before Crowell’s visit to Athens could have ascertained that.
This situation was different from the five secondary violations UGA reported earlier when former players Randall Godfrey and David Pollack attended Ray Drew’s signing ceremony at the recruit’s invitation. UGA had nothing to do with that but had to take the blame under the NCAA’s peculiar rules about what it takes to constitute a representative of a school’s athletic interests.
In the Crowell case, however, the wound (admitted a very minor nick to UGA’s image) was self-inflicted, a result of Richt getting sloppy while caught up in his pursuit of the Dream Team. It also was probably unnecessary if McGarity was correct when he told the NCAA that “UGA does not believe a recruiting advantage was gained as [Crowell's] mother has stated that her son knew he was going to attend UGA since he was a young child.”
A few years back when Richt had his players deliberately draw a celebration penalty against Florida, most fans applauded the gutsy motivational ploy. “Evil” Richt was hailed as a welcome facet to the coach’s generally straight-arrow image.
Is the Crowell violation a similar situation? Should that letter of admonishment in his file be accompanied by a private “attaboy” pat on the back? Or should we remember that when Lane Kiffin was crossing the line at Tennessee, some of us weren’t quite as dismissive of secondary violations by a head coach.
I guess the question is, where should we draw the line? Is it ever acceptable for the coach to break NCAA rules, even minor ones? Would we be quite so accepting if it had been Nick Saban handing an Alabama jersey to Crowell?
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390 comments Add your comment
Mark Richt gained 22 lbs
March 15th, 2011
1:28 pm
This just shows that CMR is getting too big for his britches.
You Read it Here
March 15th, 2011
1:32 pm
Just goes to show that St. Richt can CHEAT with the best of them. You redneck loosers who think St. Richt didn’t know and understand the rule are as stupid as your posts.
My Sister's Dawgs in Lex
March 15th, 2011
1:32 pm
Richt is a hypocrite just like his holier than thou over the hill daddy. UGA is so obsessed with everything Gator, they thought they would hire the brains behind Saint Bobby’s offense. But the real secret behind the Hypocrite in Tally’s success was cheating Mickey Andrews.
Red Pantalones
March 15th, 2011
1:35 pm
Cheaters rule in the land of the red panties.
GBR
March 15th, 2011
1:35 pm
Big whoop. This topic is a waste of time.
Johnny Pastduedate
March 15th, 2011
1:36 pm
King, there are no “rules” anymore, just reactionary mechanisms like an invisible dog fence to a dog. The dog doesn’t really know why he can’t go past a spot, he just knows it hurts if he does and that is enough to stop the dog at that point, much like NCAA rules. The problem is the dog HAS to try all the boundaries in order to learn, and that means random moments of pain must be inflicted by the invisible fence, much to the chagrin of the dog. That’s the NCAA.
shankit
March 15th, 2011
1:36 pm
Rumor on Sports Channel is Tressel will resign
and Urban Meyer will be next head coach at OSU???
Murk Racht
March 15th, 2011
1:37 pm
I’ve never understood how anyone – even an alumnus – could support and take pride in UGA’s football team. When you look at their history for the past forty years, how can anyone ignore Jan Kemp and the “remedial studies” scam, the Jim Harrick fiasco, the DUIs in the athletic office, the DUIs and other arrests of players, the #1 party school tag (i.e., the most drunk students), the suspensions and outright dismissals, the Fulmer Cup, and on and on?
As disgraceful and humiliating as it is, I don’t see many alums and fans demanding an end to this sordid activity. It sets UGA apart as the kind of school most people abhor, and it’s become an embarrassment to the whole state of Georgia.
Will it never end? Apparently not while Mark Richt is at UGA. Richt is perhaps the biggest hypocrite in the United States. But even with all the cheating and lawlessness that he ignores, he still can’t win the SEC.
So you’re paying him to be BCS champions, but he can’t even win his SEC division. So why do you pay him millions of dollars a year?
Just asking.
Ohio-on-the-Gulf Dog
March 15th, 2011
1:39 pm
Excessive celebration against Florida is no sin!
Permitting a prize recruit to be NCAA-ineligible, even for a few moments, is something else entirely.
Calculating whether to interfere with a pass or to permit the receiver to catch it for a touchdown is a judgment call. On any given play, players can and must weigh benefits and risks, and then decide what to do accordingly.
Coach Richt’s decision to take a celebration penalty against Florida was just that, a decision that Georgia’s benefit by way of team motivation was well worth the loss of a few yards.
A coach who ignores recruiting rules risks the whole program, though. The NCAA could slam Crowell; look at what the NCAA did to A.J. Green.
But the worst effect is this: Coach Richt asks his players to stay out of jail and out of trouble, to play by the rules. Coach Richt’s decision could undermine his moral authority to lead his players.
Fortunately, this is (hopefully) a small enough matter that neither the NCAA nor Georgia’s players consider it to amount to much.
But it represents (at least a tiny) a step on the slippery slope down which the Georgia program does not want to go.
Warren Haynes For President
March 15th, 2011
1:40 pm
Don’t care at all about this. Stupid rule. Minor violoation. Ready for Friday night!!
The Orginal WDE
March 15th, 2011
1:41 pm
Trust me when I say this, because I am completely anti-Georgia…
That said: I think this shows that he’s serious about recruiting his players. Violations aren’t good, but as long as they’re minor you know he’s just busting his tail.
DawginLexisSmart
March 15th, 2011
1:41 pm
Y’all need to take DIL advice and not argue with these idiot trolls who spend all their time obsessing over UGA cause they were too dumb to get in and had to go somewhere else to college
chazzo
March 15th, 2011
1:41 pm
It is not about a secondary violation being okay. It is about a pretty silly gray area. This aint a big deal. It’s hardly newsworthy. The sky is not falling. Now, go back to sleep until spring practice resumes, and there is something of substance to discuss.
Bama fan
March 15th, 2011
1:42 pm
Heck I’m just glad it wasn’t Saban. If it was Saban aint no doubt he would be getting skewered on here and dawg fans would be clamoring for the death penalty. I can’t say if Richt intentionally broke the rule but it does seem like its a well known rule and if he had any doubt he should have just called his compliance dept head. Makes you wonder why he didn’t just do that and avoid this whole mess and ensuing bad pub.
Bellyache
March 15th, 2011
1:42 pm
If there was any justice, UGA would have been given the NCAA death penalty years ago. The behavior of its coaches and thug players is abominable.
PowerDawg
March 15th, 2011
1:43 pm
Bill
Your attempt at objectivity is just lame, dude. It’s weak and totally unnecessary. As the kennel master of a Georgia sports blog, you are supposed to be a biased and unapologetic home-teamer. You are a blogger and not a jounalist, so give us all a break.
A slippery-slope about secondary violations? The kind that occur every day, in every sport, at every school in the country?
Decisions made in good faith by our head football coach will never be an issue. Blatant disregard for the rules, ala Lane Kiffin, is another story. Flaunting and exploiting loop holes in the by-laws by the likes of Saban, Spurrier, and Nutt is also a process our coach doesn’t consider as a reasonable path to accomplishing our goals. A little honest zeal and a temporary lapse in the checks and balances system is not a reason to scream “foul”.
I would expect better from you, Bill.
Auburn is All in jail
March 15th, 2011
1:43 pm
All them boys getting all those felonies has pretty much clinched the fulmer cup
congrats
wolfman
March 15th, 2011
1:43 pm
Just another “we’re UGA football and we’re above the rules” message to the team.
TROJAN
March 15th, 2011
1:45 pm
More has been written about UGA’s self reported minor violation including a reprinting of a story during recruiting season of the self reported issues last summer than on PC Cam’s shopping himself.
Jfreak13713
March 15th, 2011
1:46 pm
Richt should not intentionally violate ANY rule because he open parades as a Christian and represents something larger that Georgia football! I don’t think less of the man because he is just that, a man but its what others who may not share his Christians views may do, think, or say. Hopefully just a mistake and no harm no foul. I do respect the man but I dissapprove of the act.
D A DoubleU G
March 15th, 2011
1:48 pm
If I were a Tech fan (thank the good lord God didn’t create me like that), and Mark Richt was 9-1 against my lowly bumble bees, I too would look at anything possible to degrade him as a man of integrity.
I would look at every bonehead college kid being a college kid arrest and make Rich 100% accountable. I would look at the missing MNC, pretending like their arent 120 FBS school competing for the same thing, and I would look at every single corner of the NCAA rule book (which I admit is asinine) and make it seem like he is doing acts of the devil.
Yeah, If i were a georgia tech fan, and MArk Richt were my daddy, I would do whatever I could to bring him down.
Missing the point
March 15th, 2011
1:48 pm
Chazzo,
You’re missing the point like a lot of dog fans. Its not that its a secondary violation which in and of itself is not a big deal.
Its the fact that Richt was intentional cheating and if he didn’t or was unsure he was too dang lazy to make a quick phone call and find out. That is the point.
IlliniDawg
March 15th, 2011
1:50 pm
I can’t even believe that this is a newsworthy topic.
Just shows how lame the NCAA is and how seriously cynical so many folks are about UGA.
This from an alumnus of a school (Illinois) that actually engaged in some REAL violations (paying recruits, gifting cars, employing players in bogus jobs, etc.). Perspective folks. This ain’t worth spending the two minutes it took to read King’s crap article. In fact, why the hell am I even spending time typing a response!
Mark Richt gained 22 lbs
March 15th, 2011
1:53 pm
Mark Richt needs to win at all cost now or he wont be the coach for 2012.
Ceasar
March 15th, 2011
1:54 pm
No connemt!!
Reginald
March 15th, 2011
1:54 pm
“a result of Richt getting sloppy while caught up in his pursuit of the Dream Team.”
Dear AJC,
Please fire Bill King. If you hired an able blogger we could perhaps get into some interesting blog conversations as opposed to what we have now… Bill writing his predictable garbage with his opinions which are almost always WRONG. And this isn’t a joke, I’m not trying to be mean. This guy is awful, I don’t read it to get mad, I read it just because I love UGA. I’d enjoy it more and I guarantee you more people would read it if you FIRED BILL.
Rooster
March 15th, 2011
1:56 pm
Richt is a thug. He needs some punishment runs. He can do things the Georgia way or move on.
Hypocrite.
Swarles Barkley
March 15th, 2011
1:56 pm
You’ve got to be kidding me. How is this an article? Bill King has a job writing this stuff?
dawg gone
March 15th, 2011
1:57 pm
Well Well the haters are here a-hating, ; a quick review ….UT in NCAA hell for problems with Football, Baseball and how in the hell can Pearl still be the B’Ball coach ?? We have Tressell and the TAT Five’s at THE Ohio State…Lane Kiffen is still drawing breath and drawing a Head Coach’s paycheck at USC of all places…Auburn who’s fans love to throw the Fulmer Cup at UGA even more than the crystal football are eating a lot of crow since what half the team just got kicked off the team…for violet crimes, not misdemeanor driving or underage drinking beefs..Major crimes…and we really want to talk about CMR and his “slippery slope” please..Can some one give us some real football news..isn’t spring ball going on now??
woebegong
March 15th, 2011
2:00 pm
Oh, I got it now. Here’s what CMR should have done.
“Hold on a minute young man, I need to contact my NCAA legal dept. head and see if this is a possible violation, before I do it”.
Oh sorry young man, they said it would take two days to wade through the complete book”.
“Well darn coach, I mean I know I have told my mom that I wanted to go to UGA since I was a youngster, but this changes everything” And I was just waiting to be influenced by some really bad violation”. Sorry coach, gotta go to Alabama, cause they and Auburn are straight shooters”.
woebegong
March 15th, 2011
2:03 pm
Don’t be so hard on Bill King now. He got the title for this story from the SECsports blog I believe it is called. They used the same title also. Hummmm, wonder how that happened.
GOOOOO DAWGSSSSSSSSS
Swarles Barkley
March 15th, 2011
2:04 pm
I second what Reginald said. Bill King is being lazy and instead of coming up with a real article, he tries to provoke more anti-Mark Richt feelings by blowing a SECONDARY violation out of proportion. I see more meaningful and thoughtful posts from bloggers underneath each of his articles than I do real content in the actual articles.
Swarles Barkley
March 15th, 2011
2:06 pm
Truly, I would rather Bill King not write at all than post this garbage.
NCAA COPS
March 15th, 2011
2:07 pm
wobegong,
I feel ya on the myriad number of rules and regs. For example the Pollack- Ray Drew thing is nothing- who woulda known.
But on this particular rule it is an extremely well known rule and it in fact was covered specifically at the SEC meetings in Destin a few years ago when the controversy of game simulating brought about the rule. Richt was intentionally breaking the rule in my opinion. That or just being lazy and or incompetent in not making a quick call to his compliance officer who is probably on speed dial. Take your choice.
Let it rip
March 15th, 2011
2:10 pm
these violations are minor–no big deal. It’s just auburn and florida fans bringing all this stuff up to hurt the dawgs. It will not matter—-this dawg team is loaded and will be winning the SEC east in 2011 with blowouts over florida and auburn—mark it down!
Dr. Phil
March 15th, 2011
2:12 pm
If Crowell was going to sign, why go through all of the drama, particularly with the special treatment of Crowell. Richt is not the sharpest knife in the tool box.
red and black
March 15th, 2011
2:12 pm
This is totally laughable, and the negative comments from the fans of other teams is even more hilarious. Be careful when you choose to make fun of other school troubles. in the snap of a finger, it can be your school. All the Auburn fans who wnet on and on about the arrests at UGA seem to be missiing now that they had the same happen to them.
Do I feel a bit of satisfaction…sure…what goes around comes around, but sadly these kind of things are the norm not the exception in today’s world…that’s nothing for any of us to be proud to see.
As far as the whole Crowell thing, come on…it was ingenius and pretty dran cool. If it had happened at Florida or Auburn or Tech, you fans would have thoguth the same thing.
red and black
March 15th, 2011
2:16 pm
NCAA cops, were you at the meeting in Destin/ Did they say…”Ah coaches, you can’t simulate a game experience while a recruit watches?” I guess you were there and heard it…yeah right.
Colonel Reb
March 15th, 2011
2:18 pm
McGarity is looking through the rule book now to see if it is an NCAA violation at the end of the season to line the team up in a missing coach formation.
Delbert D.
March 15th, 2011
2:20 pm
Moving Ogletree from safety to linebacker is clearly a secondary violation.
Baddawg8
March 15th, 2011
2:21 pm
If Crowell was already going to commit then why did Richt do this and humiliate his 4 other running backs by lining up the team and saying the ruining back position was empty. It will either turn things sour at RB position next year (not that it could get much worse) or it will heat up competition. For Richt’s sake I hope it’s the latter.
RxDawg
March 15th, 2011
2:21 pm
Much ado about nothing. Reading what the rules state, I wouldn’t think what Richt did was “simulating a game time experience” either. But it is, lesson learned, move on.
UGA '05
March 15th, 2011
2:21 pm
First of all David Pollack is a reporter and should be able to visit the signing w/o violations. Secondly Richt treated Crowell well on his visit. Had Richt not of done that we wouldn’t of had Crowell sign. Finally atleast UGA came clean about the violations unlike Jim Tressel who’’s a lying cheat.
Willie Martinez
March 15th, 2011
2:21 pm
Playing Ogletree at corner last season was clearly a secondary violation.
DAWGS forever
March 15th, 2011
2:23 pm
Richts knows and abides by the rules and doesn’t look for loop holes. We have to believe hm when he says he didn’t know these were violations. It would take and IRS agent to properly understand all the rules. go DAWGS!
DAWGS forever
March 15th, 2011
2:26 pm
Dream Team = Dream Season! Go DAWGS!
Colonel Reb
March 15th, 2011
2:26 pm
Forever,
I thought McGarity gave more time to Richt to “study football”. I see it is working well so far. Six NCAA violations in the offseason and it’s only March.
The dream team is already a nightmare.
Whisky Breath
March 15th, 2011
2:30 pm
Very sharp analysis. Most fans won’t get what happened but you hit it right on the head.
He pulled a Lane Kiffin knowing that it was a secondary violation. In other words CMR thumbed his nose to the rules. Just like Kiffin did.
UGA '05
March 15th, 2011
2:31 pm
The only reason those 4 Auburn players were robbing that place was b/c Coach Gizik was in debt after paying Scam Newton all that money. He needed some more money to get another Scam Newton.
Nick Fairley
March 15th, 2011
2:33 pm
DAWGS forever
March 15th, 2011
2:26 pm
Dream Team = Dream Season! Go DAWGS!
——
IF your dream season involves NCAA probation, then you’re in luck because you will have a dream season!