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
Colonel Reb
March 15th, 2011
5:50 pm
Hey 10-6,
It will always be 5:50 at Knight in Athens!
SouthGA Dawg
March 15th, 2011
5:56 pm
TimBo Dawg,
AU gets the talent from GA because they pay 180k for it!!! Who knows how much Satan pays at Alabama. You dont have to be a rocket scientist to figure out how those kids are driving new cars. It is a known fact that they stuff envelopes of money into the left inside pockets of the recruits jackets.
PTC DAWG
March 15th, 2011
6:09 pm
What a goofy article.
Josh
March 15th, 2011
6:16 pm
BILL, FIND SOMETHING OF WORTH TO WRITE ABOUT….STILL CAN’T FIND IT IN YOURSELF TO BE POSITIVE CAN YOU?
AltamahaDawg
March 15th, 2011
6:27 pm
The interesting part to me is that the NCAA has never said this was a voilation. The SEC office is the one who came back with that ruling. Odd the commisioner can decide that “intent to receive” is completely fine if no actual money changed hands, but its crystal clear this was intent to simulation game day, even though no actual play simulation took place.
AltamahaDawg
March 15th, 2011
6:32 pm
Just have Crowell state that he never realized he was holding a football jersey, and doesn’t remember seeing any other players on the field. The SEC office should take that hook, line, and sinker. It’s as plausible as some others.
Jimmy Payne
March 15th, 2011
6:34 pm
Must be a seriuosly slow month at the ajc for ya’ll to come up with this crap. Liberals are creative. If it ain’t true or has no meaning put it in headlines and it becomes fact and it becomes news.
Referee
March 15th, 2011
6:42 pm
Why don’t you report the facts and not give your opinion. The AJC took a picture of a recriut and then said it was UGA’s fault for not telling the AJC idiot that took the picture. That is the same as the NCAA and it’s rules that make no sense. Anyone who thinks this is important is also an idiot.
Skitty Fritty
March 15th, 2011
6:44 pm
$cam & Cecil Newton, Bruce Pearl & Trussell – no worries about Richt, there are bigger fish to fry!
icedawg
March 15th, 2011
6:55 pm
It is better to forget the theatrics. Focus upon the real thing.
PT
March 15th, 2011
7:25 pm
If anyone thinks Richt or Georgia has not shown a sense of urgency the last few years, these secondary violation should remove all doubt.
cammy cam cam
March 15th, 2011
7:31 pm
Why all the hate on me? i’ve been investigated and cleared, the investigation hasn’t even begun in athens and yall been caught.
face it, youre at best the 8th best maybe 9th behind msu in the sec now and headed nowhere fast. the cheating makes sense, youre desperate to win more than you lose, to beat a team with a winning record, to beat uf and to catch up with auburn. none of that is going to happen and the rest of the sec will ridicule gawga until they admit we are not as good as Auburn, Florida, Alabama, LSU, Tennessee (name carries more weight since they won the bcs), Arkansas, South Carolina and maybe Ms St as well.
When you admit you probably wont have a winning record til 2013 then we’ll let off the gas.
Till then:
6-7
49-31
make that your garage door code and remember it all year long… till its worse next season.
cammy cam cam
March 15th, 2011
7:36 pm
btw, keep cmr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
he’s a great coach. there wont be anybody better for gawga anyways. muschamp? nah, his types hold out for the big schools. kiffin, wouldnt have thought twice. you want a coach that’s committed. cmr is as committed to gawga as the gawga family is to the inbreeding of dogs as mascots. its great for everyo… gawga.
http://www.keepcmr.com
Delbert D.
March 15th, 2011
7:39 pm
“[Crowell's] mother has stated that her son knew he was going to attend UGA since he was a young child.”
Three wise men appeared, bearing gifts of red and black.
powerhouse?
March 15th, 2011
7:51 pm
Fox going to RDU?
woebegong
March 15th, 2011
7:54 pm
Darn Bill,
this is the best you have done in a long time with a blog. Now just imagine how well you could do if you actually worked at a story that had some real meat in it though. Of course, you have been able to get a bunch of comments from the negative people of other schools, and this is really quite good. Perhaps you can now tell them, that they are your pawns and help your readership totals.
OH WELL,
GOOOOOO DAWGSSSSSSSSS
kral
March 15th, 2011
8:01 pm
woe..right with you…also used to listen to the radio show….go Billl you made to the mb..js..level of house wives of the ajc…????? that is a mb cop out…use periods and stand by some opinion
kral
March 15th, 2011
8:16 pm
cammy smmayee..i sure wish you were still here we could have some fun
Pago Pago DAWG
March 15th, 2011
8:19 pm
What he did is pretty bad compared to that guy up at ohio state.
kral
March 15th, 2011
8:24 pm
i agree pago…much to do about nothing
Dawg48
March 15th, 2011
8:37 pm
Does the ajc not have any thing better to do than try to get coaches in the hot seat or fired? It does not matter if it’s tech or Georgia? Every time I look at the ajc it’s like going back to high school to here a bunch of he said she said bull crap! Find a real story and cover it and for once maybe print the truth your selves! You try to drag any coach in the state of Georgia threw the mud, you might want to check your selves.
showmedog
March 15th, 2011
8:44 pm
Stupid coach! When is it enough to fire him? UGA deserves a competent coach.
Dawg48
March 15th, 2011
8:49 pm
Someone from the ajc may want to investigate this we need another good story fresh news out of Athens the track and field team needed new shoe laces coach went to dollar general to replace them we need a new coach get on it mark bradley
TopDawg
March 15th, 2011
9:05 pm
We know the rules so well that we continuously toe the line. We commit numerous secondary rules that gives us HUGE recruiting advantages and yet avoid crossing into major territory. We are the Lance Armstrong of NCAA football. We cheat but just try and prove we committed major violations…Nope. Our needles are disposed of without notice.
cammy cam cam
March 15th, 2011
9:30 pm
so the lesson here, Gawga fans believe the rules they break shouldn’t have been rules and therefore they don’t apply to gawga but they should apply to everyone else, judgement shall be based on relevance to others, the seriousness of the charges made by gawga fans outweighs all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary (me), thuga despite admittung to two violations in the recruitment of their two highest profile players is still as clean and pure as the wind driven snow, ajc shall be a homer paper and never speak ill of gawga and no matter how bad thuga is they’re going to win it all.
Ramblin Man
March 15th, 2011
9:32 pm
These secondary violations are a gate way drug for Richt. Next thing you know he will be under the bleachers trying to score a LB with cleats. Then we all now what that leads to whispering sweet nothings to a WR while handing over a helmet. These things happen all over the country and I give credit to Richt and company for telling on themselves. Now as a GT fan I believe this is all a cover up to make people look right while the real violations are too the left.
MikeP
March 15th, 2011
9:35 pm
SouthGA Dawg
March 15th, 2011
5:56 pm
TimBo Dawg,
“AU gets the talent from GA because they pay 180k for it!!!’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, Auburn recruited Ray Drew real hard and Auburn is much closer to Drew’s home than UGA is. According to you Auburn pays $180,000 for top talent. (That’s actually 200,000, 10% goes to the player’s agent)
Answer me this: Did UGA have to top Auburn’s offer or just match it? Now don’t give me the song and dance about Drew turned down $200,000 just to go to dear ol’ gawga! Did you Dawgs have to match Auburn’s offer or did you have to top it? Inquiring minds want to know!
cammy cam cam
March 15th, 2011
9:37 pm
just imagine, had we had room for crowell and not committed to another rb, what it’d been like to bring him to Auburn, have him visit the offices and then on the way out… hey, there’s the offense, the defending national champions, and look, cam newton, the heisman trophy winner. but no running back? wow, here kid, take this jersey with your favorite number and name on thr back and go run a few plays with the undefeated national champs… hey, while youre standing in the end zone, would you like to hoist the Heisman trophy? What about the BCS trophy? Nice huh. I tell you what, if you promise to sign with us I’ll have Bo Jackson come stand next to you on that podium because kid, you could be our third heisman winner. What do you say?
Truth is, if that was not a violation i doubt auburn wouldve wasted those theatrics on crowell. no offense.
Rosezeee
March 15th, 2011
10:16 pm
Guess Richt did it the “Georgia Way.”
BT
March 15th, 2011
10:18 pm
Bill, what would you and your colleagues be saying if we didn’t land Crowell or Drew? You’d probably be saying that Richt and the program were on a “Slippery Slope” because we could not pick-up the coveted in-state talent known as the “Dream Team”.
Give me a break! We understand this is the time of year when stories are hard to come by but according to you, Richt can’t do anything right!
trupert
March 15th, 2011
10:20 pm
Richt did what he needed to do to get a prized recruit.
When you look at Richts secondary violations and compare them to what’s happening at Auburn with the sanctioned dirty play and pay for play and Alabama with the constant oversigning of players and talking underperforming players into medical scholarships at a record pace not to mention SC, old Miss and LSU it amounts to nothing.
Richt is the class of the SEC and not many in all of CFB can be compaired when it comes to integrity and honesty.
college football
March 15th, 2011
10:49 pm
Mark Richt has more integrity in his little toe than all of you sports writing bums put together! By the way, whats the story with the PEN, I mean the Auburn Correctional Facility? Now thats news.
aladawg
March 15th, 2011
11:30 pm
Hey AlabamaDawg this is aladawg, it’s great to see another Alabama man pulling for the dawgs.
MikeP
March 15th, 2011
11:32 pm
Quote: “Richt did what he needed to do to get a prized recruit.” ~~~Yep, desperate times require desperate measures according to Richt. Now, he knows he’s recruited this well every year for the past several and still put a 6-7 team on the field, but he got the dawgs off his back temporairliy by signing somebody they think will turn things around.
Clue: If Ealey, King and co. can’t get it done, adding Crowell won’t make any difference.
hind tit
March 15th, 2011
11:51 pm
If you knew you were going to play for a certain team since you were a kid why put the team through all this garbage. Why not go ahead and commit instead of all this drama.
RED DOG 77
March 16th, 2011
12:37 am
@Bill King……..Pole vaulting over a mole turd, eh…..big boy?………Bill, you claim to be a Bulldog, yet you dare speak Lane Kiffen and Mark Richt in the same breath?……..Bill King, you are without question the most pathetic “journalist” I have ever read……..even worse than that racist black dude that used to write for the AJC………….Bill King, you sir, are no Bulldog…….nosiree, you are not!!!!!!!
UGA FRIEND
March 16th, 2011
4:46 am
I hope Crowell lives up to the expectations of CMR and all the UGA fans. CMR has his own way of doing business so I will not comment as to his crossing the line or not. I would just call what he did as being somewhat dramatic.
As for Crowell, he has had so much attention that he needs the largest helment and cap available.
RMikel58
March 16th, 2011
5:06 am
I bet when Richt announced the “Violation” to the NCAA they said “yeah o.k. guy’s, violate yourself and dont make anymore calls to recruits for a month ” cause we’re too busy picking the final four and making travel plans. “Besides we’re not really sure theres a violation but if you say so”.
“Just send us $5,000.00 for the fine and we’ll forget the whole thing”. Our society has become so “Politically Right” that you cant even sneeze around a recruit without breaking some NCAA Rule, it’s almost like theyve become a Collection Agency making sure they make their Quota and picking and choosing who the next victim will be.
Wish there was a way to check the salaries of the Board Members of the NCAA and their College Affiliations. Bet some of them went to Auburn and Ohio State.
RMikel58
March 16th, 2011
5:18 am
Too many Rules and Violations in the NCAA. The more Rules and Violations there are, the more potential they have of getting MONEY from schools.
Bet they could just get rid of 75% of all that junk and the other 25% would be all that matters. To me it should be basic stuff like giving money to athletes or family members. You know, severe stuff.
The one thing i’d wish they’d do is not let athletes leave early from school. The statement their sending is that Education is only secondary to money and they shouldnt be able to enter the draft and for go their Senior Year or atleast if they didnt graduate they would have to wait a year to enter.
Our Government says Education for our kids are the most important thing and the school Faculty announces that Education is most important but yet here they are allowing them to leave early.
Seriously what is this telling our kids about sports?
Hobnail Boot
March 16th, 2011
6:55 am
Witch hunt… I went with my son on a visit and the team he was visiting had his locker complete. I mean Jersey, helment, shoes etc. This is no big deal they all do it.
Red-N-Black
March 16th, 2011
8:48 am
MY last post didn’t show up guess what NO PROFANITY. This site is such a waste of time. Goodbye
Auburn is All in jail
March 16th, 2011
9:00 am
MikeP,
Auburn does not play around when threatened with not winning the Fulmer Cup to go along with the tainted BCS trophy.
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/
LAKE OCONEE DAWG
March 16th, 2011
9:06 am
SLIPPERY SLOPE:
WHAT A JOKE….DO AWAY WITH THE NCAA, THE SEC OFFICE IS NO BETTER….THEY JUMP ON TRIVIAL THINGS LIKE THIS LINING UP IN A FORMATION DEAL, BUT WHEN 2OO LARGE HAVE BEEN SAID TO CHANGE HANDS, ALL OF A SUDDEN WE HAVE A RULING THAT WE CAN’T HOLD JR RESPONSIBLE FOR SOMETHING SR DID IF JR DID NOT KNOW ABOUT IT…., THAT MAY BE AN ALL-TIMER AS FAR AS BAILING SOMEONE OUT WHO ADMITTED TRYING TO EXTORT MONEY FROM AN SEC TEAM THAT HIS SON WAS INTERESTED IN PLAYING FOOTBALL FOR….AND TO SAY THAT JR KNEW NOTHING ABOUT THE SHAKEDOWN OF THE MISS. STATE PROGRAM, WELL, NOBODY BELIEVES THAT EXCEPT THE TRUEST AUBURN FAN….
LAKE OCONEE DAWG
March 16th, 2011
9:12 am
MikeP:
THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT GET THAT MUCH MONEY ARE QB’S…WHO ACTUALLY DECIDE GAMES….DEFENSIVE ENDS ARE A DIME A DOZEN….200K FOR A DE??? AND REALY ONLY QB’S WHO HAVE A SHAKEDOWN ARTIST AS A DAD…..
Alphare
March 16th, 2011
9:18 am
Is Richt only a slippery slope for 2ndary violations?
What about gaving $200K to Crowell’s friend, what about asking players to stump in the end zone in the FL game?
LAKE OCONEE DAWG
March 16th, 2011
9:26 am
COME ON BILL, EITHER BACK THE DAWGS AND THAT INCLUDES THE COACHING STAFF OR FIND YOU SOMETHING ELSE TO DO….WONDER IF SABAN OR AUBURN OR ANY SEC SCHOOL CALLS THE SEC OFFICE EVERY TIME THEY RECRUIT A KID….HAVEN’T HEARD MUCH OUT OF THE SEC OFFICE OR NCAA OFFICE ON THE CAM NEWTON/DADDY NEWTON I DIDN’T TELL MY SON WHAT I WAS DOING SAGA…..GUESS THEY ARE STILL INVESTIGATING, AND THEY ARE IN NO HURRY TO GET IT DONE….
dawg gone
March 16th, 2011
9:28 am
Alphare how many more years are you going to cry about the end zone dance? And 200K to Crowell’s friend ?? You take Troll to a new level…
Alphare
March 16th, 2011
9:38 am
dawg gone,
When Auburn gave a $180 scholly to Cecil, you guys cried like babies. Now Richt gave $200K to Crowell’s friend, and you think it’s nothing? Let’s see if you can win a NC like Auburn did with that $200K.
Snake Doc
March 16th, 2011
9:46 am
So, the Saint ain’t a so much of a saint… So much for morals, responsibility and discipline…. Excuses are for losers and the CEO and his sycophants are reaching for the bottom of the barrel…..
What an embarrassment!
dawg gone
March 16th, 2011
9:51 am
Alphare what in the world are you taking about? Do you even know? If there was a WIFF of a pay for play deal with UGA you think we would have heard about since we dreg up any BS having anything to do with UGA and news flash troll…we know the 180k story is true Cecil said so now either give us some facts or troll on off into traffic…