UGA reports violation in Crowell recruitment, bars Richt from calling recruits next month
Georgia broke an NCAA rule in the recruitment of prized tailback Isaiah Crowell and will respond by barring coach Mark Richt from phoning recruits next month, according to a letter from UGA athletic director Greg McGarity to the NCAA.
An attempt by Richt in January to demonstrate the Bulldogs’ need for Crowell by having him stand in as the missing tailback in an offensive formation with current players resulted in a secondary violation of the rule against “game day simulation” with recruits, McGarity wrote.
Crowell signed with Georgia last month, and the school’s self-reported violation had the temporary effect of making him ineligible. But the NCAA staff, acting on a request in McGarity’s March 4 letter, already has reinstated Crowell’s eligibility, according to an e-mail from the NCAA to UGA on Friday.
McGarity told the NCAA that Richt did not believe the January scenario constituted a “game day simulation.” However, McGarity wrote that “as a result of the violation,” Richt will receive a letter of admonishment and will be prohibited from telephoning recruits and their parents during the NCAA’s “spring evaluation period” in April.
The NCAA could accept those penalties or could impose additional ones. In most cases, if the NCAA agrees the violation is secondary, meaning inadvertent and resulting in no significant advantage, self-imposed penalties are accepted.
McGarity said Monday that he “will have no comment other than what’s in the letter,” a copy of which was obtained under the state’s Open Records Act. Richt was not available for comment, spokesman Claude Felton said. Crowell did not return messages.
McGarity described the incident in detail in his 1 ½-page letter:
“[Crowell] was on campus for his official visit January 21-23, 2011. . . . [Richt] and the football staff arranged for the offensive linemen, wide receivers, fullback and quarterback to gather . . . in the indoor practice facility that [Richt's] office overlooks. The [players] . . . were dressed in their game-day uniform tops.
“Coach Richt, [Crowell] and [Crowell's] family left his office to join the group. By the time [Crowell] made his way to the field, the team was in an offensive alignment without a running back. [Crowell] was subsequently handed a jersey and stood in the vacant running back position . . . After [Crowell] stood in the position, the student-athletes broke from the alignment and talked to him. The activity lasted less than five minutes.”
Richt’s idea “was to create a feeling for [Crowell] that he was needed,” McGarity wrote, adding that Richt didn’t think having a recruit stand in a formation without running a play constituted a violation. However, Richt “did not check with the compliance office beforehand.”
The SEC subsequently informed Georgia that the NCAA rule against game-day simulation is “all-encompassing and includes the activity [Crowell] participated in,” McGarity wrote. Also, it is against the rule for a recruit to try on or wear a game-day jersey outside of the locker room.
Georgia “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,” according to McGarity’s letter.
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755 comments Add your comment
ClinchCountyCanine
March 14th, 2011
3:20 pm
donte
Richt is the man!!!!!
Vick=Dog killing thug
March 14th, 2011
3:20 pm
CMR losing the phone for a month is no small matter. Also bunch of war damn eagles getting busted for armed robbery is no small matter either…. whoa…
AltamahaDawg
March 14th, 2011
3:21 pm
There is nothing wrong with the “rule”. Allow a game day simulation play to be run and how would you stop recruits from participating in scrimmages. I assume the rules will be amended to cover simply standing in the formation.
I have a feeling that Richt was not completely unaware that he was pressing the rule. I am also sure he knew how secondary voilations are dealt with and what the risk/reward was.
Seems like in this case the system is worked:
Coach goes as far as he can without breaking the letter of the rule.
School self reports just to be sure.
No real concequence
NCAA (likely to) clarify for future reference
Uhoh
March 14th, 2011
3:21 pm
So, any of those linemen recovered from the Nick Fairley nightmare?
Criminals!!!!!!!
March 14th, 2011
3:22 pm
Another Tech athlete was arested for DUI yesterday, and another Auburn football player held a family up at gunpoint in their house while he robbed them blind………
And THIS is news??
Wake me up when SEC Media Days is here.
JB
March 14th, 2011
3:22 pm
You wait….Obama will say that a lack of a clear energy policy under 8 years of Bush is the Reason we have 4 dollar gas…..And just think, for real, If Clinton had not vetoed drilling in Alaska in his second term, we would be pumping 75% of our own oil NOW.
DLo
March 14th, 2011
3:23 pm
“The current student-athletes walked into the practice facility and were dressed in their game-day uniform tops only”
Ummmm….Is anyone else more concerned with the fact that the current players were only wearing their game-day tops? I mean…what kind of rule did that violate? Those perverts will do anything to sign a good running back. A bottomless practice, what’ll they think of next.
ClinchCountyCanine
March 14th, 2011
3:23 pm
Buckeye
You need to worry about the nuclear meltdown at Ohio State instead of some rinky dink not even worth mentioning recruiting violation at UGA.
Summit Dawg
March 14th, 2011
3:23 pm
The NCAA has become a big, big JOKE!!!!! Who approves all these stupid rules anyway?????
1eyedJack
March 14th, 2011
3:23 pm
donte, take a flying leap into the Inferno.
7576DAWG
March 14th, 2011
3:24 pm
Some of these kid’s have been visiting school’s a dozen or more times over the year’s. When a 5 star decides to go to Auburn or Alabama instead of Georgia , On one of his visit’s something happened that made that recruit decide that was the place. Most of the time that one incident swayed the recruit to go to that school. Unless it was only by walking around campus, watching a game or only going over what courses he will take ,anything else, would be the reason he picked that school and would be a violation.
A few week’s ago the student body was chanting Jenkin’s and Crowell and one other recruit’s names at UGA’s basketball game should have been a recruiting violation. In other word’s if anything happen’s to that recruit while he is visiting that potentially could influence him to go there is a recruiting violation.
When coach Richt took Stafford fishing shouldn’t that be a violation. If Stafford is an avid fisherman . something like that would definitely influence a recruit.
If you video taped every 4 or 5 star recruit you would find that he was influence to go to a particular school because one or two thing’s that that school made sure he had or ran into during each visit. It may be a date with a cheerleader every time.
There is no way you can police this. Every school does it.
JB
March 14th, 2011
3:24 pm
Did Crowell’s Daddy know or Not ????????
1eyedJack
March 14th, 2011
3:26 pm
It would appear that Awbun’s student-athletes are having a hard time weaning off the sugar-tit.
Buckeye
March 14th, 2011
3:26 pm
You dawgs owe Gene Smith big time. He gets you in as a 10 seed and makes you feel giddy about your recruiting violations. On behalf of Gene, you are welcome.
buckhead benny
March 14th, 2011
3:27 pm
whats crazy is really all of the recruiting violations take place with the cousins, and brothers, of current or former NFL athletes- they are the ones that do most of the egregious recruiting violations giving hundreds, and thousands of dollars to their cousins or (related family members) that siphon it off to other recruits, etc-
this is pretty well understood-
Bodda Getta
March 14th, 2011
3:27 pm
Four game suspension, minimum.
egeagle
March 14th, 2011
3:27 pm
Chip and the AJC are doing the digging here and in other situations becuase it brings hits. There are many Dawg fans and many dawghaters who will respond. No other program is so beseiged by constant requests for material under the FOI Act. Thsi doesn’t happen in Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi, or Kentucky. Most papers wouldn’t either bother or dare to spend so much time tracing trivia, but them they’re not falling in circulation with such a hot-button topic readily at hand. If the AU mess were here or Richt had done what Tressel has done, they’d be calling for heads to roll. I bet the office that handles FOI issues has a chair with AJC stenciled in gold leaf.
Honky Talkin'
March 14th, 2011
3:27 pm
The NCAA rule book is longer than the US Constitution.
nerds! nerds! nerds!
March 14th, 2011
3:27 pm
So, if 11 players are in a small room together, does that constitute a “huddle?”
How can it be a game simulation without pads on a PRACTICE FIELD?
AJC: Thousands feared dead in Japan.
Buckeye
March 14th, 2011
3:27 pm
Clinch,
No worries here. It’s March and we’re a #1 seed.
JB
March 14th, 2011
3:28 pm
Now Auburn needs a bail bondsman Alum……. Put out the call…..
buck strickland
March 14th, 2011
3:28 pm
Japan is on the brink of Nuclear disaster. Middle East is in disarray.
BUT UGA COMMITTING A SECONDARY RECRUITING VIOLATION MAKES THE HEADLINES OF THE AJC.
I guess the AJC must think it’s readers are pretty stupid.
DawginLex
March 14th, 2011
3:28 pm
Up here in Cat country, the big kid that plays center for UK-Josh Harrelson is known as jorts for wearing jean shorts all the time.
On his senior night, a lot of the students wore jorts to the game.
I’m waiting on the NCAA to rule that some sort of recruiting advantage for Calipari in the state of florida………………….
schmeckdawg
March 14th, 2011
3:28 pm
FedUp
March 14th, 2011
2:57 pm
If you pat a recruit on the shoulder, is that a violation/ Just curious, everything else is.
Only if you pat the recruit on their dominate side!
WIN WITH RICHT
March 14th, 2011
3:28 pm
What is going on in Alabama? First, they had the Toomer Corner Massacre and now Awbarn’s armed goon squad. Not to mention $camgate. Those football fanatics are devolving into something resembling Charlie Sheen after three day crack bender.
Criminals!!!!!!!
March 14th, 2011
3:29 pm
Buckeye,
You have SO much turmoil in your own football program to be here in a UGA blog.
Move back to Ohio already man. If you are so miserable in our great state, we can all throw in on a one-way ticket to Cleveland for you.
Darius
March 14th, 2011
3:29 pm
Even the casual fan who keeps up with recruiting knows that simulations like this are a violation and Richt and Co. sure as heck know it is a violation. It would appear that they just don’t care and are willing to run a dirty program.
Bama Bill
March 14th, 2011
3:29 pm
Just another cheap marketing ploy on teenagers by the University of Georgia’s football team’s leadership ! Wonder where the two starting uga tailbacks were that day ? In jail, suspended or just benched ? NO wonder he chose uga, can you imagine him thinking he would be in a backfield formation replacing the tailbacks at Bama, SC, Auburn or even LSU and Florida.
Buckeye
March 14th, 2011
3:29 pm
Clinch,
I must say the “nuclear meltdown” analogy is in extremely poor taste.
The Ghost of Wally Butts
March 14th, 2011
3:30 pm
Too bad those poor ol Auburn boys didn’t have the sense to steal a laptop…then throw it out the window….that seems to be okay….at least for Cam Newton.
JB
March 14th, 2011
3:30 pm
Headlines: Auburn football players complain that sure hit SLOT MACHINE at Victory Land gone Cold. Film at 11.
BobDawg
March 14th, 2011
3:30 pm
I just read NCAA Rules book and Paragraph 30,0003 , Article V11, Sentence 90,0001 of Book 5Million and one says that bringing a Stick, Tide Box and Role of Paper to Alabama games is a major Rules violation to all advertisers approved at the said game…..Hmmmmmm
Cecil Newton
March 14th, 2011
3:31 pm
THUGA IS GUILTY AGAIN!
1eyedJack
March 14th, 2011
3:31 pm
The Constitution and all of it’s amendments is only about 25 pages. The NCAA rule book is bigger than the Obamacare law.
JB
March 14th, 2011
3:32 pm
Bama Bill…. Check your history of ” Caught Cheating” at Bama pal……
WIN WITH RICHT
March 14th, 2011
3:32 pm
Buckeye
You have to admit those sweater vests are pretty weinie.
Seriously
March 14th, 2011
3:33 pm
“…dressed in their game-day uniform tops and looked up toward Coach Richt’s office.”
They really need to wear pants. I mean really, how gay is that.
ATL Fan
March 14th, 2011
3:34 pm
Didn’t the AJC have an article about the recruitment of Crowell that described the “violation” back before signing day?
If it was such a big deal, why wasn’t something said about it then?
out of control dogs
March 14th, 2011
3:34 pm
The NEW THUGA is the same as the OLD THUGA. I guess thats how THUGA got a top 10 class was by breaking the rules !!! I’m sure all the THUGA fans are PROUD !!! I can hear them now, as long as we win I don’t care what they do.
BobDawg
March 14th, 2011
3:34 pm
Buckeye, No pressure with the #1 seed, right???? Sweaty palms yet/???
Dawg "Hatee" Williams
March 14th, 2011
3:34 pm
What do you think a hater’s job is? Let them hate. If you have 14 haters today you need to figure out how to get to 16 haters by summer.
WIN WITH RICHT
March 14th, 2011
3:35 pm
Bama Bill
You know that Saban wanted Crowell badly. Saban looked like a kid who just dropped his sucker in the middle hole of the outhouse when Crowell committted to the great UGA>
DawginLex
March 14th, 2011
3:35 pm
Bama Bill gets the DA post of the day award.
JB
March 14th, 2011
3:35 pm
oh yea Bama Bill, we all remember the Shula days…….Hell, even we beat you…….
schmeckdawg
March 14th, 2011
3:36 pm
ATL Fan
March 14th, 2011
3:34 pm
Didn’t the AJC have an article about the recruitment of Crowell that described the “violation” back before signing day?
If it was such a big deal, why wasn’t something said about it then?
YES IT WAS, GREAT CALL!!!!!!!!
Buckeye
March 14th, 2011
3:36 pm
Uhoh and Dlo,
Funny! Great posts.
DawginLex
March 14th, 2011
3:36 pm
out of control dogs is a close runner-up for DA post of the day award
BobDawg
March 14th, 2011
3:36 pm
ATL Fan…. someone probably pointed the Terrible Act out to the coaching staff at the time and they had to go thru the rigamarole of getting him deactivated/reactivated and now the story is coming out after the fact…. Again, no big deal, just the AJC blowing up!
GSUperfan
March 14th, 2011
3:38 pm
Next the coaches will have to report if a recruit stands at a urinal between active players…
JB
March 14th, 2011
3:38 pm
out of control dogs…..is a Techie…………amazing post…..Geez