NCAA penalizes Michigan for major violations

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The NCAA on Thursday handed Michigan a third year of probation for practice and training violations, declining to sharply punish Rich Rodriguez or his program for an embarrassing problem that cropped up just a few days before last season.

Rodriguez, who is 13-19 in his third season with the Wolverines, had been charged with failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance in the program — a serious allegation with potentially serious penalties — but the NCAA reduced that charge to a failure to monitor the details.

The lower charge was "more appropriate," said Paul Dee, chair of the Division I infractions committee.

"He was cleared with respect to the failure to promote-the-atmosphere (allegation)," he said. "Some of the things that did occur did not get all the way to the coach."

The NCAA also ordered Rodriguez to attend a rules seminar but otherwise said the school had punished itself appropriately.

Michigan announced in May that its self-imposed sanctions included probation for two years and reduced training time by 130 hours over two years, double the amount of time the Wolverines exceeded NCAA rules.

The problems started more than a year ago when the Detroit Free Press, quoting anonymous players, reported that the Rodriguez-led program was exceeding NCAA limits on practice and training time.

The school admitted in May it was guilty of four violations. It reprimanded Rodriguez and six others, and announced self-imposed sanctions, including two years of probation. It also trimmed the number of assistants — the so-called quality-control staff — from five to three and banned them from practices, games or coaching meetings. Another staffer was fired and the school released more than 150 pages detailing a breakdown in communication within the athletic department.

The NCAA later outlined five potentially major rules violations, all related to practices and workouts, and the school disagreed only with the one that charged Rodriguez with a failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance. Athletic director Dave Brandon called it "overly harsh" and Rodriguez, who admitted making mistakes, clearly didn't like being singled out.

The school decided not to take away scholarships or eliminate coaching positions, saying the problems had not led to a competitive advantage.

"There were no surprises in the report, there will be no appeals," Brandon said.

Brandon had maintained the school shouldn't be tagged as a repeat offender despite a 2003 scandal in the basketball program and the NCAA agreed.

Three months ago, the NCAA accused West Virginia of similar violations while Rodriguez was coach and under current coach Bill Stewart. It said there were five major and one secondary rules violations committed by the Mountaineer football program from 2005 to 2009, prompting Rodriguez to apologize for any mistakes he might have made.

Dee said the NCAA did not consider the West Virginia allegations in deciding the Michigan case.

After his hire from West Virginia, Rodriguez filled all five quality control positions at Michigan — essentially assistants to assistants who were paid $17 per hour to "run errands for the coaches, check on student-athlete class attendance and academic issues, and chart plays."

The school said the staff "crossed the line in specific situations and engaged in 'coaching activities'" as defined by the NCAA.

Rodriguez also told school investigators he didn't know about forms used at Michigan to track athlete activities until last summer, 18 months after he was hired, and he said no one ever told him those forms were not being filed with compliance officials. Rodriguez also said following NCAA bylaws was not a "one-man job."

NCAA investigators, however, said Rodriguez bore ultimate responsibility for his program. They also suggested he had not adequately prepared for a hearing before the NCAA in August.

"The scope and nature of the violations also established that both the institution and the head football coach failed to monitor the football program," the NCAA report said. "The committee was particularly concerned that, even after the head football coach and his staff were specifically educated on multiple occasions regarding the rules that were eventually violated, the violations continued.

"The duty to ensure that his staff abided by all applicable rules resided with the head football coach. At the hearing, he could not say with certainty that he read the educational materials provided to him."

One staffer who worked under Rodriguez at West Virginia before joining him at Michigan, Alex Herron, was fired after his claim of not being present during some activities was discredited by players. Brad Labadie, who was among those reprimanded by the school, later resigned as director of football operations, saying the move was unrelated to the NCAA probe.