Tide tries to run Nick Saban out of town by leaking 27 secondary violations

[bamamarquettefan]

Come on' guys, the initial Cracked Sidewalks post is right on and anyone who thinks Marquette self-reporting a single secondary violation is to undermine Buzz is misinformed or just causing trouble.  As you can see from below Alabama reported 27 secondary violations for the year, and by this logic we should assume this was done to make sure Nick Saban, Anthony Grant and whoever coaches all of the other Alabama sports off campus.  Saban's football program had 4, basketball had 6 etc.  We know of one secondary violation at Marquette this year, and Juan taking the baseball ticket last year - stupid freshman move on his part but certainly no plan to sabotage Buzz.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8269962/alabama-crimson-tide-report-27-secondary-rules-violations

Crimson Tide report rules violations
Updated: August 15, 2012, 1:53 AM ET
By Alex Scarborough | TideNation

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The University of Alabama athletic department committed 27 NCAA secondary rules violations over the past year, according to a summary on the school's website Tuesday.

More than half of the violations stemmed from impermissible text messages or phone calls.

Scarborough: Violations Not a Mark on Tide

Yes, Alabama admitted to secondary violations Tuesday night. But that hardly means that Nick Saban's goal to clean up the program has been unsuccessful, writes TideNation's Alex Scarborough.

The men's basketball program committed the most violations in the department with six, according to the report.

Football and women's basketball were named for four violations each, and track and field was responsible for three. Other sports to commit violations included softball, baseball, gymnastics, women's tennis, women's volleyball, men's tennis, and soccer.

The university compliance office was responsible for a violation as well.

Football was cited for giving a student athlete a check for his scholarship prior to final verification, accepting a Facebook friend request before the allowable date, providing impermissible documents to prospects and for sending a text message to a prospect's father.

Secondary violations do not typically result in penalties from the NCAA. Corrective action is usually taken and typically includes rules education and a letter of admonishment.

In the case of illegal contact with a prospect, the coach is prohibited from contacting the athlete for a set period of time.

[PaintTouches]

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The University of Alabama athletic department committed 27 NCAA secondary rules violations over the past year, according to a summary on the school's website Tuesday.

Take note of the bold. That's the biggest issue with MU Athletics right now. Had they put up in big shiny font that they had self reported a minor violation everyone shrugs and moves on. Instead they let the JS dictate the narrative with a big bad headline with no mention of the severity. 

[bamamarquettefan]

Fair enough point, but also consider that Alabama committed 27 before they posted this.  I can understand they would not want to call a reporter 27 times to tell him there was another violation, but does ONE secondary violation really rise to the level of a website note that 1 was committed.

it just seems to me that the big difference is that Marquette is such a clean program that even one violation is news, whereas at many schools these happen all the time and therefore they are not news.

[Bocephys]

Take note of the bold. That's the biggest issue with MU Athletics right now. Had they put up in big shiny font that they had self reported a minor violation everyone shrugs and moves on. Instead they let the JS dictate the narrative with a big bad headline with no mention of the severity. 

Once again Marquette's PR department comes under fire.

[Pakuni]

This is starting to remind me of the old debate surrounding "I don't have anything against Buzz Williams, I just don't like the hiring process."

Seems that now that it's been pointed out, repeatedly, that schools routinely announce self-reported violations, all the angst over that has shifted not from the fact MU did it, but how they did it.
Gotta be outraged about something, I guess.

[Lennys Tap]

This is starting to remind me of the old debate surrounding "I don't have anything against Buzz Williams, I just don't like the hiring process."

Seems that now that it's been pointed out, repeatedly, that schools routinely announce self-reported violations, all the angst over that has shifted not from the fact MU did it, but how they did it.
Gotta be outraged about something, I guess.

C'mon, man, nobody's talking "outrage". But aren't YOU the guy who kept asking a) how do we know this is a secondary violation and b) stated that MU was now "under investigation" by the NCAA? You said this because that's how the Walker article, based on what LW told him, made it sound. Contrast that to the way Alabama handled the release regarding their 27 violations - a summary of 13 months worth of violations, specifics, no ambiguity as to their severity, no possible "we're under investigation" interpretation possible. Any fair compare/contrast of how the two were handled shows how poorly MU (and Larry) performed. I know that's not your preferred narrative, but there it is.

[ATL MU Warrior]

C'mon, man, nobody's talking "outrage". But aren't YOU the guy who kept asking a) how do we know this is a secondary violation and b) stated that MU was now "under investigation" by the NCAA? You said this because that's how the Walker article, based on what LW told him, made it sound. Contrast that to the way Alabama handled the release regarding their 27 violations - a summary of 13 months worth of violations, specifics, no ambiguity as to their severity, no possible "we're under investigation" interpretation possible. Any fair compare/contrast of how the two were handled shows how poorly MU (and Larry) performed. I know that's not your preferred narrative, but there it is.

I haven't read the article on Alabama so I don't know, but isn't it possible the difference is because their "investigation" is over and they have their response back from the NCAA confirming the secondary nature of their multitide of violations, while in MU's case such confirmation has yet to be received?

[bamamarquettefan]

Often reporters are better if you tell one directly rather than them having to read it on you site - so it's easy to say after the fact you should have gone left instead of right.

But you are missing the obvious differences. The Wisconsin press does not love Marquette like the Alabama press loves Alabama. In Wisconsin, there are probably 25 times as many badger alums as MU alums I would guess, so the press is never going to give MU the benefit of the doubt - that has nothing to do with how well the local press relations handles things. The important coverage for us is new York, Chicago etc.  Sorry, but I didn't know there was a 1250 am in milwaukee until a recent post about them criticizing cracked sidewalks readers.  

In Alabama everything circulates around Alabama football, so Saban tells off reporters whenever he wants and they still fawn over him.  The Alabama rivals page has 10000 people a year pay $100 each for a premium membership to read extra stories so a million dollars a year.  How many wisconsinites do you think pay for premium coverage of Marquette basketball?  I'm guessing maybe 100, but I have no idea.

You think Alabama press is goin to take cheap shots at Alabama football when their fans drive their entire business?  It would be Suicidal.  But if milwaukee takes a shot at MU basketball they are going to make at least 10 badgers readers happy for every 1 Marquette fan who doesnt like it.

So while Alabama certainly must have a huge media team that is very good, you can't say they get dinged less because they posted their violations and Larry Williams told a reporter.

That would be like if went to war with equator tomorrow and you concluded equator lost because they set up their defenses wrong.

Sure I've disagreed with moves MU press relations have made, but you aren't just comparing apples to oranges, you are comparing apples to elephants in suggesting Alabama football to basketball at a small private school that has somehow worked their way to the bcs-level and at last report become one of the 5 most profitable basketball Programs in the country.

[Jay Bee]

Bama may have released the information simply because someone asked for it and had it - they knew a report would likely be coming from a third party and wanted to get out in front of it. 

With MU, the wording used by the JS and Don Walker specifically is troubling because it leads one to believe things which may or may not be true.

Depends what your definition of is is.. or what your definitions of 'announced' and 'issued' are. 

[pbiflyer]

Well, as a Dolphin fan who was once asked if I was happy that Nick Saban was leaving the Dolphin BECAUSE he lied about staying:
No, we were hoping he was lying about staying!
Nick rubs everyone the wrong way. I am sure his wife wants to b*tch slap him.
In the paraphrased words of Major League: Winning is the important thing.......It isn't that important.

[bilsu]

When it is a violation to accept someone as a facebook friend, I think the NCAA is out of their mind. They should throw out all of this little stuff and work on cleaning up big things.

[Boozemon Barro]

You can really tell that a lot of people on here follow MU basketball and nothing else in college sports. One secondary violation is extremely insignificant and trivial when put in the context of major college sports across the country. Be happy we self reported it and leave it at that. I only check this board about once a week or so and thought the initial reaction was pretty funny. The fact that people are still talking about is a little sad.

[bilsu]

You can really tell that a lot of people on here follow MU basketball and nothing else in college sports. One secondary violation is extremely insignificant and trivial when put in the context of major college sports across the country. Be happy we self reported it and leave it at that. I only check this board about once a week or so and thought the initial reaction was pretty funny. The fact that people are still talking about is a little sad.

Nobody likes violations, but what the posters here are upset about is the news coverage. Especially, since most of us feel the local paper hates MU.

[The Process]

That would be like if went to war with equator tomorrow and you concluded equator lost because they set up their defenses wrong.

We may not be going to war with Ecuador, but I'm not so sure if the British aren't going to be raising all sorts of trouble with them...

[GGGG]

My professional opinion...

Once Walker started rooting around, MU should have released a public statement providing more details.  The way it was done makes it feel like they are hiding something.

But my professional dissatisfaction with how MU does public relations is well documented on this board.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

My professional opinion...

Once Walker started rooting around, MU should have released a public statement providing more details.  The way it was done makes it feel like they are hiding something.

But my professional dissatisfaction with how MU does public relations is well documented on this board.

I feel the same way, but the more I think about it, are we missing the actual point?

If MU didn't commit the violation, there wouldn't be a PR issue. PR is really a band-aid in this situation, not the cause of the problem.

MU needs to tighten up the athletic department, then the PR issues will really go away.

Given MU's recent gaffes (both alleged and confirmed), and position in the community, they need to do it better and cleaner than the next guy. It's not really fair, but it's the world MU lives in right now.

Win a lot of games, launch the new LAX program, stay off the front page for a few years, and things will go back to "normal". Guys like Walker won't be digging for a MU story.

[GGGG]

Every institution makes mistakes and gaffes because they are made up of human beings.  Not just in the athletic department, but across campus, mistakes are made often.  The public "hit" that MU takes on a secondary violation that is release to the public immediately is small - people don't expect perfection, but they do expect contrition. 

Unless there is evidence that the athletic department is ignoring compliance issues, there really isn't an issue with a coach giving a recruit a t-shirt as an isolated incident.

[Pakuni]

C'mon, man, nobody's talking "outrage". But aren't YOU the guy who kept asking a) how do we know this is a secondary violation and b) stated that MU was now "under investigation" by the NCAA? You said this because that's how the Walker article, based on what LW told him, made it sound. Contrast that to the way Alabama handled the release regarding their 27 violations - a summary of 13 months worth of violations, specifics, no ambiguity as to their severity, no possible "we're under investigation" interpretation possible. Any fair compare/contrast of how the two were handled shows how poorly MU (and Larry) performed. I know that's not your preferred narrative, but there it is.

Thanks for taking snippets of what I wrote and using them out of context.
I'll just restate the obvious .... you have no idea what Larry told Don Walker or anyone else. You have no idea the nature of the violation or how it came to the attention of Don Walker.
You know only what Don Walker chose to write.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Every institution makes mistakes and gaffes because they are made up of human beings.  Not just in the athletic department, but across campus, mistakes are made often.  The public "hit" that MU takes on a secondary violation that is release to the public immediately is small - people don't expect perfection, but they do expect contrition. 

Unless there is evidence that the athletic department is ignoring compliance issues, there really isn't an issue with a coach giving a recruit a t-shirt as an isolated incident.

In a vacuum, you are 100% correct.

Unfortunately, MU isn't in a vacuum right now. It isn't 1999 anymore.

The recent "issues" have turned up the spot light. Good PR is part of the solution, but better execution and diligence by the athletic department is required. Again, not really "fair", but that's the world MU finds itself in.

[Benny B]

My professional opinion...

Once Walker started rooting around, MU should have released a public statement providing more details.  The way it was done makes it feel like they are hiding something.

But my professional dissatisfaction with how MU does public relations is well documented on this board.

Let's be fair here... MU's Athletic Department has its own separate & completely autonomous PR department.  MU's PR department seemingly does a decent job, the AD's PR department is completely inept.

[jmayer1]

but better execution and diligence by the athletic department is required. Again, not really "fair", but that's the world MU finds itself in.

No, not at all. Unless you want MU to stop recruiting, minor things likes this are bound to happen, despite how much compliance education a school has. As long as you self-report them, nobody pays much attention. MU's only problem was not disclosing that it was an extremely minor violation

[GGGG]

Let's be fair here... MU's Athletic Department has its own separate & completely autonomous PR department.  MU's PR department seemingly does a decent job, the AD's PR department is completely inept.

I agree about all that you say, but I still have problems with MU's PR department.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

No, not at all. Unless you want MU to stop recruiting, minor things likes this are bound to happen, despite how much compliance education a school has. As long as you self-report them, nobody pays much attention. MU's only problem was not disclosing that it was an extremely minor violation

It's not about this specific minor violation, it's about public perception.

In general, MU needs to be better than everybody else. We can shake out fist at Walker, the JS and even MU's PR dept., but the rubber meets the road with the athletic department.

I'm not upset or mad at MU for this specific situation, just trying to point out that maybe it's not just about PR, but improvements in the athletic department.

[Lennys Tap]

In a vacuum, you are 100% correct.

Unfortunately, MU isn't in a vacuum right now. It isn't 1999 anymore.

The recent "issues" have turned up the spot light. Good PR is part of the solution, but better execution and diligence by the athletic department is required. Again, not really "fair", but that's the world MU finds itself in.

You're right, it's not 1999 anymore. Nobody (relatively speaking) cared about MU basketball then. Sustained success = greater interest = more scrutiny. I'll agree that one reason that the spotlight has been turned up is "recent issues", but it's also a consequence of our on court successs.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

You're right, it's not 1999 anymore. Nobody (relatively speaking) cared about MU basketball then. Sustained success = greater interest = more scrutiny. I'll agree that one reason that the spotlight has been turned up is "recent issues", but it's also a consequence of our on court successs.

Correct, success is a big part of it.

Win games. Stay off the front page. Graduate players. MU will be fine.