MARCH, 2012 | VOL. 2

MARCH, 2012 | VOL. 2

COMPLIANCE STAFF

570 Normal Street | Memphis, TN 38125 | Office: 901.678.2088 | Fax: 901.678.1653

TODD SPENCER RESIGNS AFTER VIOLATIONS BY HEATHER DINICH | ESPN.COM

Georgia Tech offensive line coach Todd Spencer has resigned after he violated NCAA recruiting rules by sending text messages to recruits, the school announced Wednesday.

The NCAA prohibits all electronic correspon-dence to recruits with the exception of faxes and emails.

The violation was discovered by an internal investigation within the athletic department, and coach Paul Johnson recommended to athletic director Dan Radakovich that Spencer be fired. Spencer resigned, though, before the investigation had been completed, according to a release from the school.

Radakovich says the violation was “inex-plicable” after the NCAA put Georgia Tech on four years’ probation last year and took away its 2009 ACC championship.

The NCAA said the school should have declared receiver Demaryius Thomas ineligible after he accepted gifts from a former player who was working for an agent.

“I find it inexplicable that an employee would violate these rules with regard to text messaging after our ongoing focus to educate our personnel on NCAA rules and regulations,” Radakovich said in a prepared statement. “Actions of this type simply are not acceptable in our programs and will not be tolerated. I have directed our compliance staff to continue to review the text and phone records of all of our coaches on an ongoing basis as is the mandate and expectation of Georgia Tech and the NCAA.”

Georgia Tech has reported its findings to the NCAA enforcement staff, kept them advised throughout the investigation and will submit a final report of its internal investigation. Spencer was suspended and placed on ad-ministrative leave by Radakovich while the investigation into the coach’s phone records was under way.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Consti-tution, the NCAA penalized Georgia Tech for two of three texts, which were sent in November. The third was a text from Johnson, who thought he was replying to a text from a team member, not a recruit. The NCAA then banned Georgia Tech’s coaching staff from initiating telephone or written communication with the recruit for four weeks, starting in late December. M

Nicole GreenDirector of Compliance

ngreen@memphis.edu

Sally AndrewsAssistant Compliance Coordinator

sandrews@memphis.edu

Ryan CrewsCompliance Assistant

rcccrews@memphis.edu

IMPORTANT DATES

March 28 . . . Coaches Rules Education Meeting at 10 am in Hall of

Fame Assembly Room

RECRUITING PERIODS

CROSS COUNTRY / TRACK & FIELDMarch 1-8 . . . . . . . . . . . Contact PeriodMarch 9-10 . . . . . . . . . . . . Dead PeriodMarch 11-31 . . . . . . . . . Contact Period

BASEBALLMarch 1-29 . . . . . . . . . . Contact Period

MEN’S BASKETBALLMarch 1-15 . . . . . . . Evaluation PeriodMarch 16-22 . . . . . . . . . Contact PeriodMarch 23-28 . . . . . . .Evaluation PeriodMarch 29-31 . . . . . . . . . . . Dead Period

WOMEN’S BASKETBALLMarch 1-29 . . . . . . . . . . Contact PeriodMarch 30-31 . . . . . . . . . . . Dead Period

FOOTBALLMarch 1-31 . . . . . . . . . . . . Quiet Period

SOFTBALLMarch 1-31 . . . . . . . . . . Contact Period

VOLLEYBALLMarch 1-31 . . . . . . . . . . Contact Period

ALL OTHER SPORTSMarch 1-31 . . . . . . . . . . Contact Period

Actions of this type simply are not acceptable in our programs and will not be tolerated.

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COMPLIANCE STAFF

570 Normal Street | Memphis, TN 38125 | Office: 901.678.2088 | Fax: 901.678.1653

Nicole GreenDirector of Compliance

ngreen@memphis.edu

Sally AndrewsAssistant Compliance Coordinator

sandrews@memphis.edu

Ryan CrewsCompliance Assistant

rcccrews@memphis.edu

MARCH, 2012 | VOL. 2

ETHICAL CONDUCT Honesty and Sportsmanship (10.01.1)

Individuals employed by (or associated with) a member institution to ad-minister, conduct or coach intercollegiate athletics and all participating stu-dent-athletes shall act with honesty and sportsmanship at all times so that intercollegiate athletics as a whole, their institutions and they, as individuals, shall represent the honor and dignity of fair play and the generally recog-nized high standards associated with wholesome competitive sports. M

REMINDERS

EDUCATIONInstitutional Advertisements in Conjunction with an Athletics Event Involving Prospective Student-Athletes (I)Date Published: February 14, 2012 | Item Ref: 1

NCAA Division I institutions should note that an institution may not buy or arrange an athletically-related advertisement (e.g., advertising availability of season tickets, institutional camps) in conjunction with an athletics event in-volving prospective student-athletes, regardless of whether the advertisement directly solicits the enrollment of prospective student-athletes.

The recruiting advertisements legislation applies to all forms of media (e.g., facility signage, printed materials, broadcast or electronic media) and applies to all athletics events, regardless of whether the event is a competitive event. Therefore, the legislation prohibits advertisements in conjunction with both scholastic and nonscholastic competition, as well as advertisements in con-junction with events such as banquets honoring prospective student-athletes’ academic and athletics achievements and fundraising events for high school athletics departments.

However, the publication of nonathletics institutional advertisements or pro-motional material in conjunction with an athletics event involving prospec-tive student-athletes is permissible, provided the institution’s athletics depart-ment is not involved in the advertisement or promotional activities and the advertisements or promotional materials do not contain athletics information. Funds generated by the purchase of nonathletics institutional advertisements or promotional materials may not be used for the benefit of a high school or two-year college’s athletics program and the institution must document the cost of the advertising and promotional activities.

[References: NCAA Division I Bylaws 13.4.3.1 (recruiting advertisements), 13.4.3.1.1 (nonathletics institutional advertisements) and 13.15.1.2 (fundraising for high school athletics program); and staff interpretations (2/10/89, Item No. c), (5/28/09, Item No. c) and (6/19/09, Item No. 2); and an official interpretation (8/27/92, Item No. 4)] M

By Daniel HoltmeyerPublished: Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012

Updated: Friday, February 3, 2012 15:02

Editor’s note: Story edited on Feb. 3 at 2:27 p.m. to correct “University of Nebraska-Lincoln” to “Uni-versity of Nebraska.”

The NCAA has placed the University of Nebraska Athletic Department under two years’ probation and enforced a $38,000 fine, which has gone to local charities, after what the department committed what the NCAA called “major violations.”

The announcement came Wednesday afternoon. It marks the end of an investigation that began last summer after the department realized nearly 500 student athletes had, from 2007 to 2010, received recommended course books under scholarship. NCAA rules prohibit scholarships from paying for anything but required materials.

Last July, Athletic Director Tom Osborne announced the department would self-impose a two-year probation period, report its findings to the NCAA and pay $28,000, roughly matching the value of the recommended books student athletes got for free. The official sanction increased that amount and re-started the two-year probation clock to start January 31.

“The violations, which included a failure to monitor, were narrow in scope and centered on student- athletes in all sports receiving impermissible benefits,” reads a statement on the NCAA website.

Student athletes who benefitted from the mistake have also paid the value of the problematic books to local charity. The average value per athlete: $60.

“It came out of our own pocket,” said Kaitlyn Burke, a senior guard on the women’s basketball team and president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. “People kind of understood and knew the severity of it.”

Continued on pg 3

NCAA FINES, PLACES NU ATHLETIC DEPT. UNDER PROBATION

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COMPLIANCE STAFF

570 Normal Street | Memphis, TN 38125 | Office: 901.678.2088 | Fax: 901.678.1653

Nicole GreenDirector of Compliance

ngreen@memphis.edu

Sally AndrewsAssistant Compliance Coordinator

sandrews@memphis.edu

Ryan CrewsCompliance Assistant

rcccrews@memphis.edu

MARCH, 2012 | VOL. 2

5 TCU PLAYERS TEST POSITIVETCU FOOTBALL PLAYERS ARRESTED IN DRUG SWEEP

Updated: February 16, 2012, 10:03 PM

Seventeen TCU students, including four football players, have been arrested on drug charges.

Despite a former TCU player claiming that drug use was widespread on the team, only five players tested positive for marijuana in a Feb. 1 test, a source told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Thursday.

Another 11 players had trace amounts of marijuana in their systems, a quantity that is within the margin of error for the test, the newspaper reported. Marijuana was the only drug detected, and 86 players tested clean, according to the report.

Four players -- junior linebacker Tanner Brock, junior safety Devin Johnson, junior defensive tackle D.J. Yendrey and sophomore offensive tackle Tyler Horn -- were among 17 TCU students arrested on Wednesday in a drug sting. The newspaper’s source did not indicate if any of those players were among the five who failed the test.

The arrest warrant for Brock, the leading tackler in 2010, indicated that the player admitted to an undercover officer that he had flunked the test. Brock also allegedly said that there “would be about 60 people being screwed.” The warrant says that he told the officer that he and Horn had looked at the TCU roster and felt that only 20 players could pass the test.

Brock’s arrest warrant claims that he, Horn and Yendrey were dealing marijuana.

In response to the allegation of widespread drug use, TCU cornerback Kolby Griffin posted a tweet on his personal account Wednesday that read, “This rumor about 82 of us failing a drug test is false completely false.” TCU released a statement late Wednesday afternoon that said the school tests its athletes for drug use “on a regular basis.”

“The comments about failed drug tests made by the separated players in affidavits cannot be verified simply because they were made in the context of a drug buy,” the school said.

Chancellor Victor J. Boschini Jr. also released a statement through the school.

“This has never been about who was using drugs or how many failed a drug test, therefore we will not release any results,” Boschini said. “Any student using drugs is one too many. Our students are primarily 18-21 years old. They come from all walks of life and they contribute to the University in different ways. Sometimes they make choices we don’t understand. We are proudest of them when they learn and grow from their mistakes. There is no doubt that students fall short from time to time, but we also know that they, as we, are committed to getting back up and moving forward.”

Information from ESPNDallas.com’s Richard Durrett, Jeff Caplan and The Associated Press was used in this report. M

Probation, continued on pg 2

Gary Bargen, the athletic department’s associate director of compliance with NCAA rules, said the problem came to the department’s attention in No-vember 2010 and stemmed from a misunderstand-ing with the University Bookstore.

“The NCAA rule says you are permitted to provide required textbooks ... but not recommended,” Bar-gen said. “That rule has been in effect for a long time, and evidently the bookstore had a misunder-standing of that or weren’t aware.”

“They weren’t trying to break the rule,” Bargen added. “It’s not like somebody was trying to do something wrong.”

The University Bookstore suggested and paid the addition $10,000, according to the Associated Press.

A spokesman for the bookstore wasn’t available to comment by press time.

Since the discovery of the mistake, Bargen said, policies for educating bookstore employees and student athletes have been adjusted, including having separate lines for the student athletes with textbook scholarships to keep the rule’s boundaries clear.

The department-wide probation means that if the athletic department violates another rule, the penalty is made more severe. The department must also file annual reports on its solution to the problem, Bargen said.

The $38,000 fine, meanwhile, was distributed to several local charities by the Student Athlete Advisory Board, Burke said.

After several organizations applied, Burke said, funds were donated to the Autism Family Network, the Lincoln Food Bank, Tiny Hands International, a Christian organization that works against human trafficking and three others.

“For the most part, they were all split evenly” from the $38,000, Burke said.

The NCAA has imposed a probation on the university before. In February 2002, the athletic department was penalized with a two-year probation period after a swimming coach and wrestling coach provided money to several students for education or compe-tition expenses. M