NCAA Regulations - GoodGrief

A little ridiculous - from ajc

Did UGA commit NCAA violations at ‘Dawg Night’?
1:29 pm July 19, 2010, by Chip Towers

Georgia head coach Mark Richt and assistant Warren Belin talk to linebacker prospect Stephone Anthony (white shirt) of North Carolina during "Dawg Night" on Friday. (Photo by Chip Towers)
The Georgia Bulldogs may have inadvertently committed NCAA rules violations at “Dawg Night” this past Friday and I might have had a hand in it.
If so, it may change the way Southeastern Conference teams conduct their recruiting business.
As reported here Friday, the Bulldogs landed a couple of verbal commitments at their annual “Dawg Night” prospect camp. Offensive tackle Zach DeBell of Tarpon Springs, Fla., and long snapper Nathan Theus of Jacksonville each told Georgia coaches during the couple-hours-long workout that they intend to sign with UGA on national signing day next February. I covered the event and reported the news of the commitments on the AJC Recruiting Blog, as did numerous other media outlets on various Web sites.
After the camp, coaches, players and parents mixed and mingled on Woodruff Practice Fields as media members who covered the event — there were several more besides me — wandered about and snapped pictures. As I was leaving, I spotted DeBell and Georgia offensive line coach Stacy Searels posing for pictures. I can’t be sure, but I think DeBell’s mother was the initial photographer.
Seeing Searels and DeBell together arm-in-arm, I stopped and pulled out the trusty Canon PowerShot I had in my pocket and snapped a pic of the two individuals. Later Friday night I posted the photo on the blog I had written about DeBell and Theus committing and thought nothing more about it.
Then, late Sunday night, thanks to a Google news alert I received via email, I found out that Josh Ward of the website MrSEC.com is reporting that my picture may have been an NCAA secondary violation for Georgia. What’s more, he suggests that my very presence there Friday night may have been a violation.
I don’t know Ward, who’s also host of the “Sports Animal” talk radio show in Knoxville and writes for the Knoxville News Sentinel, according to his Twitter.com bio. But he may be right.
According to the telephone-book-thick NCAA manual, at least two rules are at issue:
Bylaw 13.10.1 states, “a member institution shall not permit a media entity to be present during any recruiting contact made by an institution’s coaching staff member.”
Bylaw13.10.5 states, “a member institution shall not publicize (or arrange for publicity of) a prospective student-athlete’s visit to the institution’s campus. Further, a prospective student-athlete may not participate in team activities that would make the public or media aware of the prospective student-athlete’s visit to the institution.”
“It’s possible it’s a violation,” said Eric Baumgartner, UGA’s director of compliance. “All the legislation [MrSEC] references is accurate. I’ll have to call the conference and see what they have to say.”
Baumgartner said he’d call me back with his findings.
As I said, there were many other reporters on hand – from Rivals.com, Scout.com, 247.com, ESPN.com and I don’t know who else — and I have seen online at least a couple of photos similar to the one I ran. Meanwhile, I’m not sure how the NCAA would categorize the dozens of fans who were there snapping pictures, many of which can be viewed right now on Facebook. But I’m guessing they might have a problem with that as well.
In any case, if any of this is found to indeed be impermissible, then I think every team in the SEC is going to have to re-think the way they do these things.
After Georgia’s “Dawg Night” on Friday, Auburn held on Saturday it’s annual one-day prospect camp, which was attended by hundreds of prospects and dozens of media members. And Florida had has enormous success with its heavily-covered “Friday Night Lights” camp, which recommences this Friday down in Gainesville.
Nevertheless, if Georgia has indeed run afoul of NCAA law due to “Picture Gate,” it’s not like it’s going to bring down the program. It would be considered a minor offense since it was inadvertent in nature.
“It would be a secondary violation,” Baumgartner said. “It would not affect the PSA’s (prospective student-athlete) eligibility.”
Stay tuned.

Meh, it would be a secondary. The rules are getting a little out of hand as to what constitiutes a violation.

Picked up Coach Saban's thoughts on some of the problems that schools are having now. I am in total agreement with Coach Saban . . . the almighty NFL in my opinion has gotten too big for its britches. At one point some years back, thought the NFL was going to all but destroy college football. That didn't happen. Folks like Saban start harping, those in power tend to listen. 5 stars for Saban and his comments.

Saban, a former coach of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, said it might be time to ban NFL teams from college campuses in order to get the league to take seriously the issue of agents boldly breaking NCAA regulations. Alabama is considered one of the more welcoming schools to NFL scouts, who may come watch video at almost any time.

But Saban says it might now be time for a change.

“What the NFL Players Association and the NFL need to do is if any agent breaks a rule and causes ineligibility for a player, they should suspend his [agent's] license for a year or two,” Saban said. “I’m about ready for college football to say, ‘Let’s just throw the NFL out. Don’t let them evaluate players. Don’t let them talk to players. Let them do it at the combine.’ If they are not going to help us, why should we help them?”

Totally agree but would be a nightmare to police.

Good article Buc - agree with Saban - if they break the rules - throw them out - greedy agents should be punished - it's all about the money

The NFL is just jealous of the money now made by the big schools

Well the NCAA has announced that they will include UGA in the investigation about that party in Miami that supposidly Alabama/SCarolina/NCarolina/Georia-(AJGreen) had players in attendance - Green has told CMR that he was NOT in attendance