U of M thread (in the Lions Forum) :)

[nhwbrooklyn]

william campbell get out there? how did he look?

[Drew]

I had to do a google image for "Reef", Rocky.

[SeattleLionsFan]

Me too Drew...

[Ted]

It's days like today that make me scratch my head and wonder why Martin would not consider hiring Harbaugh over RR. Any word on who the new AD is going to be?

[nhwbrooklyn]

I had to do a google image for "Reef", Rocky.

yeah.. that led to this

http://www.surfersvillage.com/gal/cat.asp?iCat=58&offset=162

which led to this





you know these days it just feels like I'm so busy I need a second pair of hands. Any one else feel like that?

[dsred]

What the!?

[jaadam4]

Cant.... look... away....

[THE STEE]

motorboat city.............

[jaadam4]

lol

[NewOrleansLion]

As a Spartan, I'm not trying to rub this in or take glee in this -- just really interested to hear what you guys think. When the potential violations first came out, most here were saying that the players were pussies and there was nothing of substance. We'll have to wait until everything comes out, but this report does not sound good. Either the athletic department was unaware of the reports that they themselves require or they were complicit in turning the other way and allowing the coaching staff to violate the rules. From the Detroit News:

U-M audit finds workout logs not filed
School requires monthly reports to monitor football player practice times

Gregg Krupa and Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News

An audit conducted by the University of Michigan reveals football officials failed to file several monthly reports on the amount of players' workout and practice time.

According to experts who have participated in NCAA investigations, the findings may suggest a "failure to monitor" the program.

A finding of "failure to monitor" could be considered a major violation under NCAA rules, engendering substantial penalties against the program and jeopardizing the tenure of coach Rich Rodriguez. But experts said that the reaction by compliance officials at the university to the audit may be crucial to whether the program emerges from two ongoing investigations without considerable penalties.

"It sheds a whole new light on the situation," said Michael Buckner, a lawyer in Florida who has helped universities conduct NCAA investigations. "If there was no immediate and adequate response by the university, it would tend to show a failure to monitor, and that is a major violation."

The audit, obtained by The Detroit News under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, was completed in May by University Audits, a division of the university. It revealed that from Aug. 4-Nov. 22, 2008, and again from Jan. 11-April 14, 2009, the football team had failed to file "Countable Athletically Related Activities" reports. The university requires the CARA reports on a monthly basis to help assure the compliance of athletic programs with NCAA rules. The reports are not required by the NCAA.

But, according to the audit, from the beginning of the disastrous 2008 season -- the worst year in Michigan football history, in which the team finished 3-9 -- through the end, and also from January 2009 through approximately spring practice, the program failed to file monthly reports about how often players were working out and practicing. The experts said that suggests a failure of the university's oversight of the program.

The auditors also reported football and six other programs are moving toward a continual monitoring of phone calls that are part of the recruitment process to assure compliance. They said "not all cell phone data was available" when the audits of football, men's basketball, ice hockey, women's gymnastics, men's gymnastics, women's golf and wrestling were conducted.

In a statement issued Monday by the University of Michigan, along with a response to the request from The News, officials said CARA reports are now filed on a timely basis. But the cause of the earlier problems was not identified Monday.

"The forms are now turned in on a timely basis," officials said in the statement. "The audit does not identify where the system broke down and it did not identify any other areas of concern with respect to the football program."

Maximum time limits for workouts and practices are enforced by the NCAA, in part, to establish fairness between larger programs with ample facilities and smaller ones, in which coaches may have to juggle schedules and share facilities. Officials say they have become even more important to assure fair competition during the current, difficult economic times.

The CARA reports are part of an assortment of policies and practices intended by the University of Michigan to monitor compliance with NCAA rules.

University Audits reported the lack of several reports on July 24 to Rodriguez, Bradley Labadie, director of football operations, and Scott Draper, assistant athletic director for football operations, according to documents obtained by The News.

What remained unclear Monday is whether compliance officials knew about the failure of football officials to file the CARA reports before the auditors discovered the problem, what they did about it and how the football officials responded.

"Right now, these are just some more facts, but they are not good facts for the University of Michigan, because it tends to suggest that the compliance department may not have been on top of monitoring the rules," said Rick Karcher, an associate professor of law and director of the center for law & sports at Florida Coastal University. "But all of the facts are not out yet."

Under normal circumstances, Karcher said, compliance officials within the Michigan athletic department would have noted the lack of monthly reports and contacted officials connected with the team to inquire about the delay.

The fact it went on for a period of some eight months suggest a few possibilities, experts said: Either the compliance officials did not know the monthly reports were not on file or did not receive an adequate response from football officials, or the compliance officials knew of the lack of the problem and failed to act.

Auditors noted that late reports for 2009 were submitted sometime after they conducted the audit in May. But as of July 24, they still had not received the reports from the 2008 season.

The NCAA is conducting an independent investigation of the program.

University officials announced in September they would investigate, and that they had invited the NCAA to participate.

The NCAA agreed, but later announced its own investigation after determining there was "reasonable cause to believe" major violations had occurred.

It is highly unlikely, experts and officials said, the NCAA did not know about the audit of the football program long before it was released to The News.

Experts said the reaction by university officials to the audit also will help determine how the NCAA views the entire affair.

"Once that information was disclosed in the audit, the next question would be what did the compliance office do?" Buckner said. "What did the athletics department do about it? Did they ask football, 'OK. give us the practice logs now?' And was their request for information about what happened a timely one?

"If there was no immediate response, even after the audit, or an inadequate response by the compliance officials and the others, it would also tend to show a similar failure to monitor."

The audit also disclosed some difficulty in documenting records for revenue from registration for camps conducted recently by men's baseball, women's gymnastics, swimming and field hockey. The auditors recommended improvements to the reporting practices, in those instances.

[WingsFan]

[WingsFan]

[SeattleLionsFan]

CL. To answer your question I don't really care.

BUT, I am concerned that UM's program is going the way of UW's. The university of Washington had a great coach Don James who had several direct successors who achieved varying levels of success. However pretty good wasn't good enough for boosters and the ties to Don James legacy were broken. Rick neuheisel was hired. He destroyed the program, covered up felonies for players and actually had players with outstanding felony warrants playing in games. The program was left in shambles, the dignity of the program is destroyed.

I just hope in three years there won't be an expose that kovacs was actually wanted on rape charges or something similar.

[jaadam4]

I'd give RichRod one more year and if he doesn't turn it around I'd punt him.

[Rocky Bleier]

http://mgoblog.com/content/2008-cara-reports-exist-are-turned#new