Weis, Tressel in hot water over fundraisers?
April 17, 2008
Two of Yahoo Sports best columnists, Josh Peter and Dan Wetzel, pose some very interesting questions in the wake of high profile college coaches speaking at high school athletic fundraisers. The practice, which would seem to be a violation of recruiting rules, has come under recent scrutiny after Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis waived his speaking fee to appear at Cincinnati’s Elder High School.
Elder High School garnered nearly $30,000 in profit from the fundraiser and Weis ended up with a new Notre Dame recruit.
Less than three weeks later, Weis received a signed letter of intent from tight end Kyle Rudolph, a top 20 national recruit according to Rivals.com. Rudolph’s high school? Cincinnati Elder.
During his speech at Elder, Weis made no mention of Rudolph – who had verbally committed to the Irish months before – and told the crowd why: NCAA rules prohibit coaches from talking publicly about high school prospects until the players have signed a letter of intent.
Weis hasn’t commented, but Notre Dame spokesman John Heisler says the coach is in the clear.
But former NCAA enforcement czar Steve Morgan says not so fast, my friend.
“The basic rule is that colleges and their staff, which includes coaches, can’t assist high schools in fundraising,” said Morgan, who now works for a law firm in Kansas City that represents schools that have committed rules infractions. “It’s just a general prohibition that’s existed for awhile. …
“I think the issue is that if you didn’t have regulations in this area, you’d have the possibility that coaches would exploit the opportunity to curry favor with certain high schools, and their hope would be to get a leg up in recruiting in that high school.”
The premise behind the NCAA rule is simple common sense - coaches can’t raise a bunch of money for a high school, because it might cause a recruit to lean towards that college.
Makes sense, right? Right.
Common sense or not, Yahoo Sports says the practice is way more common than you might expect.
Ohio State’s Jim Tressel, Cincinnati’s Brian Kelly and other college football coaches have waived speaking fees for appearances at such events, mostly at schools in greater Cincinnati, including football powerhouse schools Moeller and Colerain. Tressel is scheduled to speak at a March 5 event involving Cincinnati La Salle High School, whose star wide receiver, DeVier Posey, signed with the Buckeyes this month.
Ohio State said Tressel’s participation in the event March 5 is not a violation, but it is reviewing the coach’s role at previous high school fundraisers for possible violations because money raised at those events may have benefited prospect student-athletes. That alone illustrates the confusion about what is and isn’t permissible.
…
Over the years, featured speakers at the sports stags of various high schools have included not just Hayes, Tressel, Kelly and the Notre Dame coaches but former Ohio State football coach John Cooper, former Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler….
As you might expect, there is a certain murkiness to the NCAA rules that may have allowed the coaches to participate, under certain circumstances, as Notre Dame is quick to point out.
Notre Mike Karowski, director of compliance at Notre Dame, provided Yahoo! Sports with a specific NCAA rule interpretation he said addresses the situation.
According to a 1991 NCAA ruling, it is “confirmed that a coach may speak at a banquet for prospective student-athletes in which fund-raising activities also occur only if fund-raising activities are not the primary purpose for conducting the banquet or meeting; confirmed that if the fund-raising activities are the primary purpose of the banquet or meeting, institutional staff members may attend the fundraiser subject to the following conditions:
1. The staff members could play no active role in fund-raising activities;
2. The attendance of the staff members at the event could not be publicized in advance;
3. No contact with prospective student-athletes or parents of prospective student-athletes would be permitted outside the permissible contact period, and
4. Conversations between staff members and the high-school’s coaching staff members, parents, prospective student-athletes and other individuals could not include recruiting information or contain a recruiting presentation.”
There ya go… clear as mud? Maybe… but those aren’t “the rules”, but rather one interpretation of the rules.
One thing is crystal clear - the NCAA is now looking into the practice.
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