The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wednesday, February 24, 2010 - 7A NCAA probe far from over for the University, experts say From Page 1A enough evidence for the Infractions Committee to make the finding that there was a violation," Potuto said. ' Potuto - who said she couldn't comment on the NCAA allegations specifically brought against the Michigan football team, but rather only on the general allegation and penalty process - said that typi- cally, a university will agree with the alleged violations brought forth by the NCAA. "There isn't going to be an argu- ment about did it occur, or did it not occur," Potuto said. "The argument will be about how much responsi- bility should be taken here, how big * was the violation and what kinds of penalties should happen." But until the hearing, Potuto, who is now a law professor at the Univer- sity of Nebraska and represents that school on NCAA committees, said a university faced with NCAA alle- gations must put a lot of time into responding to the allegations. "Between now and the Com- mittee on Infractions hearing and any findings by the Committee on Infractions, it's a major distraction for a university, for anybody else who's involved," Potuto said. "It's going to take a lot of person hours to get together, write the response, to get together all the exhibits, and that's also true if there's anybody at risk." Potuto said if allegations are made against specific individuals, a university not only has to deal with the repercussions for the insti- tution, but also probable internal problems. "It's not a happy place to be in terms of negative publicity that just the allegations bring," Potuto said. Potuto said NCAA allegations allow an institution the opportunity to reassess its conduct and to make revisions when necessary. "If the university is doing things right, it's a time to really take a look at how it was doing things in the past and to consider whether there are different ways of doing things or better ways of doing things," Potuto said. "To the extent that there are individuals who have been alleged to commit violations, the univer- sity also has personnel issues, so all that's going on." The five allegations brought against the Michigan football team include exceeding the amount of permissible practice time during the on- and off-seasons and exceed- ing the number of coaches allowed to be present at certain activities by five coaches. Another violation is that Alex Herron, a graduate assistant foot- ball coach, "(provided) false and misleading information to the insti- tution and enforcement staff when questioned about his involvement in and knowledge of possible NCAA violations," according to the NCAA's Notice of Allegations sent to Univer- sity President Mary Sue Coleman. Michigan Football coach Rich Rodriguez's and the University's Athletic Department's alleged fail- ure to monitor the football team's compliance with the NCAA bylaws are also under review. Though Potuto said individuals may be involved in NCAA cases like this, allegations brought against a university always "involve institu- tional responsibility." "So anything any of those people do that's a violation of a bylaw is also the university'sviolation of a bylaw, so that's the way it works," Potuto said. Potuto said the allegation thatthe football team exceeded the number of coaches allowed to be present when "quality control staff mem- bers...engaged in on- and off-field activities" applies to the NCAA's defining coaches not by their title, but rather by what they do. Michael Buckner, a lawyer with Florida-based Michael L. Buckner Law Firm who provides consult- ing to universities on NCAA cases, said he is "surprised" at the football program's alleged non-compliance with NCAA bylaws. "With such a large program, and important program and prestigious program such as Michigan, when out-of-season workouts still garner attention from people across the region, I was just surprised that no one in the institution caught the fact that there were coaches, assistant coaches that were conducting sev- eral practices," Buckner said. Buckner said he's surprised that the University's compliance staff, which works to make sure the University's athletic programs are abiding by NCAA rules, didn't, according to the recent allegations, monitor the football team closely enough. "Every NCAA member institu- tion has to have a compliance offi- cer, and in this institution because of the significant resources of the JAKE FROMM/Daily University President Mary Sue Coleman and head football coach Rich Rodriguez look on at a press conference yesterday announcing the NCAA investigation's findings. institution Michigan has, it's impor- tant to have a large compliance staff," Buckner said. Buckner said he thinks the Uni- versity could face penalties like pro- bation for a two to three year period, a reduction in practice time and a. decrease in the number of coaches who can participate at practices. In addition, Buckner said he thinks the University will be mandated to report to the NCAA's Committee on infractions on a more frequent basis. "I think there will be some signif- icant penalties comingup," Buckner said. Attorney Mark Jones worked on the NCAA's enforcement staff for 18 years and worked as the NCAA Managing Director of Enforcement before moving to the Indianapolis- based Ice Miller Law Firm, accord- ing to the firm's website. Jones said in an interview yester- day that while the charges brought against the Michigan football team are a "serious matter," it is reassur- ing that the allegations don't involve student-athletes, which often result in more severe penalties for a uni- versity. Jones - who has consulted with universities regarding NCAA alle- gations - said the penalties the infractions committee decides on will be based on the "competitive advantage" deduced. Jones said the allegation regard- ing exceeding off-season practice times has become a commonly found violation in recent years, add- ing that he believes the NCAA has increased its efforts to find univer- sity infractions in this area. "They don't want the athletes to have the training all the time," Jones said. "They want them to experience the student-athlete life, so to speak, and so I think there's more attention brought to this area over the past few years." Jones said he's "not shocked" by the allegations brought against the football program, though he can't predict what the end result of the process will be. He added that the outcome will be greatly affected by the testimo- nies of those who spoke with the Detroit Free Press last August for the report in which concerns over possible violations first surfaced. "It certainly depends upon the reliability of the witnesses...," Jones said. "If those same individuals report the same information then you conduct more inquiry and maybe it's a basis to confirm whether the violations occurred. The individu- als who talk to the media, often they don't want to cooperate...you never know what's going to happen." Student-athletes also often think they're exceeding permissible prac- tice time limits when in actuality this may not be the case, Jones said. "It's not unusual for an athlete, to believe that they're practicing or working out more than they're sup- pose to under the rules," Jones said. "Then you go and investigate it and you find out that maybe they were mistaken about how the rules were applied or maybe they didn't really know, or maybe you talk to other athletes and they don't cooperate, so it's often sometimes difficult to know how to assess the evidence in those types of cases to have enough to make an allegation." Jones said the fates of coaches who face NCAA violations var- ies, so the fact that fodriguez will remain the football coach isn't-alto gether surprising, though universi- ties sometimes follow through with "disciplinary action against coach- ing staff." "It varies.from case to case and a lot of times I think it varies on the institution's position on the viola- tion and also the coach staff member and also the institution's view as to whether or not there was an intent to try to get an advantage or to try and circumvent their compliance program or things of that nature," Jones said. "There's a lot of different factors you have to evaluate before you decide to terminate a coach. It's a big decision and obviously Michi- gan didn't think it was the appropri- ate thing to do this time." Along those same lines, Buckner said he thinks multiple University of Michigan officials should be held responsible for the alleged viola- tions including the University's compliance staff, Coleman, Rodri- guez and the other football coaches. "Michigan should, as any NCAA institution should, be practicing what's called 'sheer responsibility,' " Buckner said. "...Everyone shares responsibility in these violations." - Daily News Editor Stephanie Steinberg contributed to this report. " 1100 Sq. Ft. Apts. Great for 2-5 people " Balconies + Patios for entertaining " Free High-Speed Internet " HD Direci TV w/ DVR Service " Built in microwave, dishwasher, disposal " Contemporary Furniture " Close to CCRB " Exercise Room, Rec. Room " Study Lounge w/ Computers Models open Doily C 1B 741-9300 www.annarborapartments.net AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY *1028 Fuller- 2 bdrm apartment avail- able in the shadow of U of M hospital, furnished, heat, water and parking in- cluded. 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