As we were traveling and otherwise occupied yesterday we missed this, but we’ll go ahead and note it if y’all don’t mind.
Thanks to the bane of college football programs these days, the open-records request, Alabama released a list of NCAA violations committed between July 1, 2009 through the same date this year by its athletic programs Saturday. UA initially reported 44 mostly secondary, minor violations, including a Kiffin-esque 18 attributed to the Tide football program during the two-year time frame.
Included in the original summary was the case of former defensive lineman Marcell Dareus, who was suspended for two games last year for receiving impermissible benefits, as well as other incidents of violations -- with the names of the players involved redacted -- detailed by the Birmingham News:One football violation involved a football player selling complimentary tickets. The player was required to repay the benefit to a charity and was withheld from competition. Additional rules education was provided to the entire team.
Another football violation involved a player providing impermissible transportation off campus to a recruit on an unofficial visit. The recruit was required to repay the benefit to charity and the player and football staff received rules education.
The other football violations were relatively minor. Three involved impermissible text messages sent to recruits. Two involved text messages sent to recruits’ mothers.
Subsequent to the release of that summary, however, UA has tweaked its initial report, dropping the total number of violations down to 36 for the entire athletic department and 16 for the football program over the past two years. A UA athletics spokesperson told the News that “the reason for the changes was that several duplications and a couple of omissions were caught in a review of the original report.”Despite the fact that the new report contained two fewer violations for the football program, two new violations were revealed that were not contained in the original and were the omissions to which the spokesperson alluded.
Two new football violations appear on the revised report, which Alabama intends to post onwww.RollTide.com. One pertains to two football players receiving impermissible benefits. The players had to make payments to a charity equal to the value of the benefits, and they received rules education. That case probably refers to a fishing trip that running back Mark Ingram and wide receiver Julio Jones took in May 2009. Although Alabama’s report summarizes violations between July 1, 2009 and Friday, the fishing-trip case was not resolved until early in September 2009.
The other case pertains to a football player receiving benefits and withholding information from Alabama. He made a payment to a charity equal to the value of the benefits, was suspended for half of the season and received rules education. That case matches the description of a suspension of linebacker Jerrell Harris, who improperly accepted a used laptop computer and served a suspension during the season.All in all, not exactly an earth-shattering revelation was the report, especially when viewed in the context of the Tide’s NCAA “issues” likely being the norm in this day and age of big-time, big-money college football.