Notice the quotations in the headline.
According to the Ames Tribune, an Iowa State internal investigation uncovered “three years’ worth of impermissible phone calls and text messages” to recruits that, by NCAA standards, constitutes a major infractions case. The investigation goes beyond just football, but relevant names mentioned -- at least as far as we’re concerned -- include current ISU assistants Shane Burnham and Bill Bleil, as well as former assistants Bobby Elliott, now at Notre Dame, and Luke Wells, now at Utah State. All could be subject to a NCAA show-cause penalty.
As the Tribune notes, a core of the violations stem from coaches failing to properly record phone calls/messages to recruits who did not answer. However, the more serious part is that ISU didn’t properly educate its athletic staff on recording no-contact calls after October, 2009. That could result in a failure to monitor charge and that’s really what makes this a “major” infractions case.
(The Tribune also breaks down the violations if you’d like to see them HERE)
“The athletics department failed to adequately monitor its sports programs and educate its coaches regarding telephone communication with prospective student-athletes,” the summary deposition reads. Iowa State is seeking a two-year probation period as its sanction. That period began in November, 2011, and ends this year.
It’s tough to tell what Iowa State could face regarding its failure to adequately monitor its programs, but recall that the NCAA approved numerous recruiting deregulation rules this past January. One of those rules included lifting restrictions on the number of phone calls/text messages a recruiter could place to a prospect. However, that rule was tabled last month and is currently not in line to become effective this August.
If nothing else, this comes at an interesting time because of the NCAA’s future intentions and its current rulebook -- especially with the NCAA redoing its penalty structure.