By David Rasmussen
Current NFL star Reggie Bush reportedly lived in a house paid for by an agent when he attended the University of Southern California.
Earlier this year BYU men''s volleyball coach Tom Peterson resigned from his post shortly after the program announced it was under investigation by the NCAA.
The University of Utah men''s basketball program was put on probation after an NCAA investigation uncovered instances of impermissible benefits and unethical conduct.
Since 1953, there have been 583 cases of so-called major infractions against NCAA rules and regulations. That number is in addition to other less-publicized secondary infractions. The sheer volume of infraction cases raises the question of what is being done to counteract the apparent rash of violations.
The Daily Universe used data from the NCAA''s official Web site to compile a database documenting all of the major infractions in the NCAA since the year 2000. The data was then analyzed in terms of conference affiliation, types of infractions, and penalties imposed on institutions in violation of NCAA regulations.
Since 2000, 85 different NCAA institutions have been charged with a major violation. Eight of those schools have had repeat offenses, totaling 93 infractions since the turn of the century. The majority of the cases involved more than one sport, with some infractions covering athletic programs across the board.
The most commonly penalized sports were also the biggest moneymakers, as football and men''s basketball were both involved in 42 different infraction cases. The next closest sport was women''s basketball with 15 violations, and baseball followed with 13.
The Big 12 Conference, which is located in the Midwest and includes schools such as Nebraska, Colorado and Oklahoma, led all conferences with nine major violations since the year 2000. The Big 12 is one of six conferences affiliated with college football''s Bowl Championship Series, which conferences totaled approximately one-third of the total infractions. The Big 10 had seven violations, with the Southeastern Conference and the Pacific-10 Conference each recording six major infractions. BYU''s own Mountain West Conference was charged with four violations, those coming courtesy of San Diego State, UNLV, TCU and the University of Utah.
The NCAA reports are not overly specific in disclosing the penalties imposed. Six different categories of penalties are presented, with the most common being probation. Of the 93 infractions in the data presented, 89 of the institutions were put on some kind of probation. Fifty-three of the schools had a reduction in the financial aid that they can provide to student athletes. When deciding what penalty to impose, the NCAA evaluates each infraction on a case-by-case basis.
'It really depends on the case,' said Chris Rogers, director of Athletic Compliance at the University of Utah. 'If you''re talking about a secondary violation, you might have to send a letter of admonishment to the individual who committed the infraction. If it involves eligibility, it may involve missing games... If you break a recruiting rule, you won''t get penalized on the number of promotional activities. It depends on the bylaw that is broken.'
In order to impose a fitting penalty, the NCAA must determine where the infraction took place. In analyzing the types of infractions that occurred, The Daily Universe identified key terms in the NCAA reports and grouped them into certain categories. For example, explanations about 'impermissible contacts with prospective student athletes' were grouped into the 'Recruiting' category.
After defining the infractions in this manner, 'Improper benefits' topped the charts as the most common violation with 51 occurrences. 'Improper benefits' included such instances as athletes who received compensation for work they did not perform, or cash payments being provided to a student-athlete by a former director of basketball operations.
'Recruiting' was a close runner-up, coming in with 50 violations.
'By and large if you look at NCAA infractions, recruiting is usually the bylaw with the most violations,' Rogers said. 'That probably runs true for secondary and major violations. If you look at it, when coaches take the exam every year, 80 percent of the exam is on Recruiting Bylaw 13.'
The Coaches Certification Exam is a test produced by the NCAA that coaches take annually. The test includes questions on rules and regulations, and any staff member who will be performing off-campus recruiting must pass the test with at least 80 percent accuracy. Football, men''s basketball and women''s basketball have their own forms of the tests, while all other sports are grouped together into one test.
The exam is just one of many measures taken by NCAA schools to educate coaches and athletes about NCAA regulations. Each school employs a compliance coordinator, who works with staff to ensure compliance at their respective schools by educating coaches about the restrictions in their specific sports.
Compliance committees at BYU and Utah employ many different tactics to educate the athletics staff. These efforts include weekly newsletters, annual meetings and clinics where coaches and athletes are encouraged to ask questions.
BYU women''s swim coach Stan Crump said that his team works very closely with the compliance department on a regular basis. Each week, coaches are required to submit forms outlining the time spent in workouts and team meetings. Coaches also submit travel lists and lists of potential recruits, and they must also sign a compliance form every year, a form which states that they did not knowingly violate any rules in the previous year.
'It''s a time consuming, ongoing process,' Crump said. 'The rules are many, and it''s a whole part of your job description to know those rules.'