Four months after the NCAA began an investigation at Georgia Tech that resulted in the vacation of the Yellow Jackets’ 2009 ACC title, a Tech assistant coach ran afoul of rules that has earned him a one-game suspension.
Co-offensive line coach Todd Spencer will not coach in the Jackets’ season opener against Western Carolina for making impermissible phone calls to Tech prospects. Five other coaches, including recruiting coordinator Andy McCollum, also were reprimanded by the school for the same violation.
“In January, we agreed with the NCAA’s assessment that these were secondary violations and, in addition, other educational components were implemented,” associate athletic director Wayne Hogan said in a statement. “We consider this matter closed.”
Under NCAA rules, coaches are permitted one call to a high school junior prospect or his parents between April 15 and May 31. According to records obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act, Tech coaches and a staff member made 22 phone calls outside of NCAA rules to 12 different prospects from February through June 2010. None of them signed with Tech. Beginning March 5, Spencer made 14 of them, the longest lasting 12 minutes. Nine of the 22 calls lasted two minutes.
There have been more egregious rule-breakers than Spencer, described by colleagues as loyal and no-nonsense. However, the NCAA saw fit to add the suspension on top of Tech’s self-imposed penalties, which included a two-week ban in September 2010 on calling any of the prospects involved.
Hogan said the coaches were “operating under some miscommunication or misunderstanding of the rule” from the compliance office. He also said the violations were unrelated to the preferential-treatment violation that ultimately led to the NCAA putting Tech on probation for four years, fining the school $100,000 and vacating the 2009 ACC title.
“This isn’t a place that’s trying to break rules,” Hogan said.
In a May 2009 performance review also obtained through an open-records request, athletic director Dan Radakovich said former assistant athletic director for compliance Paul Parker needed “to be able to work more accurately on his assessment of NCAA rules.” In an April 2010 review, Radakovich wrote that "As rules change, Paul and his office must take time to understand them and how they relate to Georgia Tech." Parker, who received a “satisfactory” rating from Radakovich for job performance in at least his last three reviews, offered his resignation in February, left Tech at the end of the school year and now holds a similar position at Auburn. Through an Auburn spokesman, Parker declined comment Wednesday.
Incidentally, Hogan said that the school will file its notice of appeal with the NCAA regarding its July 14 ruling. He didn’t know which penalties or findings Tech will appeal, but said that the vacated title is “at the top of the list.”
Another violation on Tech’s secondary-violation report bore a similarity to the one that launched the NCAA investigation. In the summer of 2010, two Tech fans took football player T.J. Barnes and a friend to the Georgia Aquarium and bought them a hot dog and drinks.
After the school received an email directing them to comments posted on Facebook by one of the fans, the compliance staff determined an impermissible-benefits violation had occurred. Barnes was declared ineligible until he repaid $74 to charity, after which he regained his eligibility.
The violation differed from the one committed by former player Demaryius Thomas in that, believing that Thomas had not violated a rule despite the NCAA’s caution, Tech didn’t declare him ineligible.
The other violations self-reported by Tech to the ACC and Tech included numerous unintentional, benign violations. Two coaches, football assistant Buzz Preston and softball assistant Aileen Morales, sent quick acknowledgements of text messages from prospects, which violated bylaw 13.4.1.2 regarding electronic correspondence. The rule allows email, but prohibits text messages or instant messaging.
Two athletes received an “impermissible typing benefit” when a tutor typed several paragraphs of a paper for them.
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