ATHENS — NCAA rules regarding electronic transmissions have caused Georgia a lot of headaches recently.
According to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution via the Freedom of Information Act, UGA has had to report six secondary NCAA violations in five sports since April. Most of those infractions involved incidents such as sending a text when an email was intended or “pocket dialing.”
Two of the violations were committed in one instance last month by football coach Mark Richt. In athletic director Greg McGarity’s letter of explanation to the SEC commissioner Mike Slive, dated May 27, he explains that Richt accidentally sent two text messages to the father of Harris County football prospect Jordan Jenkins on May 26. Text messages to prospects or their family members are impermissible, per NCAA rules, until one day after a prospect has signed a national letter of intent with the school.
In the first instance, Richt claimed he received a text from Ron Jenkins asking for camp dates. Since Richt did not have the number programmed in his phone, the text was identified as “unknown.” Richt intended to forward the text to a recruiting assistant for identification, but accidentally replied to Jenkins, which violated an NCAA bylaw.
Richt immediately reported the inadvertent violation to compliance director Eric Baumgartner, who subsequently asked if Jenkins had replied. In an attempt to forward Jenkins’ response to Baumgartner, Richt accidently replied to Jenkins again, hence he had to report another text violation.
During this same time period, UGA had to report:
-- Men’s basketball assistant coach Kwanza Johnson sent an impermissible text to prospect Robert Carter of Thomasville on April 25. Johnson immediately reported to the UGA compliance office that he had intended to send the note to Carter via his phone’s email function (email is permissible). Nonetheless, UGA self-imposed a 30-day communication ban in May and prohibited Johnson from phoning prospects for two weeks, which the SEC accepted without adding penalties.
-- A softball assistant coach had to report calling a prospect’s mother twice in the same week. The second call was a “pocket dial,” according to the letter of explanation. A pocket dial is when a cellphone dials a phone number and the owner of the cellphone is not aware of it. No further penalties were imposed.
-- New volleyball coach Lizzy Stemke self-reported sending what was determined to be an impermissible email to a UGA alum who has a “prospect-aged daughter” in high school. UGA self-imposed a penalty prohibiting it from sending recruiting materials to said prospect for a period of 60 days this fall.
-- A gymnastics team trainer sent a text to a signee advising her about a medical exam and dorm assignment before her signed national letter-of-intent had been processed. No penalties were extended.
All of the violations were categorized as secondary and are not considered serious by the NCAA or the SEC.
Georgia’s football program has had to report at least two other secondary violations this year. In March, it reported that the use of a “missing-man formation” during Isaiah Crowell’s official visit in January violated the NCAA’s rule forbidding game-day simulations. Also, in February the Bulldogs had to report a violation when former players Randall Godfrey and David Pollack attended the late-January commitment announcement of eventual signee Ray Drew in Thomasville.
