NCAA Commitee Responds to Infractions, Rich Rod Cleared of being the Bad Man everyone wanted him to be

Finally, some good news for Rich Rodriguez this year. The NCAA has officially came down with their findings regarding the rule infractions and Rich Rodriguez   This is huge step forward for his future at Michigan regarding the NCAA case and rule infractions against him. It looks like he was truthful and really didn’t try to do anything out of the ordinary. He also didn’t harm anyone or made players work out every minute of the day like ESPN and other networks would have made it seem to be. This whole debacle was started by lazy players who transferred and the reporting of some idiots like DREW SHARP of the Detroit Free Press who fooled some incoming players with tricky questions about practicing who didn’t know what they were really answering. This super sleuth Drew Sharp and his reporter cronies should feel good today that the NCAA cleared Rich Rod as being the bad man they made him out to be. This is great news for the Michigan football team. Issues like this made it hard for him to recruit and to bring in such players as Demar Dorsey as all the old folks get nervous that Rodriguez is turning Ann Arbor into Trenton, NJ.

The Basic Implications that Michigan thought would happen:

The NCAA has concluded that Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez did not fail to promote an atmosphere of compliance, a previous allegation that the school challenged, a source close to the situation said Wednesday night.

The NCAA will reveal its finding as early as Thursday evening, the source said. The NCAA will also announce if Michigan's self-imposed penalties for admitted excessive football-related hours and excessive coaches were acceptable.

While the source did not reveal specifics of those findings, the person said the results were "positive news for Michigan football."

The NCAA accused Michigan of five major rules violations related to exceeding practice and workout time in the wake of a Detroit Free Press report last year. The report led to investigations by both the school and the NCAA.

The school accepted responsibility for four of the allegations, but Michigan vigorously challenged a charge that Coach Rich Rodriguez failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance with NCAA rules during an August hearing in Seattle.

Michigan announced in May that its self-imposed sanctions included probation for two years and reducing training time by 130 hours over two years -- doubling the amount of time the Wolverines exceeded NCAA rules. This was because Michigan didn’t properly count their minutes stretching as part of practice so each day they went over by 4 minutes. This 4 minutes was all the NCAA found for the over practicing that was brought up by the Detroit Free Press, and the lazy players that left like Colorado receiver Toney Clemons and Ohio State lineman that I don’t even want to mention. Both these players made up elaborate stories about how hard it was, and now seems to be just a worthless wide receiver who wasn’t going to play and an over weight lineman who came to conclusion that he wasn’t the next Jake Long.

The school also reprimanded seven people including Coach Rodriguez, the school even firing one who didn’t send in the proper paperwork he was supposed to about the workouts instead told the NCAA one thing and Rich Rod that he had sent them in. Now that problem is working elsewhere.

            The Basic Results announced Thursday:

NCAA Committee on Infractions Teleconference - the Michigan Results
1. Public reprimand
2. 3 years of probation starting today ... (U-M self-imposed two)  The third year was added because Michigan at the time was still on probation for the Chris Weber deal, yes that happened in 1994, but the NCAA didn’t put Michigan on probation until 2002.
3. Reduction of 130 hours for allowed hours - June 1, 2010 thru 2011 academic year - (this was U-M self-imposed.
3. Rich Rodriguez coach must attend an NCAA Rules Seminar (Something he already does)

So now that the slap on the wrist has came down by the NCAA, it is time to look forward, clear up all the bad publicity this has brought and WIN some football games and get back on track ! This was a huge distraction and a huge hurdle and is something everyone in Ann Arbor will be happy to put in the rear view. I also don’t expect this to be talked about as much now compared to when it was brought up now that it wasn’t that big of a deal.