The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Friday that Georgia Tech had been censured by the NCAA for "Failure to Monitor", pertaining to phone calls made in 2011-2012.
The NCAA’s two-year investigation, conducted with Tech’s cooperation, found multiple Level II violations, which are defined as a significant breach of conduct, committed in 2011 and 2012. Many stemmed from coaches on the football and men’s and women’s basketball teams unknowingly making impermissible phone calls to prospects. Coaches told the NCAA that they were acting under the incorrect instruction from a former Tech compliance director that they did not need to do so. Calls were often rendered impermissible due to a failure to follow a call-logging protocol.
As it turns out, yes, the NCAA spent two years on hold with AT&T trying to get phone records. Then they spent time comparing those records to Georgia Tech's own logs, and finally was able to determine that there was a difference there. All of this falls on the compliance officer who was on duty at the time, who apparently didn't really understand the meaning of "compliance" when he told these coaches that they would be "compliant" if they made these calls.
So, for those keeping score at home...
1) Georgia Tech is now on two years of self-imposed probation because they had an incompetent compliance director, who has since had to seek future endeavors.
2) It took the NCAA two years to acquire phone records and determine that they were different from Georgia Tech's submitted records.
3) This all happened at the same time that they were busy botching heinous improper benefits cases, closing a since-reopened academic fraud case, and yet they took two full years to make absolutely sure to get the case against Georgia Tech right.
4) Georgia Tech will now have spent 4 years on probation for being "non-cooperative" in the Demaryius Thomas investigation that involved $312 of clothes that he returned, and a self-imposed 2 years for inability to hire a competent compliance officer.
I don't know how to feel or what to think of all of this. All I know is that I'm angry at the situation (all parties involved -- including the NCAA, the AA, and that compliance director), and that I'm ready to stop hearing about this type of nonsense.
Who should we be mad at for this? What are your thoughts on the matter?