Some of these petty offenses leave less time for schools to monitor the kinds of violations that actually do matter.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith committed a secondary NCAA violation when he made a video for a visiting football recruit.COLUMBUS, Ohio - Buying a recruit an $8 Halloween costume which is disallowed because it's considered a souvenir?
Paintball classified as a chance for a track recruit to show off his skills, thereby making it a violation?
Confusing two Lindsays and mistakenly sending a recruit a text and getting written up?
NCAA president Mark Emmert wants to streamline the NCAA rulebook, de-emphasize the little things and focus on what he has called the real threats to the integrity of college sports.
A look at Ohio State's secondary NCAA violations since Jim Tressel's forced resignation last May 30 can show you why.
Among nearly 50 secondary violations committed by the Ohio State athletic department in the last 11 months are varying degrees of seriousness. Among those new violations revealed as a result of a Plain Dealer records request (See PDF here) , there are no new violations that should make fans fear NCAA punishment.
Ohio State has already dealt with everything released to The Plain Dealer on Thursday, with letters of education to those involved, small repayments to charity and the occasional letter of reprimand the most serious consequences.
Secondary violations are a fact of life in college athletic departments. Lots of secondary violations can be viewed as either a problem (we're messing up a lot of little stuff) or a plus (we're catching and self-reporting a lot of little stuff.)
This number for Ohio State is likely higher than the average college athletic department over almost a year, but Ohio State is also the largest athletic department in the country in numbers of sports and number of athletes.
If there's any lesson there, it's this: Coaches should be calling the compliance office on everything to double-check things constantly. That's actually a good strategy for any school hoping to avoid more serious violations as well. Some of the reported violations probably could have been avoided if coaches had checked something out first.
But a compliance department bogged down in paperwork dealing with emails and voicemails and text messages that really have no effect on anything is a compliance department that may have a little less time to actually monitor and attempt to prevent the kind of violations that actually do matter.
So take the numbers and the context how you will. But the specifics can be strange.
I detailed most of the football and men's basketball violations previously, but here are a few others to think about.
What stands out most are impermissible recruiting contacts caused by either technology mistakes or wrong impressions about the age of a recruit, especially overseas prospects.
Seventeen of the OSU violations dealt with these types of secondary violations, including synchronized swimming coach Linda Lichter-Witter, who retired last week, committing a Facebook violation with the accidental help of her 12-year-old granddaughter. According to the OSU violation report, Lichter-Witter has "little understanding of social media outlets" and had her granddaughter help her create a Facebook account. The granddaughter, unbeknownst to Lichter-Witter, then sent out several friend requests, including to two prospective recruits.
This was later discovered by the OSU compliance office after a review of Lichter-Witter's Facebook page. Violation.
Also, the rowing coach called a recruit in Germany known to be in 12th grade, only to find out that high school in Germany has 13 grades. That made the recruit impermissible to contact. Violation.
A women's soccer coach meant to call an OSU academic counselor named Lindsay and mistakenly called and left a voicemail with a recruit named Lindsey who was not yet allowed to be contacted. When she texted back to ask about the confusing voicemail, the coach realized it was a violation.
A men's volleyball coach was called twice by a prospective recruit's father. When he called him back, he found out the player was too young to be recruited, and ended the call. But it was a violation.
The men's golf coach meant to set up a delayed email to contact recruits on the first allowable date on Sept. 1, but set it up incorrectly and emailed on Aug. 31 instead. Violation.
Those weren't the only type of violations.
A recruit playing paintball with the track team on an official visit was a violation because the recruit was "allowed to demonstrate his athletic ability in the presence of an assistant men's track and field coach." An event viewed as entertainment is OK for a recruit. Paintball is not.
Wrestling coach Tom Ryan was interested in creating a parent group for his team. A compliance officer suggested Ryan meet with one of the parents from Ohio State's football team. They met for lunch. Ryan picked up the tab, including the $15.71 meal for the parent. Violation.
A member of the women's rifle team accepted $75 in prize money from the United State Olympic Committee after a competition. She'd had some expenses paid, but thought this was more reimbursement to cover the $100 cost of her baggage fees. It was actually prize money, and therefore a violation.
Incidentally, at the Olympic gathering I attended this week, the heads of the USOC talked about wanting a tighter relationship with the NCAA. Perhaps it could start by not creating NCAA violations for college athletes in their competitions.
Replacing the lacrosse stick of a recruit who had his stolen during a camp on Ohio State's campus was deemed a violation. This would have been allowed if the OSU staff had asked compliance for a waiver, as it had done in a previous situation. The staff then thought replacing a stolen stick was always allowed, when in fact a waiver is needed in each case.
Some of the violations are a bit more serious. The women's lacrosse team didn't take a mandated day off during a week of competition. The men's swimming team staff went over the allowed one phone call per week to recruits in three different instances. Athletic director Gene Smith and alumni association CEO Archie Griffin allowed the football video staff to record them for a personal video message to a recruit.
Most of these are not serious violations, but they happened. As long as the rules are in place, they need to be followed.
But there may be a time coming, if Emmert gets his way, when an accidental email doesn't need to be explained in a multi-page report.
