No ominous clouds hung over the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus Friday. The football team still left for today’s game at Western Carolina, as planned.
The NCAA Committee on Infractions announced Thursday that the athletic department was on probation until Sept. 22, 2012, for major violations in recruiting communication, primarily involving football and men’s basketball.
Yes, it was a black eye for the university and the department, UTC chancellor Roger Brown acknowledged. However, he said, a lot of progress in the area of compliance has been made since the NCAA began its investigation in January 2009.
“We’re putting the people in place, the software in place, but more importantly, we’re putting the culture in place,” Brown said.
UTC sternly penalized itself for the 137 text messages and 74 impermissible phone calls that were discovered. Those punishments were implemented and served before the release of the NCAA’s 22-page report.
“[Thursday’s announcement was] the end of the process for us, in some ways,” athletic director Rick Hart said. “By no means do we put it aside and move on. There’s some things we have to do for the next couple of years, and we’re absolutely going to be under additional scrutiny and [have] less margin for error.”
Like all programs or departments guilty of “major” violations, UTC is subject to serious repeat-offender sanctions if it commits another major violation within five years. It could also face larger penalties for secondary violations.
Until recently, coaches were required to write down all calls they made to recruits, which sometimes led to documentation errors.
“I didn’t do a very good job with documenting all of our phone calls,” said men’s basketball coach John Shulman, who received a sharp rebuke in the NCAA’s report. “I am now the poster child for documenting our calls.”
Last month UTC began using a new software system, ACS InControl, which monitors all aspects of the recruiting process. If a coach were to attempt to send a recruit a text message or make an impermissible call, a warning would pop up – cell phones with Internet access are required to use ACS – telling the coach that he or she is doing something wrong.
“I’m not worried about our staff breaking the rules on purpose, but they’re putting safeguards in so that you can’t make a stupid mistake,” said football coach Russ Huesman, who arrived at UTC a couple of weeks before the investigation began.
The system is expensive – about $30,000 a year – but it’s well worth it, Hart said.
It certainly will be if UTC stays out of trouble.