[boilerblonde]

NCAA to investigate USC's employment of former NFL coach - Sporting News staff reports - College Football - Sporting News

Sporting News staff reports Thursday, Jul. 30, 2009 - 9:45 a.m. ET


USC football coach Pete Carroll may have violated NCAA rules last season when he hired a former NFL tactician to help with the team's punting and kicking game, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Pete Rodriguez, who has coached for several professional teams, told the Times that he attended USC practices, monitored games and offered Carroll behind-the-scenes advice on matters ranging from improving individual players' performance to avoiding penalties during punt returns.
"I would watch practice and tell Pete, 'Hey, this guy needs this and this,' " Rodriguez said. He said he believed that his work complied with National Collegiate Athletic Assn. regulations
The NCAA is exploring whether Carroll's employment of Rodriguez was in violation of rules that limit the number of coaches and consultants a team can use.
"That's coaching," J. Brent Clark, a onetime NCAA investigator who practices law in Oklahoma, told the Times when told of Rodriguez's statements. "The rules are designed to level the playing field for all institutions regardless of the size of their budgets. It would make no sense for the rich and powerful to be able to compensate coaches with NFL backgrounds outside the coaching-limitation rules."
If using Rodriguez does constitute a violation, that could widen an already active NCAA inquiry that's exploring allegations that the football team gave improper benefits to two players, and that the university has lost "institutional control" of its athletics department as a whole.
The NCAA has been looking at the USC football and basketball programs for three years.

Also see:
Another Kick in the Pants for USC | NBC Los Angeles

More NCAA trouble for USC football? - Los Angeles Times

USC football under fire for possible NCAA violation - LA Daily News

[Lefty Noob]

Sure sounds like coaching to me. Not sure how anyone could argue otherwise.

[boilerblonde]

Originally Posted by Lefty Noob

Sure sounds like coaching to me. Not sure how anyone could argue otherwise.

That's all great and dandy. But that's not the main issue

The NCAA is exploring whether Carroll's employment of Rodriguez was in violation of rules that limit the number of coaches and consultants a team can use.

It's not that he can't be a coach. It's that USC hasn't listed him as an official coach/employee. If he puts them "over the limit" on the number of coaches the NCAA allows, it's a rule violation. He was in fact an employee, he was being payed.

[Miz+Zou]

no surprise to me a amazing team gets caught cheating its no surprise at all

[boilerblonde]

Originally Posted by Miz+Zou

no surprise to me a amazing team gets caught cheating its no surprise at all

nothing will ever come about it. the NCAA loves the trojans.

[boilerblonde]

lol national communists against athletes!

[Lefty Noob]

Originally Posted by boilerblonde

That's all great and dandy. But that's not the main issue



It's not that he can't be a coach. It's that USC hasn't listed him as an official coach/employee. If he puts them "over the limit" on the number of coaches the NCAA allows, it's a rule violation. He was in fact an employee, he was being payed.

I understand that. But they're trying to argue that he's not officially a coach, hence they're not over the limit. So my point is, I don't see any way they can win that argument. What he was doing certainly sounds like coaching to me, and I don't see any way they can spin it otherwise and get out of the violation. Does that better clarify my original statement?

[Miz+Zou]

Originally Posted by boilerblonde

nothing will ever come about it. the NCAA loves the trojans.

believe me it takes a toll on some people but you are right they wont do anything about it

[boilerblonde]

Originally Posted by Lefty Noob

I understand that. But they're trying to argue that he's not officially a coach, hence they're not over the limit. So my point is, I don't see any way they can win that argument. What he was doing certainly sounds like coaching to me, and I don't see any way they can spin it otherwise and get out of the violation. Does that better clarify my original statement?

yes, i took your original post as "seems like within-the-rules-coaching"

[JRL]

Not that I agree with either party (NCAA or USC) but I wonder how many teams have unpaid consultants that watch and offer advice Former players - alumni - fans etc. I bet the list is huge.

This appears to be a rules violation but the NCAA rule book is (to paraphrase a famous politician) "stupidly written".