ATHENS – Mark Richt’s generosity and compassion toward his staff has landed the Georgia football coach in hot water with the NCAA. Richt made personal payments of more than $25,000 to coaches and support staff due to what he perceived as inadequate compensation for those individuals. Richt’s actions were determined to be secondary violations of NCAA rules regarding supplemental pay, according to a recent NCAA review of an lengthy internal investigation conducted by UGA. Also revealed in the report: •Georgia was determined to have violated game-simulation recruiting rules during an unofficial visit last January by prospective student-athlete Marshall Morgan. Morgan is a place-kicker from Coral Springs, Fla., who has committed to sign in the class of 2012. Coaches played a video of the Georgia fans’ doing the traditional cheer, “Go Dawgs, Sic ‘Em,” on the Sanford Stadium videoboard, while Morgan pretended to kickoff. Richt self-reported the incident retrospectively after learning that the “missing man formation” the Bulldogs’ orchestrated for Isaiah Crowell last January constituted a secondary violation. •Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham had impermissible contact with an unidentified recruit in May of 2010. After signing in at the front office of a high school, Grantham walked down a hall looking for the school’s football coach. Unable to locate the coach’s office, Grantham was approached by a young man who asked if he could help him find his way. As it turned out, that individual was the prospect Grantham was there to recruit. Their “small talk” on the way to the coach’s office exceeded the NCAA’s limits for “greetings” during a non-contact period and Georgia was found to be in violation of NCAA bylaws 13.02.4 and 13.1.1.1 regarding contact. As a result, Grantham was withheld from off-campus recruiting activities from Nov. 27-Dec. 3, the number of evaluation days for the football staff for spring of 2012 was reduced from 168 to 158 and Grantham was ordered to attend a two-day rules seminar next summer. •An unidentified football prospect (his name was redacted because he is now enrolled at UGA) received impermissible overnight lodging and transportation during an overnight visit last year. The prospect was scheduled to spend the night with a student-athlete in a university dormitory, which is sanctioned, but made a “spur-of-the-moment decision” to stay with another student-athlete at an off-campus apartment. Off-campus lodging and transportation for which is impermissible. •Last month, Georgia provided two free meals to Tyriq Gurley, the 5-year-old little brother of 2012 running back prospect Todd Gurley. Meals were permitted for Gurley and his parents but not for siblings on the official visit. The Gurleys reimbursed UGA $21.33 for the child’s meals and UGA reported a violation of bylaw 13.6.7.7. Those minor violations were added to a list that included Crowell’s “the missing man formation,” the impermissible participation of football lettermen Randall Godfrey and David Pollack in the commitment announcement ceremony of then-prospect, and the routine overpayment of four graduate assistants due to a clerical error last spring, and several instances of inadvertent “pocket dialing” of prospects during impermissible periods earlier this year. Monetary gifts from Richt among secondary NCAA violations reported by UGA | UGA sports blog Kiffin would have been crucified.
Providing 2 meals to a sibling on a visit with the parents shouldn't be a violation, anyway. Especially if the meals are less than 15 bucks each. some of those things are just unreasonable.
What part of everyone but the five year old can eat isn't reasonable? He's old enough to fend for himself.
The only thing that seems to be in violation of the spirit of college athletics is perhaps the simulation thing, and even that is pretty benign. As was said though, Kiffin would have been crucified for this stuff.
