Georgia Tech fights back (link)

A couple of points in that article:

...In 2004, the NCAA notified Tech that an anonymous tipster had reported violations...

I guess we now have a better idea of who that 'anonymous tipster' was.


...Rutgers allowed at least 40 ineligible athletes to play over a four-year period in 15 sports. Stony Brook played 53 ineligible athletes in 14 sports. Neither had to wipe out any of its history, a penalty the NCAA refers to as "vacating" a team's performance. Tech said the NCAA should follow that precedent...

I remember reading these precedented facts prior to the sanctions coming down from the NCAA. I was very surprised by what GT received as punishment, particularly when you consider GT's own self-imposed penalties. Based on set precedents, GT should not have to 'vacate' anything.
 
I hope the leading minds at GT can do something to help ease this situation.
What really burns my behiney is that "someone" in a leadership role is responsible, (correct me if I'm wrong) but to my knowledge, no one has stepped up and took responsibility til yet.
I've heard how it was mysteriously conceived in happening but it seems to be no one's fault.
That all sounds like a wheelbarrow load of Bullogna to me. If it so accidentally could have happened before, what's to keep it from so accidentally happening again.
I would have a whole lot more respect for the guilty party/parties if it/they would just step up to the plate and admit it.
Until then, we may as well paint all the buildings the color of a shadow since that is what will be cast over GT anyway.
NO good thing can come to Ga Tech by having our name dragged thru the same mud as some of our neighbors.
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I thought most of the evidence pointed to Roper and his replacement? Wasn't the Registrar's office where most of the problem was?
 
Could very well be NCJ, I guess I just missed seeing that. If it were Roper, what did he have to say about it? Or did he say anything? I remember seeing something about Roper but it must have slipped memory. If it weren't for "flashbacks", I'd have no memory at all.
 
What I remember is that he admitted he had not done any training on the new rules (new being relative, it was back in the 90s) and that he trained his replacement but that she (I think it was a she) hadn't had any NCAA training either. That was one of the reasons they cited lack of institutional control I thought.

I'm not suggesting no one else had a hand in it, but the GTAA doesn't certify athletes eligibility, the Registrar does (or at least that's my recollection). In fact, I don't think the GTAA can certify eligibility per NCAA rules. Of course they schedule classes and should know if kids are progressing correctly.
 
Thanks for bringing me back up to snuff NCJ. Seems like I do remember that now that you mentioned it. Just not the details.
 
It was not intentional, just lacked attention to detail and possibly some laziness mixed in. It was not willful misconduct.

As Wes Durham had said at one event this problem went back as far as 1990, but the NCAA agreed to only have the audit go back to 1998 because of the difficulty in looking back further in a timely manner.
 
I got the feeling that Frank Roper was made the scapegoat on this.
That Braine dumped all the blame on Roper (after Frank's retirement) was classless and a little too convenienent imo.
 
I don't know pocket_watch, it seemed pretty clear to me that the Registrar's office simply wasn't up to speed on what they were supposed to be doing. Roper evidently didn't bother to get any ongoing training from the NCAA although it's available. I also don't see how Braine could have dumped any blame on him. The responsibility by policy rests with the Registrar's office. If anything, Roper's people should have called the GTAA on anything they were doing wrong. I got the feeling that Roper was coasting to retirement and simply didn't keep up to date.

It's also pretty evident that the problem existed before Braine got to Tech, it's just that it was too hard to go back further and dig. In all likelihood, we've been screwing up since Ross or Lewis was there...probably whenever they changed or implemented the progress towards degree rules.
 
I didn't mean that Roper was not at fault, no way.

This just seems to big a responsibility to not have any oversight on.
I certainly understand your point about Roper possibly coasting toward retirement and not dotting i's and crossing t's. However, what can be said about the early 90's when his personal finish line wasn't in sight?

Again, I fall back on that this is too important a responsibility for no one checking on or auditing Frank's work over the years.
I think it's just common sense to believe it was. If not, why not?
 
I agree with that point, but I don't know who the Registrar reports to, do you? I'm sure it's not GTAA, but don't know if it's the President or who. It was also pretty clear from the info that came out at the time that the faculty advisor was rubber stamping things as well. It really seemed to me that we simply didn't have anyone who had full responsibility or a clear understanding of what was going on. To me that's the institutional control charge in a nutshell. Not that we were trying to do things wrong, but that institutionally we didn't know what the hell we were doing.
 
[ QUOTE ]
To me that's the institutional control charge in a nutshell. Not that we were trying to do things wrong, but that institutionally we didn't know what the hell we were doing.

[/ QUOTE ]

From my way of thinking, very concisely stated.

It may be that these type of things were all back burner at the ncaa in the past, and that schools were left alone after the kids actually enrolled.
Growing up, I seem to only remember schools getting into trouble over cars and cash to recruits, but this is only wild assed, seat of the pants speculation.

Regardless, I think it's highly possible that F Roper's job responsibilities were taken way too lightly.
I also believe that Ga. Tech never thought it would need to worry about the ncaa. Just another opinion.
 
biggest difference between Rutgers and GT

Our top compliance person didn't bother to attend NCAA mandated training on new rules a single time from his date of hire in 1964 through 1990. From 1990-2000, he only went once. Then he retired.

Our guy had the gumption to tell the NCAA that he was too busy to attend. He had a 40 year "schedule conflict."

We wrapped our academic compliance unit in a cloak of incompetence, laziness and stupidity. The NCAA did not penalize us for the act as much as the gross neglect and flagrant disregard for compliance rules and continuing education that put us in the very position to get penalized in the first place.

yoda
 
PocketWath said:
"I also believe that Ga. Tech never thought it would need to worry about the ncaa."

That has been my contention from the beginning. It is as if we pretended that NCAA only cared about cars, drugs, money and girls.

Those rules only make up a tiny portion of the NCAA rule book. We would have known that had we bothered to attend NCAA mandated compliance classes for 30-40 years.
 
Are you saying that nobody at Georgia Tech attended an NCAA compliance class during that 30 to 40 years?

Also, if they are "mandated" as you say, wouldn't somebody have to attend?
 
Sorry to horn in here, but this is connected to my puzzlement over the entire issue. That is, why has Roper been handed all the blame on this? My problem with this is that it appears Frank was a one man band at the registrar's office! If so, that sums up pretty neatly the importance the administration placed on compliance.

Now, if he actually managed a staff of people that had the responsibility of getting this work done, I don't have a problem with him taking the heat.
Does anyone know whether he had any help?
 
The Registrar has a staff, but how he delegated responsibility was up to him I assume. He was the man in charge and was responsible for whatever did or didn't happen in his shop.
 
Hell, I'm still pissed at Roper over having to go thru manual registration so much in the early 70's.
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