Alternate headline: Baddour Discusses Player Tracking Process That Is Clearly Not Working So Well.
Via the CharNews & Observer:
After losing stars Marvin Austin, Robert Quinn and Greg Little for the entire 2010 season for taking trips and accepting agent-related benefits, UNC instituted a “sign-out” policy to track the off-campus trips of its players.
But even with the new policy in place since the start of the spring semester, the NCAA questioned defensive lineman Quinton Coples this week about a trip to Washington, D.C., ESPN reported Thursday.
Baddour said he is not allowed to discuss individual cases during the NCAA investigation, but he talked about the sign-out policy in general.
“We’ve had our glitches, and we’re working on those,” Baddour said. “The important thing about the policy is it’s not to keep players from going places. It’s to know that if you find out about a situation, that you’ve educated the person in the best way possible.”
The policy requires players to fill out a short written form at the Kenan Football Center before they travel anywhere off campus for longer than 24 hours. The sheet needs to be signed by an assistant coach and approved by academic advisors before being completed, UNC spokesman Kevin Best said.
There aren’t any standard guidelines for what steps would be taken when the policy’s rules are broken, Baddour said.
Let’s be honest. Unless we are talking about embedded GPS chips that explode when they come in contact with the open air, this is more or less window dressing. Which is fine because part of the process with the NCAA is the institution taking corrective actions to address violations they may have occurred. Throughout the NCAA investigation the notion that UNC’s staff “didn’t know” what the players were doing in their free time has been both a defense and a curse. On one hand, it is a difficult task tracking players when they are away from the team(something the NCAA acknowledges.) On the other hand, the NCAA had a tendency to hold the leaders of the program responsible even if a player goes rogue. That creates the need to do something regardless of effectiveness
Does a sign out sheet help? I suppose it might deter some players because either not checking out with the coaches or lying about your whereabouts could result in disciplinary action for you. By and large I don’t think it will matter. In Coples’ case Baddour refuses to say whether he signed out or not. I think we can safely assume one of three things. Coples didn’t sign out violating the rule outright. He did sign out but was vague about his true plans or he made the trip to the D.C. party and returned to Chapel Hill in less than 24 hours negating the need to sign out at all. In other words the policy, as it is presently instituted, isn’t going to stop a player from doing what Coples did.
What that means is the policy is a pair of pants meant to cover any number of collective or individual posterior regions. Play the Coples situation out in a semi-hypothetical. Let’s say the NCAA comes back and says Coples committed violations. UNC can point to the policy and say Coples knowingly broke a team rule in going to the party. In short, Coples acted on his own and in contravention of a policy which the NCAA does not even require UNC to have. The argument UNC will make is “Hey, we tried. We told the players the rules. We told them they needed to sign out. Heck we even had him surrender his passport. It didn’t matter. This guy broke those rules. There is only so much we can do so try not to rip us too hard in whatever hell you decide to rain down.” The hope is the NCAA would punish the individual and not consider this a general institutional issue.
Like I said, the policy is less about keeping players out of trouble because everyone knows it is impotent to do that. The policy is about doing something to show UNC is taking the NCAA seriously and attempting to institute preventive measures. The ultimate lesson here is the behavior of a program is only as good as the actions of the individuals in that program. Ensuring those individuals don’t screw the program over is a long process from evaluating the character/values of players in recruitment to rules education to instilling team first or program loyalty values in them. Oh and somehow getting 18-22 year olds to stop making a dumb decisions out of a sense of invincibility we all had at that age.. I am not sure whether UNC has issues in the former but there is no policy conceived or drug on the market that will solve the latter. And if there were, I am sure it would be against NCAA rules.
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The question I have not seen asked/answered is, does the sign-out rule apply when school is not in session? Coples’ attendance at the draft party, like Marvin Austin’s attendance at Frank Gore’s party last year, took place in the intersession period between the end of spring classes and the beginning of summer classes. If players are going home for 2-3 weeks, are they expected to account for every bit of their time between class sessions?
OTOH, I’m sure Coples knew he was going to Austin’s draft party and should have informed someone at UNC, who would have probably told him to stay the hell away from there. We can hope and pray that everything was above board, but given that UNC had a kid lose 4 games for crashing on someone’s couch and getting a ride to the airport, I’d be lying if I said I was hopeful.
As it pertains to this party, the question I want answered is this. UNC just had multiple players taken highly in the draft. It should be assumed some of those players will be having some sort of draft party. Maybe they did this but UNC has to put the football players in a room and say, “Yes, I know this sucks but please do not go to any draft parties, even if it is being hosted by a former teammate.” On top of that, wouldn’t someone at least be peripherally aware Austin or whoever might be having a party and monitor it to some extent?
IF Coples either didn’t fill out the sign out form, or didn’t fill it out honestly, why shouldn’t he be kicked off the team (for breaking team and Athletic Department rules) regardless of whether or not the NCAA determines he also broke NCAA rules while at the draft party?
Well that’s a little harsh don’t you think? If he did not follow the rule then I bet they suspend him for a game even if the NCAA clears him just as a “look we are taking this seriously” sort of statement.
^Whatever it takes for Butch Davis to regain control of his players.
Yeah but kicking a player off the team for not signing out would be seen as a massive overreaction. There should be some publicly known disciplinary action taken if he didn’t sign out but as I pointed out, he could have been to DC and back in less than 24 hours negating the need to sign out. Plus Doc raises a good point. Do they need to report their whereabouts during semester breaks? While at home between sessions?
1 - However the rule was written it needs to be followed.
2 - Taking rules seriously needs to become a part of the football team’s culture.
3 - Making an example of someone could be a good way of making #2 happen.
Or they could just fire Butch Davis and Dick Baddour ….
Triple responses by THF in a short timeframe…nice. Welcome to the football discussion.
Hate all of this, just wish the NCAA would provide the letter and the punishment to UNC. Sooner rather than later.
I too wish that this crap be dealth with by the NCAA. It appears they are just looking for more “gotchas” to add meat to their eventual rulings regarding our football program. As stated previously, I have zero respect for the NCAA as a ruling body over college sports.
Go Heels!! Make a suprise visit to the College World Series!
sign out sheet for players
1. will you be going to a draft party and doing anything against NCAA’s rules? check yes or no
2. Did anyone give you any new jewerly? yes no
3. Did you tweet anything that might make people think you did something illegal.. yes no
Please submit to your coaches for review before you leave.
UNC athletic dept.
Pure window dressing; plus I don’t know exactly what authority a university has on an 18-21 year old young adult to sign something if they leave campus for 24 or more hours. What is this, a prison furlough?
The issue, as it’s been pointed out here, isn’t that Coples went to the party. He’s certainly within his rights to go and even have contact with an agent. However, if Coples took extra benefits, then UNC, Butch Davis, and Dick Baddour are all screwed, and we’ll have nothing but basketball to look forward to thanks to a nice postseason ban.
There should be nothing wrong with a kid attending a party thrown by friends, even if they are former teammates celebrating the NFL draft. There should only be a problem if he accepted something predicated on his talent as a football player, but my fear is he’ll be suspended and fined for the free food and beverage everyone else was enjoying.
So, will the NCAA take another 12 months to decide Coples’ future, or will they be more expedient with his ruling as opposed to them dragging their feet with the mess last year?
I can’t recall a case where an NFL agent was funneling significant $$$ to an assistant head coach/head recruiter.
I can’t recall a case where a tutor working on the side for the head football coach played such a prominent role in an academic fraud investigation.
I can’t remember a program which sat anyone and everyone who might have been even tangentially related to the first two issues.
I can’t remember a case where a primary party (Wichard) died prior to the completion of the investigation.
I’m not blaming the NCAA on this one. The number of loose ends to be tied here is just ridiculous. I don’t think they’re looking for more damning evidence. I think they’re giving mitigating evidence every chance to come to light - which makes the Coples thing just infuriating. Bush/USC looked bad. It looked even worse after McKnight got caught doing the exact same thing.
Time is on UNC’s side in this — IF they can keep their nose squeaky clean. If not… that’s on Dick and Butch, not the NCAA.
Dear Quinton “Heinz Ward” Coples,
Many have stood up in defense of yours and your teammates’ on field errors on the grounds that the errors may have somehow been influenced by the exemplary academic demands placed on you by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This largesse reaches its limit when social networking reveals a major of partying and a minor of swagging. Let it be known that Tar Heel Nation would rather have you win in the classroom and on the field than on the dance floor.
Sincerely,
Tar Heel Nation