Michigan coach Rodriguez in action

SPORTS FLASH (II): There is major activity afoot in big time college football. We have already noted that conferences are furiously expanding in search of even more TV revenue. Meanwhile the NCAA continues to penalized schools for cheating; USC is the latest to be sanctioned. What we look at here is how good academic schools cheat to make money, and some mediocre academic ones make an honest effort to teach their players something of value.  There are some shocking examples. For example, the NCAA says Michigan, the 27^the best school academically according to US News, has the second worst record for athletic compliance in the country.

INDICATORS: There are some very interesting indicators in the details of the NCAA’s latest academic performance report’s numbers for many of the major sports teams in the country. How many people know the story of Michigan, I wonder. Last month, the storied University of Michigan admitted (after an internal review) to a series of violations in its football program, but insisted that the problems related to excessive practice time and the activities of overuse of graduate assistants, and were not enough to warrant major punishment from the NCAA.

Michigan released details of self-imposed sanctions, which it hopes will satisfy the NCAA and preclude an external investigation. The NCAA whose staff will begin hearings and in August as it launches a full-scale review of the Ann Arbor school’s program. A final decision on NCAA penalties could take months. Michigan said it will cut back practice and training time by 130 hours over the next two years, starting this summer. It has also trimmed the number of assistants -- the so-called “quality control staff” -- from five to three and banned them from practices, games or coaching meetings for the rest of 2010.

QUALITY CONTROL: When football coach Rich Rodriguez was hired from the academically unranked Univ. of West Virginia, he filled all five quality control positions in the program -- essentially assistants to assistants who were paid $17 per hour to "run errands for the coaches, check on student-athlete class attendance and academic issues, and chart plays." The school said the staff "crossed the line in specific situations and engaged in 'coaching activities'" as defined by the NCAA.

The self-imposed sanctions included a recommendation for two years of probation for the NCAA's winningest football program, which is 8-16 in two seasons under Rodriguez. The school also had 2003 scandal in the basketball program.

SERIOUS COMPLAINTS: The violations came to light last fall when players told the Detroit Free Press that they were being forced to exceed NCAA limits on practice and training time, prompting school and NCAA investigations. The NCAA has outlined five potentially major rules violations, all related to practices and workouts. It accused Rodriguez of failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance in his program -- a charge Michigan vehemently denied even as it acknowledged an overall failure by the athletic department in several areas and not just in football.

But just like USC, Michigan refuses to admit the situation is a serious systemic problem, “We think that is overly harsh," said one official. We do believe that there were things he could've done better and Rich would be the first to agree that details he delegated shouldn't have been in retrospect." The school decided not to take away scholarships from itself or eliminate coaching positions – surprise, surprise.

EYE-OPENERS: But the Michigan (which also costs $60,000 a year for non-300 pounders) and USC cases are real eye-openers, as they come just as the NCAA releases its assessment of academic compliance for scholarship athletes -- many of whom come from inner-city environments and would benefit greatly from extra academic attention. Some good schools like academically ranked 26 and 27 USC and Michigan cheat. Others such as Boise State excel in the opposite direction.

The NCAA is penalizing USC which finished out of the football top 10 last year for the first time in many years, and Michigan hasn’t been on the major bowl radar since Rodriguez arrived. But Boise State, which was ranked number 4 in the nation last year and was cited by the NCAA as tied with Northwestern for the best athletic academic performance isn’t close to breaking into the US News academic top 150. It actually can make its ball players smarter than its students.

COMPETING: National champion Alabama was in the top 25 for football academic performance, despite the school’s over-all academic ratings in the 80s. And in the event that Michigan claims that it has to cheat in order to compete in the Big Ten, dismiss that as nonsense. Conference Champ and number 5 ranked Ohio State was ranked 6^th nationally in academic performance by its athletes while coming in a much lower 56^th by US News academically.

These numbers highlight how important the role of a coach is. Some are great tactically, some in recruiting, some in staff management and planning and some in financial fund-raising. But in the end the job, which very much parallels a corporate CEO, has to cover all the bases while remembering that the whole purpose of the enterprise is to put people through school. And in the end every program is defined by its coach.

COACHING: That’s why the National Championship game’s Nick Sabans (two national championships with two different schools with no violations) and Mack Browns of the world get paid so much – to win without cheating. It is why the Jim Tressels can turn Ohio State around and the Chris Petersens of Boise State can all make so much of a difference, especially the vast majority of the players that can’t even dream of being in the professional ranks and will be lost in any job market after college.

And it is why the Pete Carrolls slink off to Seattle and Lane Kiffens boasts about recruiting with a career .550 record as they count the profits and never give a though to the people they are using and will cast aside at the first hint of a sprained ankle.

Here are the football NCAA academic best and worst of last year (Christopher Walsh, BamaOnLine):

THE BEST: 1, (tie) Boise State, Northwestern 1,000; 3, Northern Illinois 997; 4, Georgia Tech 993; 5,  Rice 992; 6, Ohio State 991; 7, Air Force 987; 8, (tie) Baylor 985, Rutgers 985; 10, Texas Christian 9834. Rutgers had the top multiple-year score, 992, although that distinction in all Division I football went to Penn (996), with Dartmouth (911) and Yale (990) barely trailing.

THE WORST: 1, Iowa State 889; 2, Michigan 897; 3, Kansas State 902; 4, Texas A&M; 5, Georgia Southern 907; 6, Idaho 908; 7, Brigham Young 910; 8, Florida Atlantic 911; 9, Louisville 912; 10, Eastern Michigan 913.

BY SPORT: Further, just out of interest, a medium sample as far as scores go by sports: best to worse. Men: Golf; Tennis; Basketball; Cross Country; Swimming; Football; Baseball; Track, Indoor; Track, Outdoor. Women: Softball; Cross Country; Golf; Gymnastics; Swimming; Tennis; Volleyball; Soccer; Track, Indoor; Track, Outdoor; Basketball; Rowing.