Dr. Amanda L. Paule, Bowling Green State University

1
Rule breaking in Division I athletics Why does
it occur?

• Dr. Amanda L. Paule, Bowling Green State
  University
• M. Ryan Flett Kelly Mattran, Michigan State
  University

2
Breaking the Rules

• Jim Aiken, head football coach of the University
  of Oregon during the 1950s, was quoted as
  saying, If you have to choose between breaking
  the rules and losing games, wouldnt it be better
  to break the rules?
• He followed that statement up with If you lose
  your games youre certain to be fired. If you
  break the rules, you have to get caught to be
  fired (quoted in Davies, 1994, p. 27).
• This mentality can still be seen in athletics
  today.

3
Division I Athletic Recruitment Process

• Constant competition to recruit and sign the best
  athletes in order to have success on the playing
  field
• Filled with rules and regulations
• NCAA constructed different recruiting guidelines
  for Division I mens basketball, Division I
  womens basketball, Division I football, and
  Division I other sports
• NCAA dictates when and how often coaches can
  contact athletes, visit athletes, the number of
  contacts with a recruit, send recruiting
  materials, etc.
• When athletes are allowed to visit campus on
  official visits
• Rules can change year to year

4
Rule Breaking in Division I

• Rule breaking among NCAA Division I coaches has
  received coverage and discussion in the popular
  media.
• The NCAA rule breaking scandal involving Kelvin
  Sampsons recruiting violations at the University
  of Oklahoma and Indiana University brought this
  issue to light for many people (NCAA, 2008
  OToole Marot, 2006).
• Most recently, Jim Calhoun at the University of
  Connecticut

5
Ethics and Rules

• The importance of recruiting talented athletes
  cannot be understated.
• Coaches spend countless hours identifying and
  recruiting athletes and it is necessary to be
  aware of the NCAA recruiting rules.
• Any deviation from the rules set forth by the
  NCAA can land the institution, the program, and
  the coach in trouble and sanctions could be
  given.
• The trouble with these rules is that coaches can
  struggle with following the letter of the law
  versus the spirit of the law.

6
Purpose and Research Questions

• The purpose of this study was to examine the
  recruiting practices of NCAA Division I coaches
• There has been little empirical research
  examining coaches motives for bending or
  breaking the rules
• Research Questions
• How do college coaches describe the context of
  the recruiting process?
• How does the pressure to win impact the
  recruitment process?
• How do ethical issues and dilemmas impact the
  recruitment process?

7
Method

• Qualitative Methodology
• Grounded Theoretical Approach was utilized
• 25 Semi-Structured Interviews were conducted
• Purposive Sample
• The coaches were either nationally known coaches
  or coaches whose team was highly ranked within
  their conference

8
Participants

• 25 Division I head and assistant coaches
• The coaches were from 19 universities
• 10 athletic conferences and 12 sports
• 21 male coaches and 4 female coaches
• 23 Caucasian and 2 African American coaches
• Years of experience ranged from 6 to 34 years as
  a collegiate coach.

9
Data Analysis Procedures

• Interviews transcribed immediately
• Triangulation of the data
• Inductive analysis
• Formed the main themes

10
Context of the Recruitment Process

• Competition
• Filled with pressure
• Recruiting is the lifeblood of the program
• Wrestling Coach 1, whose team has been highly
  successful, did not just enjoy having athletes
  commit to the school. He loved the competition
  involved in recruiting. He stated
• If it's a kid no one thought you had no chance of
  getting and everybody thought he was going one
  place then you really hit it off with this kid
  and you get him to come.

11
Pressure to Win

• All 25 of the coaches discussed the pressure that
  surrounds them in their job as either a head or
  assistant Division I coach.
• Womens Basketball Coach 4, a coach of a
  mid-major university, felt that there was a
  significant amount of pressure to win because he
  and his staff were responsible for creating a
  winning program. He stated that
• I think there is a considerable amount of
  pressure because we built the program. I've been
  here for X years and we built the program from
  the bottom up and there is an expectation. We've
  been very successful and there's an expectation
  from year to year that we're going to continue to
  be successful. So, I'd say there is a lot of
  pressure on us.

12
Pressure to Recruit

• Most of the coaches interviewed in this study
  chose to speak about the importance of recruiting
  to the program.
• For example, Womens Basketball Coach 5, a coach
  of a mid-major program, felt that recruiting is
  the most important part of an athletic program.
  He stated that
• Well, I think that's where successful teams it
  all begins. I think that without question good
  players make good teams and that's where the
  pressure is. It's hard for college coaches. We
  realize that it's an arms race out there to get
  the best players and if you get those players
  then you have the ability to win championships.

13
Pressure to Recruit

• Gymnastics Coach 1, a coach of a Big-Time
  program, felt that recruiting was a process that
  had to be dealt with on a daily basis. She said
• Something is done basically everyday that you are
  in the office. Or should be done if not you are
  behind. I would say that it is probably, behind
  actually coaching your gymnast in the gym, it is
  the most important aspect of the job.

14
Sources of Pressure

• Administration
• Alumni and boosters
• Current players
• Fans
• The coaches also stated that a great deal of the
  pressure they felt was the pressure they placed
  upon themselves.

15
Source of Pressure

• Womens Basketball Coach 1 felt that the pressure
  on him was self-imposed and from the fans, media,
  and so forth. He believed that there is an
  expectation on his program to win and if the team
  loses a few games, the chatter about firing him
  emerges from external sources. He stated
• A lot of coaches would tell you that there is a
  lot of pressure that comes from within you know
  from yourself and its always been there with me.
  And you know with this era of chat rooms and
  radio call in shows and the internet and all of
  these things these bring more and more external
  pressure onto a coach and onto the team because
  there are just more ways for opinions to be
  thrown out. When a coach loses three or four in a
  row people there are people saying he or she
  should be fired or things like that. In
  actuality, the only people I have to please are
  my superiors, the people above me, the athletic
  director number one.

16
Importance of Recruiting

• Recruiting quality athletes to the program is
  crucial in order to win.
• Winning is necessary in order to attract new
  recruits and to keep ones job.
• Football Coach 1 believed that recruiting is
  essential to the program and has to be done
  diligently in order to be successful. He even
  offered an interesting example to describe the
  frequency of recruiting. He remarked that
• The old saying that a lot of people have up at
  schools across the country recruiting is like
  shaving, if you don't do it every day you will
  look like a bum. Uh, you do it everyday.

17

• People want you to win but you know you just got
  to do it the right way.-Mens Basketball Coach 1

18
Coaches thoughts on the Recruitment Rules

• Volleyball Coach 1, a highly successful coach
  from a Big-Time conference, discussed the rules
  when he was asked what he thought about the
  recruitment process. He stated it was
• Governed by lots and lots of rules, most of which
  I think are good rules. Some of them you roll
  your eyes and wonder, where did this come from?
  What's the real point of this? But most of them
  are good because they are intended to help people
  not attempt to take advantage of student
  athletes.

19
Letter of the Law vs. The Spirit of the Law

• Mens Basketball Coach 5 discussed innocent
  mistakes that were not meant maliciously but
  could happen due to miscommunication between
  coaches concerning things like phone calls to
  recruits.
• He believed something such as one extra call made
  to a recruit due to a miscommunication should not
  be treated as rule breaking since it was not done
  purposefully.

20
Minor Infractions

• Pressure to push the limits or break minor rules
  because everyone else is doing it.
• Volleyball Coach 2 was one of the coaches who
  felt pressure to push the limits of the rules in
  order to stay competitive with the other coaches
  she was recruiting against. She commented that
• I had this father called me and the one that was
  a freshmen again and he goes oh yeah coach, I
  know you talked to our coach about our daughter
  blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah well and then
  were getting a bunch of letterssome of them
  Ive gotten 3 or 4 letters from and well that's
  illegal you're only supposed to get one letter.
  He goes so I'm not even paying attention to the
  ones who have only written us once, and I go, you
  do know it's illegal don't you, to get that
  second, third, fourth letter don't you, they're
  not supposed to. So basically you're saying that
  you're going to pay attention to the people who
  are cheating and youre not going to pay
  attention to the people who are not cheating. So
  now this father thinks that the person who wrote
  once is not interested in his daughter and he is
  going to go with the one who writes three or four
  times because he doesn't know the rules.

21
Breaking the Rules (on purpose)

• While sometimes coaches feel forced into bending
  the rules of pushing limits, one coach believed
  that some coaches disregard the rules on purpose.
  Football Coach 1 believed that
• Some of the rules are stupid. And I think a lot
  of people think they are stupid and probably just
  choose not to abide by them. Is that right? No, I
  mean its probably wrong but I think that there
  arethe NCAA has a book literally that big, you
  can't know every rule. Now the basic rules,
  certainly you have the ideas. Are you allowed to
  talk to a player? No. Are you allowed to have a
  conversation with them in the school? No. Do most
  coaches abide by the rule? No, they don't.

22
Ethics and Recruiting

• Volleyball Coach 2 felt that there were ethical
  issues that needed to be addressed in the
  recruitment process. She commented
• Like I said, the lying and it might be minor
  recruiting infractions, but there are so many of
  them that it is really infuriating because you
  see people talking to parents across the way
  there's the thing called previous relationship,
  and everyone claims to have previous
  relationships with these people but they don't.
  And then how are you supposed to go around and
  track people down and turn them in and when you
  turn them in and nothing happens to them anyway.

23
Discussion

• The NCAA has rules for a reason.
• These rules are in place to protect coaches from
  taking advantage of the young recruits.
• Recruitment process is extremely complicated and
  constantly changing.
• Difficult to keep up with changes
• There are coaches who circumvent the rules and
  engage in minor or major infractions.
• Most coaches felt that when other coaches broke
  the rules it was not done maliciously but in
  order to keep up with all of the other coaches
  who were perceived to be breaking rules.

24
Discussion

• Coaches who choose to bend or push the limits of
  the rules have to deal with the potential
  consequences.
• Kelvin Sampson
• Jim Calhoun
• In essence, each coach must answer the question,
  is pushing the limits or breaking the rules
  ethically okay when it comes to recruiting an
  athlete?

25

• Questions?