Oct. 27, 2005
SAN DIEGO - Given all of the issues in college athletics today, how much emphasis do you place on compliance? (Dave, Carlsbad)
We have received many questions about NCAA rules, our compliance program, how violations are categorized by the NCAA, and how those violations are reported. I thought I'd take a shot at talking briefly about our philosophy, our processes, and what we expect from our compliance program.
It goes without saying that NCAA rules compliance is a top priority for us at SDSU. It must be! My initial impressions of the program, after several months on the job, are very favorable. I believe we have a good compliance environment that is strongly reinforced by President Weber. Within the program we have good people dedicated to the proposition that we will succeed within the rules . Will we make mistakes? Yes, we will. Will we continue to report those mistakes to the NCAA. Yes, we will. All good programs do. We will watch closely for repeat violations in particular areas, and of course for any intentional violations.
The primary focus of our compliance office, headed by Jenny Bramer, is to educate and monitor. You can imagine the many constituencies that we touch! They include coaches, staff and the rest of the university community. They include fans, boosters, donors, media, high school students, their parents, their coaches. It is a very big and very important undertaking.
Monitoring occurs in areas such as recruiting, travel, practice time, financial aid, and of course eligibility. We require our coaches to keep substantial written documentation of their activities in many areas. They sometimes tire of the enormity of it, but they also understand it is a necessity, not only to protect them and prevent violations, but to establish the institutional control necessary for a strong compliance program.
Reporting of violations is a very important part of any strong compliance program. Our policy at SDSU is to self-report every violation that we discover, no matter how small, no matter how insignificant. Many of our competitors don't have that same philosophy, and therefore don't submit as many self-reports as we do. However, we believe strongly in our way of doing things. A good compliance program will have regular self-reports. The rules are too complicated, too tricky, and they change every year! The NCAA rule book is two inches thick, and the interpretations of those rules fill volumes, much like the volumes of court cases interpreting the laws of our state and country.
Both the NCAA and our Conference talk to their member institutions about the "thick file" versus the "thin file" approach to rules compliance. In fact we recently received a letter from Chris Strobel, NCAA Director of Enforcement for Secondary Infractions, who stated "Over the past few years, the average number of self-reported violations per Division I institution has been between six and seven. However, some institutions do not self-report violations, while other institutions, particularly those with better compliance programs and larger compliance offices, self-report many more than the average."
His point is that the NCAA understands schools cannot practically be without inadvertent, minor violations. If there are few or no self-reports from schools, they are probably not paying attention or not reporting their violations, or both.
SDSU has averaged 12 self-reports per year the last two years. All were secondary, inadvertent violations. That tells me we have been paying attention and self-reporting. We are only as good as we are today, however, and we must stay diligent in the education and monitoring of our constituents.
Great question! Hope I answered it with information that will be helpful.
If anyone has questions or comments regarding compliance, please don't hesitate to call the Compliance Office number at 619-594-3395.