NCAA Penalties (or not)

[rkohberger]

Chris can chip in with this but through my research the only thing I can find that the NCAA can apply to a university student athlete is a "Loss of Eligibility" - not game suspensions. I have a link here that will help with that I think.

http://www.ncaa.org/2017-18-division-i-compliance-forms

Look at the "Summary of NCAA Regulations" in that link.

On the other hand I have not ever heard of Pitt having a mandated or set X amount of games suspension for a certain type of incident. Unless something has changed it is always been at the discretion of the head coach with input from the athletic director.

 

[Revenge Of The Noise]

I think the suspicion, be it fact, urban legend, myth or otherwise, is that the school (be it just the AD or above) clashes with the coach on these and pushes/ forces for harder punishments than the coach ever would, and it causes inevitable schisms.

This inference derives from anecdotes of several situations that leaked (whether based in fact or not) that occurred under Wanny, Graham, Chryst, and with Dixon on the hoops side. And going back beyond those.

This is the downside of "the damn fans don't need to know nothing about anything". If there's a vacuum of knowledge about a situation of interest, it inevitably will be filled, perhaps not accurately.

 

[VAPITTALUM]

I think the suspicion, be it fact, urban legend, myth or otherwise, is that the school (be it just the AD or above) clashes with the coach on these and pushes/ forces for harder punishments than the coach ever would, and it causes inevitable schisms.

This inference derives from anecdotes of several situations that leaked (whether based in fact or not) that occurred under Wanny, Graham, Chryst, and with Dixon on the hoops side. And going back beyond those.

This is the downside of "the damn fans don't need to know nothing about anything". If there's a vacuum of knowledge about a situation of interest, it inevitably will be filled, perhaps not accurately.

Nailed it! In the absence of information for a given situation, people will generate rumors which are more often worse than what actually occurred. I'm not asking for admittance to all conversations, since I believe this would be detrimental to the player, coaches, etc.; but at least give some sort of explanation as to why these players were suspended or kicked off the team. For Whitehead and Wirginis to receive 3x the penalty of Bookser given the video evidence that has been shared, I truly wonder what lead to their suspensions.

 

[TIGER-PAUL]

In addition the the ncaa, Pitt (and others) do have progression lines for certain types of incidents in which some cases Pitt's are more stringent in comparison.

 

[Revenge Of The Noise]

It's not much use to whine about it but they should understand that it's part of what it erodes passion for Pitt in the fan base. Camp about to open and suddenly bang, the team's best player is gone, for key games, adding doubt to the first month that already was going to be a bear. It's like a bucket of dirty slush. Add in the suspicion that it is very likely for something no other program would discipline a key player for, truth or not, right or wrong. Either way, so much for camp enthusiasm. Just emphasizes the SOP and makes us subliminally expect more disaster.

 

[tetonpanther]

Unfortunately Reed is in way over his head. if he was in the ocean he would need the coast guard to rescue himself. UGH

 

[Gunga_Galunga]

Athletes sign a waiver and agree to the application (testing) and enforcement of University of Pittsburgh Department of Athletics Drug Education and Screening Policy.

It's the same at most Universities, though the penalties are different and set by each school. Some universities make their policy public, but Pitt does not.

It's not up to Duzz, unless he wants to be more severe and boot a kid for a collection of reasons.

 

[rkohberger]

Unfortunately Reed is in way over his head. if he was in the ocean he would need the coast guard to rescue himself. UGH

WTF? What is that in light of? Care to correct my info because as I said that is how I understand the procedures at Pitt - if you can correct me then please do.

BTW - I was the one doing the rescuing early in my career then planning the searches later on... so I know not to get too lost or in too much over my head...

 

[rkohberger]

Athletes sign a waiver and agree to the application (testing) and enforcement of University of Pittsburgh Department of Athletics Drug Education and Screening Policy.

It's the same at most Universities, though the penalties are different and set by each school. Some universities make their policy public, but Pitt does not.

It's not up to Duzz, unless he wants to be more severe and boot a kid for a collection of reasons.

I think the question is if specific breaking of rules leads to specific punishment - like a formal set of discipline. Like fail one Pitt test and you get one game... or like in Blair's case do this amount of criminal stuff and you get X amount of games suspended.

I kind of doubt that this, or any decent, HC would give that decision making authority away to the AD or to a group consensus.

 

[rkohberger]

Nailed it! In the absence of information for a given situation, people will generate rumors which are more often worse than what actually occurred. I'm not asking for admittance to all conversations, since I believe this would be detrimental to the player, coaches, etc.; but at least give some sort of explanation as to why these players were suspended or kicked off the team. For Whitehead and Wirginis to receive 3x the penalty of Bookser given the video evidence that has been shared, I truly wonder what lead to their suspensions.

Well - on PSN the other day there was a podcast where one PGH sportswriter calling in said that "his source'"said that he was really surprised that Wirginis only got three games... so maybe it wasn't a standard run of the mill violation. Interesting stuff and I wish it didn't happen. Not good for our already shaky defense at all.

 

[Gunga_Galunga]

For reference, here is the UPS policy. You can find many other schools online too. Pitt certainly has one, they just don't make it public.

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/psu/genrel/auto_pdf/DrugFreeAthleticsProgram10_11.pdf

Section 12 is street drugs and section 13 is PEDs.

I'm also not debating whether a little bird lets them know when the man is coming around to have they provide a specimen, or what they actually do with that specimen / results.

 

[TIGER-PAUL]

Athletes sign a waiver and agree to the application (testing) and enforcement of University of Pittsburgh Department of Athletics Drug Education and Screening Policy.

It's the same at most Universities, though the penalties are different and set by each school. Some universities make their policy public, but Pitt does not.

It's not up to Duzz, unless he wants to be more severe and boot a kid for a collection of reasons.

The other difference I'm sure with the school specific policies is the enforcement of them, especially early in the process.

 

[Jpripper88]

Chris can chip in with this but through my research the only thing I can find that the NCAA can apply to a university student athlete is a "Loss of Eligibility" - not game suspensions. I have a link here that will help with that I think.

http://www.ncaa.org/2017-18-division-i-compliance-forms

Look at the "Summary of NCAA Regulations" in that link.

On the other hand I have not ever heard of Pitt having a mandated or set X amount of games suspension for a certain type of incident. Unless something has changed it is always been at the discretion of the head coach with input from the athletic director.

Yeah, you aren't up to date. Pitt has their own drug testing policy and the NCAA rule is that the University must follow their own policy. Pitt has mandatory suspensions built into their policy. They do not have to have mandatory suspensions built in, but they choose to. Basically, they do this to themselves.