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25 February 2010
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The NCAA accused the University of Michigan of failing to comply with practice time rules under Coach Rich Rodriguez, who admitted making "mistakes'' but will be back for a third try at bringing college football's winningest program back into the national title hunt.
Incoming UM Athletic Director David Brandon disclosed the NCAA conclusions today, but said there were no surprises in the report. He expressed full support for his coach, who is 8-16 in two disappointing seasons.
"Rich Rodriguez is our football coach, and he will be our football coach next year,'' Brandon said of the former West Virginia coach.
In its notice of allegations -- which Michigan received Monday -- the NCAA said Rodriguez "failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program,'' and tracked neither what his staff was doing nor whether his players were following NCAA rules. It also said the athletics department failed to make sure its football program was complying with NCAA regulations.
Brandon said the department "clearly made mistakes,'' but "there was no charge of loss of institutional control'' - an allegation that in previous cases has led to NCAA sanctions for other schools.
Michigan has 90 days to respond and will appear at an NCAA hearing on infractions in August. Michigan is seeing how its internal investigation matches up with the NCAA findings and will consider implementing self-imposed sanctions.
The NCAA said last October that it was looking into the program following an August report in the Detroit Free Press. The newspaper, citing anonymous football players, reported that Michigan exceeded NCAA limits regarding practices and workouts in 2008 and 2009.
Rodriguez, who signed a six-year deal worth $2.5 million per season, tearfully defended his program just five days before the season-opener, saying he and his staff have followed the rules. He suggested the complaints were an attempt to "tear up'' his rebuilding effort following a 3-9 season.
Today, the coach said if the football staff misinterpreted NCAA rules, "That's on us.''
"We're looking at it to see why we misinterpreted and why we made mistakes,'' he said.
