It hasn’t exactly been a smooth beginning for Rich Rodriguez at Michigan. The Wolverines were 3-9 last season and a dismal 2-6 in the Big Ten. But the recent headlines out of Ann Arbor — allegations from anonymous and former players that Michigan has practiced far beyond the time allotted by the NCAA — is piling the heat on R-Rod at an alarming rate.
Michigan launched an investigation Sunday into these allegations. The players (according to an ESPN report) said the amount of time they spent on football activities during the season exceeded the NCAA weekly limit of 20 hours and often exceeded the daily limit of four hours. The report also said quality-control staff often watched voluntary seven-on-seven offseason scrimmages, which, according to the NCAA, should be manned only by training staff.
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Rodriguez has been mired in controversy since his defection from West Virginia in Dec. 2007. His Monday news conference was emotional.
“Nobody on my staff would ever tell a player to miss a class … never have, never will,” he said.
Still, former Wolverines receiver Toney Clemons (now at Colorado) said he sometimes put in 12-hour days on Sundays between practice and training. Big Ten compliance officials arrived at Michigan on Monday to begin interviewing players.
NCAA practice regulations are an imperfect science — we’d be lying to ourselves if we thought everyone followed them. But this has the makings of a serious problem and scholarships — not to mention Rodriguez’s job security — might be on the line in Ann Arbor.
