Tennessee says self-reporting helps maintain NCAA compl...

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - When the owner of a quick oil-change business notified Tennessee athletic officials a manager was giving football players free service, the university investigated and reported its findings to the Southeastern Conference. The SEC and NCAA approved the self-imposed penalties, and the players didn't miss any games. Tennessee's self-report filed in 2000 like other secondary violation cases at NCAA schools - wasn't made public. At the request of The Associated Press, the university released edited copies of self-reports filed between 1998 and 2001. Ten involved men's basketball and football, and seven involved women's basketball. The infractions ranged from free meals to an assistant football coach who made eye contact with a prospect during a no-contact period. Punishments resulted in one player missing games and several coaches, including Pat Summitt, receiving reprimands. The release didn't reveal any information about an ongoing SEC investigation of two alleged payments in 1999 to quarterback Tee Martin by a businesswoman through a Mobile, Ala., sportswriter. The university said it did not have any documents on file dealing with the case. In the released documents, names of students, businesses and individuals were blacked out as directed by the university's general counsel office, which cited the U.S. Department of Education's Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. ``The university is obligated by FERPA not to disclose personally identifiable information about a student, including any information that would make the student's identity easily traceable,'' the general counsel said in a statement. The only way the university can release the student names is for the information to already be well known or for the students to grant permission. Tennessee officials would not contact the students on behalf of the AP. Tennessee has filed three self reports this year. One was a petition to have Donte Stallworth's eligibility reinstated after he changed his mind about leaving early for the NFL. A second related to Tennessee admonishing coach Phillip Fulmer last month for meeting with the father of Eric Locke, who was not released from his scholarship at Alabama. The university also took away two football scholarships. Two boosters contacted by Locke's father, Juicy, were admonished and barred from contributing to the athletic program for three years. The third was from February, when Summitt and assistant coach Mickie DeMoss were reprimanded for allowing two prospects and their family have a free tour of a Knoxville facility. The name of the facility was blacked out, but the document indicated they were admitted free because Summitt is an inducted member and DeMoss belongs to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Summitt was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame here in 1999. Self-reporting is a common practice and required by the NCAA when members learn of violations. Last year 1,724 of the 2,093 secondary violations processed by the NCAA were self-reported by Division I schools. ``What we do here is very normal and typical for any school in America, and we don't have things that happen here that don't happen anywhere else,'' said Donna Thomas, associate athletic director for women's compliance. Secondary violations are isolated, inadvertant and don't give a school much of a competitive edge. Major violations are more widespread and serious. Some schools occasionally release secondary violations to the media, but most only release them if requested by reporters. Neither the NCAA nor the SEC is bound by those requests because they are private organizations. The NCAA does announce results of major violation investigations, which typically lead to probation. Officials say the reports help schools keep their programs clean. ``Self-reporting is about catching those mistakes and re-educating people again to be extra careful in the future,'' associate athletic director for compliance, Malcolm McInnis, said. Once a school has self-reported a violation and the NCAA has processed it, the NCAA can't bring up the violation again. Otherwise, unreported secondary violations could be lumped into a larger investigation down the road. ``There is a peripheral advantage by having those things dealt with,'' McInnis said. Tennessee learned of some of the violations from the violators. The owner of the quick oil change shop said he fired the manager who didn't charge 14 football players for the $21.92 service. The owner was a booster, but ``we do not believe he was directly or indirectly involved in the violations,'' McInnis wrote to the SEC in August 2000. The players paid a total of $900 to the United Way as punishment. One player lost a pair of complimentary tickets to the first three home game. In October 1998, Tennessee reported 16 football players and two men's basketball players unknowingly got 50 percent off at an unidentifed sandwich shop near campus. The discounts totaled $259, and the athletes were required to perform community service. The owner said he was just a fan. ``It's my way of giving something back,'' the owner wrote in a statment attached to the report. ``They give me the biggest six sales days of the year,'' Athletic director Doug Dickey said neither businessman had previous dealings with athletes. In another case, 10 men and 14 women basketball players got free or discounted meals at a cafeteria in Thompson-Boling Arena. Two cashiers employed by Aramark, a food services company, paid for the food. The students were required to pay restitution, donate an equal amount to charity and perform 10 hours of community service. One Lady Vol who got $164 worth of food missed the first three games of the 2000 season.

Tennessee says self-reporting helps maintain NCAA compliance