Grab the pitchforks!

When reporters attack ... Well, not really.

Friend and colleague Chip Towers has an amusing post over at the AJC's recruting blog. Seems Georgia has to report a secondary violation because of a scurrilous act by Towers: A photo was published showing offensive line coach Stacy Searels supposedly posing with a prospective recruit (because they were both looking in the camera.)

Read Chip's post. Good stuff in there.

First off, this is no big deal. It's a secondary violation, the kind Lane Kiffin committed twice in his sleep.

Secondly, Chip did nothing wrong. As he pointed out, he's a reporter, not a member of the NCAA or paid by Georgia, and his job is to observe and report.

Thirdly, I know exactly how Chip feels, since I also have been the cause of a school having to turn in a secondary violation.

A few years ago, while covering South Carolina, the basketball team was hosting a center who was transferring from UNLV. During a game, I spotted the kid sitting behind the bench, and not having much free time I went over at halftime and interviewed him. Then I published a few quotes on my blog and in the paper.

The kid never went to South Carolina. But the school's compliance office determined (rightly, by the ridiculous NCAA rules) that a secondary violation had occurred: A school promoting the visit of a recruit.

Even though the school had no power over me, a member of the press. OK.

The backwardness of the NCAA rules is that the recruiting and fan sites regularly "promote" the visits of players, writing about who's visiting and when, and following up with interviews with the players in question over what a great time they had.

(Notice, by the way, that a kid never says he had a bad time, there's no way he's going there, etc.)

But the recruiting and fan sites get around technically promoting the visit by not interviewing the recruit while he's actually on campus.

I was gently told this by South Carolina after the incident in question, and now I know. But still, going back to Chip's statement, I'm a reporter and I'm going to pursue a story, NCAA bylaws or no. Maybe, if I see a kid on a visit, I could go just ask the kid for his cell phone and try to teach him later, but if he's right there, why not talk to him then. (Especially if you know you may not reach him later.)

And in Chip's case, his readers were interested, of course he was going to pursue the information.

And while you're doing all this, you're acting completely independent of the school you're covering, so it shouldn't be culpable for you doing your job.

And all this is considered on the same level, a secondary violation, as most of the stuff Lane Kiffin did. OK.