Dave Altimari of the Hartford Courant recently made a Freedom of Information Request to discover UConn's self-reported violations for its big three sports teams: men's basketball, women's basketball, and football. Interestingly, despite the various scandals of the school -- most notably the scandal involving recruit basketball recruit Nate Miles and UConn student-manager-turned agent Josh Nochimson -- UConn only reported 17 minor infractions involving those teams over the last five years.
Altimari interviewed me for the story and here is an excerpt with my comments:
The self-reported cases, known as secondary violations, normally don't end up putting schools on probation or costing athletes eligibility. But the 61 pages of documents obtained by The Courant through a Freedom of Information request provide a window into how a big-time athletic department polices itself.
At UConn, the women's basketball program has had the most self-reported violations in the past five years with seven. The men's basketball program has six violations and football three, records show. There was one violation involving overpayment of meal money to bot! h footba ll and women's basketball players.
"That strikes me as not a high number of cases," Vermont Law School professor and sports law analyst Michael McCann said. "On one level it makes UConn look good because it shows they are handling and recording everything, including things that a typical person wouldn't think are a big deal."
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UConn has been conducting an internal investigation into allegations that some of the contacts were illegal and that UConn coaches knew that Nochimson was representing Miles when they contacted him. Miles never played for UConn.
McCann said the fact that the school reported nothing about interactions with Nochimson is puzzling.
"How could they report all this other stuff and not report anything involving Nochimson and Miles? It's almost like they are ignoring the elephant in the room," McCann said.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Freedom of Information Act & UConn's Self Reported Violations
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Rick Pitino Admits Affair, But Not Rape
University of Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino admitted to consensual sex with Karen Sypher, wife of Louisville equipment manager Tim Sypher, according to Louisville Metro Police reports obtained by The Courier-Journal under the Kentucky Open Records Act. The incident occurred at a Louisville restaurant on Aug. 1st, 2003.
Rick Pitino admitted that he paid Karen Sypher (photo attached to this post) $3,000 for her to have an abortion. He denied her allegations of rape, however.
This incident really took form in April of this year, when Rick Pitino indicated someone had tried to extort him. Later that month, Karen Sypher (photo attached to this post) was arrested for attempted extortion.
However, since then Karen Sypher has alleged that Rick Pitino raped her at the restaurant, Porcini, after the restaurant closed, and again at a different location.
Police records show that the commander of the sex offense unit, who investigated Karen Sypher's claims as well as interviewing her twice in July, found issues in her accounts of both incidents. District Attorney David Stengel announced in July that he wouldn't prosecute the case against Pitino because Sypher's claims lacked credibility and any supporting evidence.
Karen Sypher has also been unable to explain why she married Tim Sypher, as he's still work! ing for Pitino, and why he continued to work for the coach if he knew of the rape.
Tim and Karen Sypher filed for divorce in March. In a statement in April he said, "I am devastated by the bizarre allegations that my estranged wife is making against both Coach Pitino and myself."
Rick Pitino is married; his wife is the former Joanne Minardi; they married in 1976. They have five living children: Michael, Christopher, Richard (an assistant coach for the University of Florida Gators), Ryan and Jacqueline. Another son, Daniel, died in 1987 from congenital heart failure at the age of six months.
