Michigan to issue report

Associated Press

ANN ARBOR, Mich.

The University of Michigan met a Monday deadline to respond to the NCAA’s allegations that the Rich Rodriguez-led football program committed as many as five major violations in the first days of his Wolverines’ tenure.

Athletic director David Brandon said last week there would be “total transparency” when the school releases its report today. The report likely will include self-imposed sanctions, which could include a loss of scholarships and less practice time.

The school said Monday that the report was delivered to NCAA officials.

Michigan will need to hope that its corrective actions will be accepted by the NCAA, whose infractions committee has scheduled an August hearing for the school in Seattle.

The NCAA three months ago outlined five potentially major rules violations related to practices and workouts.

Rodriguez acknowledged making “mistakes” in February when Michigan disclosed the NCAA’s conclusions from an investigation prompted by a Detroit Free Press report just before the 2009 season started. Anonymous players told the newspaper the amount of time they spent on football activities during the season exceeded the weekly limit of 20 hours, often exceeded the daily limit of four hours, and that football staff often watched offseason scrimmages that are supposed to be voluntary.

Rodriguez is two years into a six-year deal worth $2.5 million per season. Brandon has repeatedly said that Rodriguez will return this fall for a third season after going 8-16 in his first two years in charge of college football’s winningest program.

Brandon said the department “clearly made mistakes,” but “there was no charge of loss of institutional control.” If the NCAA agrees, the program will probably avoid very severe sanctions.

Michigan, though, might face penalties under the NCAA’s “repeat violator rule” because it was sanctioned in 2003 for a booster-related scandal with the basketball program.

NCAA rules allow players to spend eight hours a week on mandatory workouts during the offseason. Players told the Free Press they spent two to three times that amount on required workouts, though the NCAA said players more often exceeded the limit by two hours per week.

Just before playing rival Ohio State last season, the school released embarrassing details of an internal audit that discovered Rodriguez’s team failed to file forms tracking how much time players spent on football during his first season and the following offseason.

The audit noted “a concern” that the football program failed to file logs created by the school to help it comply with NCAA rules.