Mark Richt’s Generous Gifts to Staff Were Secondary NCAA Violations

That Mark Richt, how dare he generously give monetary payments to members of his football staff out of his own pocket! Doesn’t he know that good deeds like that are illegal according to the NCAA handbook?

Yes, Georgia coach Mark Richt committed secondary NCAA violations when he personally paid some coaches whom he felt deserved more money.

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Richt paid former recruiting assistant Charlie Cantor $10,842 over an 11-month period through March of 2011, former linebackers coach John Jancek $10,000 in the summer of 2009 and $6,150 to director of player development John Eason in July of 2010. All of the payments were made by checks from Richt’s personal bank account after UGA’s previous athletic administration declined his requests for increased compensation for those parties.

What an awful human being, huh? How dare Mark Richt try to fairly compensate some of his assistants! I mean come on, what was the guy thinking?

Turns out Richt’s generosity was not limited to those three coaches; he also took care of some other athletic department employees.

In December 2009, due to “difficult economic conditions being experienced by the University,” the athletic department decided to not provide “bowl bonuses” to non-coach staff members. Richt went to senior associate AD Frank Crumley and asked him to provide a chart of who would have normally received bonuses and in what amount. Crumley provided that list and Richt paid 10 people – sports medicine director Ron Courson, video coordinator Joe Tereshinski, strength and conditioning coaches Keith Gray and Clay Walker, football operations manager Josh Brooks, high school relations director Ray Lamb and four administrative assistants — $15,227 out of his own pocket.

Those payments were not considered NCAA violations because they were made with the athletic department’s knowledge. I can see where the NCAA might have a concern — the under-the-table money could be problematic, and in some cases it could look like a coach is using the money to pay players. But it was pretty obvious in this case that Richt was just doing a good thing.

This story has changed my entire opinion of Mark Richt — even more than the kiss did.

Helmet knock to Eye on College Football