Huskies to self report secondary violation

Published 4:13 pm Thursday, January 29, 2009

I had a story in today’s paper about a possible recruiting violation, and indeed the Huskies will self report a secondary violation.

Husky coaches actually broke two rules on a recruiting trip in Southern Californian. For one, a junior was present, and coaches can’t have contact with juniors before July 1 after the student’s junior year, and also, a reporter was present, which is also a violation.

Here’s the statment put out by the school today:

UW To Self-Report Secondary NCAA Violation

The University of Washington athletic department will self-report a secondary violation of NCAA rules having to do with the football program, athletic director Scott Woodward said today.

The violation occurred when UW head coach Steve Sarkisian and assistant head coach Nick Holt met with two high-school seniors and their coach last week in Los Angeles. Also present at that meeting were a newspaper reporter and a junior teammate of the two players. It is not permissible for coaches to have off-campus contact with prospective student-athletes until July 1 prior to their senior year, nor is it permissible to have recruiting contact with prospects in the presence of media.

Neither UW coach was aware ahead of time that the junior student-athlete or the newspaper reporter would be present at the visit. Additionally, neither coach engaged either the reporter or the junior in conversation during the meeting.

“I want to make it clear that we do not tolerate NCAA violations,” Woodward said. “We, as a department, are committed to compliance with the rules. Coach Sarkisian and Coach Holt found themselves in an awkward situation that was not of their doing. They regret that the incident occurred, and I’m confident that they will handle similar circumstances differently in the future.”

The violation report will be submitted to the Pac-10 Conference. The UW will consult the Pac-10 on appropriate corrective measures.

The UW athletic department will have no further comment on this matter.