Just before the season started Georgia Tech rolled out some very well produced videos titled "The Process" that featured the program's philosophy and preparation leading into the 2013 season.
One of those episodes highlighted summer workout sessions, and in one of those clips a violation was spotted. Apparently, in the clip a strength coach was shown talking to the team and threatened consequences for a player that missed a "voluntary" summer workout. Since the workouts are "voluntary", technically a player can't be disciplined for being late.
Let's be honest. That's not the first, or last time that a strength coach at a major college program is going to have that exact same conversation with a player. However, I am willing to bet that it is the last time that it makes it into one of their promotional videos. Those videos will now be meticulously reviewed in the compliance office with a fine toothed comb (probably at least twice) before being released to the public.
In an effort to get out in front of the entire situation, Georgia Tech decided to administer a 12 minute penalty on themselves, meaning that a practice in August will be cut short 12 minutes. According to Ken Sugiura of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the way that punishments are usually assessed in cases like this follows a 2-for-1 model. Since the episodes included three segments at two minutes each, the punishment worked out to 12 minutes of (self-imposed) practice time being taken away.
Is it just me, or does this seems absolutely ridiculous on multiple levels?
Let this be a lesson for all coaches and strength staff out there; 1) NCAA rules state that you can't punish players for missing voluntary workouts, 2) take a very close look at the promotional videos you release to make sure that they don't include NCAA violations, and 3) a 12 minute penalty is laughable enough, but considering the "violation" in question, it's almost comical.