NU self-reports violation regarding textbooks

teachercd said:
I heard a story of a guy that used to walk into the bookstore, take books, put them in his bag, walk out and then have some of his frat buddies sell them back.
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They were losing money if they did that. Typically the books lose about 75% of their value when they walk out the door. There's huge money in textbooks. All you have to do is make minor changes to the same text and you can sell it again next year as the "new" textbook, and last year's basically has zero value.

EDIT - I did it twice in one thread! I misread what you were saying there. I thought you meant he bought the books. My bad. The devaluation of the books is still true, though. Just not pertinent.

 
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The "recommended" and "required" text book designation is just stupid. Its up to the individual professors as to what is recommended and what is required. One professor may say a textbook is the only thing required while another may require the textbook and solutions manual. Any other textbook scholarship allows you to get recommended books using the scholarships. The athletes really got no extra benefit, as most recommended books are available in resource centers - you just can't take them home with you.

This whole issue was just messed up. Any student can go into the bookstore and ask for help finding books for a class, it was the bookstore employees who mistakenly gave the athletes the recommended books, even when specifically asked if they were covered under athletic scholarships.

 
Personally, i feel that the the timing of this shows that Nebraska is just making a giant mockery of all that is going on violation wize in the world of college sports. Ha. "Um NCAA, we wont take up too much of your time, beins you have so much going on with major violations at some many other major programs, but we discovered that we accidentally gave our players -ready??- FREE BOOKS" To me this is just hilarious. Yes I know this is not seriously the case, but with all the crap going on around the country with scandals and violations, and we in the midst of it all come out to admit we gave away to many books, to our student athletes?! Epic.

 
Lets just hope the NCAA sees this as minor as the fans do. This effects 19 sports and if they decide there are other issues in one it could inadvertently lead to bigger problems with sanctions that aren't really warrented.

 
The athletic department knew about the violations months ago. There were student-athletes who had to pay a couple hundred dollars to charity within a couple days or miss athletic contests (I know baseball and track and field athletes were in this situation, I don't know about any other sports), because once the athletic department had knowledge, the athletes were ineligible until the money was paid to a charity. I'm assuming they didn't release the story right away because they wanted to find out who should be held responsible before self-reporting.

 
Oh great. No more recommended textbooks for jocks. There goes our secret advantage in getting Academic All-Americans.

 
Since it was a small, self-reported deal that included all the money-losing sports I can't see much of anything coming of this.

 
This will not amount to anything. Nebraska put itself on 2-year probation, fined itself $28,000, self-reported to the NCAA, and the infraction itself is minor to begin with. Not even ESPN can blow this up enough to make it newsworthy.

The only way this becomes a thing is if some of the "recommended books" turn out to be "playstation games" and then we're screwed. But Sipple's commentary mentioned a researcher who had literally gone through the book transactions of every student-athlete since 2007 before filing the report to the NCAA.

If this gets reported on at all, or if the NCAA says anything about it, it should be used as an example of exactly how athletic departments should behave.

 
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How dare they give the students more books they won't read.

I completely see how this is improper, though. But not nefarious.

 
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I'd like to point out for the record that this problem began in 2007 the year that Shawn Watson became (in title) the offensive coordinator and ended with his departure. I think we all know who's really to blame here.

 
By way of comparison, Alabama had a similar - but not the same - situation in 2007. The total value of the textbooks they received was around $40k, there were 201 athletes involved, and Alabama was forced to vacate a total of 21 wins from 2005-2007.

The key difference here is probably that 22 of those athletes knew that they were getting improper benefits, while our athletes say they did not know they weren't supposed to be getting these books. Also in Alabama's case, some of their athletes were getting books for boyfriends/girlfriends, and we were not. Again, allegedly.

Here's the NCAA's ruling on the 'Bama scandal:

NCAA Ruling on the Alabama Textbook Scandal
The decision by the NCAA Infractions Committee concerning the improper distribution of textbooks by University of Alabama student-athletes was announced this afternoon. The penalties include three years probation, vacation of records, and a $43,900 fine. No scholarships will be lost.

A total of 201 student athletes from 16 sports including football were involved and the total value of the improper benefits was $40,000. The committee found that 22 of the athletes receiving almost $22,000 in benefits who were aware they were impermissible.

University of Alabama officials said they were disappointed at the severity of the penalties given no competitive advantage was gained for any sport and "not one athlete pocketed one dollar" in the scheme. Athletic Director Mal Moore said the university would "carefully consider our options regarding an appeal."

According to the university's response to the NCAA, scholarship student-athletes were acquiring texts and materials of a value greater than $100 for girlfriends, boyfriends, or other student-athletes. The athletes were also receiving non-required textbooks and materials in addition to the required items for their classes.

When the textbook scheme was brought to light in the middle of the 2007 Crimson Tide football season, five players were suspended for four games due to their participation.
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Alabama also self-reported their violations. They were not required to lose any scholarships, nor did they incur a post-season ban.

 
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