what makes a violation?

since i am a die hard husky fan and have been hearing about the mess-ups of the new sarkisian regime nonstop on local sportstalk radio, i will use examples of recruiting violations that have been brought against the university of washington of late. though my husky-centric observations are just that, i think that they hold mult-conference implications.

with the disclaimer appropriately outlined, the uw has been slapped with two recruiting violations since sark took over. the first was that they set off a fog machine and put a recruit's name on the scoreboard of husky stadium while he was on his visit while sounding the trademark husky end-zone celebration siren. the ncaa brought a minor violation against the dawgs for "simulating a game environment." well, ncaa, that is awful silly. the main reason that is silly is that the huskies don't set off a fog machine during games for any reason under any circumstance. i have many friends that play for the dawgs and they are all getting quite a laugh out of this.

the second violation, which obviously is much more serious and legitimate is the fact that sark and nick holt brought a reporter to a kid's house in los angeles while they were visiting him. they also had a high school junior prospect pop in for a visit during all of this which is not kosher. the fact that the reporter came along isn't cool and a cut and dry violation, but the fact that another underclassman showed up is textbook recruiting. i know from my d-1 recruiting visits that coaches from all levels did that sort of thing, why just meet one kid when his friend who is a year younger can coincendentally pop in for a visit while bigtime college coaches are there? i know i did it and so did my friends, some of whom played and now play at schools such as uw and usc.

the ncaa has to keep a very close eye on these sorts of things for obvious reasons, but the uw coaches weren't giving anyone cars or houses (usc - r. bush) or locking kids in a hotel room forcing him to sign a letter of intent (oregon - jj arrington - it should be noted that the person who uncovered that oregon deal was jeff tedford. weird isn't it?).

anyway, the huskies got both of the kids with whom they were called for violations, so all i have to say about that is go dawgs.

gotta love the sark