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Michigan to hold practices in Rome

tante

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So last year Michigan held practices at IMG in Florida, and SEC coaches were upset. At the coaches meeting last week they voted to ban off campus trips for practice, starting in August. So what does Jim do? He schedules the team to practice in Rome. Just a gigantic middle finger to the rest of the P5. The whole trip seems like a compliance nightmare as you can't give the student athletes any improper benefits.

https://www.google.com/amp/detroit....or-a-week-of-education-and-spring-drills/amp/

Michigan Football will travel to Rome, Italy, after finals toward the end of winter semester in April for an extraordinary life experience during the spring practice season. The players and staff will use three of the allotted 15 spring football practices in Rome, training at AS Roma, the professional Italian football (soccer) club in the city.
During the trip to Rome, the Wolverines will be immersed in the culture of Italy. The team will visit historic landmarks, spend time with youth at orphanages and visit deployed U.S. military in the country amongst other team activities. The experience will culminate with a youth clinic and the team will play a scrimmage that will be open to the Italian public.
 
sackman said:
You gotta be kidding me. How is this possibly legal?
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Of course it is legal. It doesn't provide any kind of advantage to Michigan. NCAA needs to spend their time on serious matters like providing a meal for some walk-ons.
 
Seems cool, culture is always good, also don't college basketball teams do stuff like this as well. I seem to remember CU doing some sort of European tour.
 
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I gotta say, if an AD has money coming out its ears, this seems like a better idea than facilities improvment to install gold plated toilets with built-in Beats speakers.
 
hokiehead said:
What about this sound illegal to you? In any way? Don't you travel internationally yourself?
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Not illegal in the classic sense of somebody would go to jail over it, but illegal in the NCAA "no improper benefits to student athletes" sense. Do all th students at Michigan get a free trip to Rome? Is there an NCAA sanctioned event taking place in Rome? Will any other schools be there? Could any school join them?
 
The Monk said:
Seems cool, culture is always good, also don't college basketball teams do stuff like this as well. I seem to remember CU doing some sort of European tour.
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More like the NCAA passed a rule against doing road trips for spring practiced in reaction to Harbaugh practicing at IMG Academy in Florida for part of spring ball last year. Starting next year, teams can't do this. So Harbaugh decided to go out with a big F.U. bang the last year this type of thing is allowed.
 
sackman said:
Not illegal in the classic sense of somebody would go to jail over it, but illegal in the NCAA "no improper benefits to student athletes" sense. Do all th students at Michigan get a free trip to Rome? Is there an NCAA sanctioned event taking place in Rome? Will any other schools be there? Could any school join them?
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"not illegal in the sense of illegal, but illegal in the sense of non-compliant"
 
Our women's lacrosse team just spent 10 days in Australia, so there must be some by-laws in the NCAA that permits these trips. Big difference is the $$ it would require to send an entire football team and staff to Italy - would break the bank for probably > 95% of the schools out there.
 
sackman said:
Not illegal in the classic sense of somebody would go to jail over it, but illegal in the NCAA "no improper benefits to student athletes" sense. Do all th students at Michigan get a free trip to Rome? Is there an NCAA sanctioned event taking place in Rome? Will any other schools be there? Could any school join them?
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Any other school could do this if they had the money. It favors schools with money so that's why the NCAA is closing the off-site practice loophole that Harbaugh is exploiting to give some cookies to his players.

All other students don't deserve exactly every identical opportunity. I traveled to Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Tucson and Austin on the school's dime as part of my professional development as a scientist, and as somewhat of a reward for the times that I slept in the lab instead of going home because I had to run experiments and for the 30-40 hours a week of unpaid work that I did as part of my training. Because I got to travel on the school's dime, should every other student who didn't have research to present at a meeting have got a free trip too? Because there were other conferences and training seminars nearby should I have been told that the cities that I got to visit were not options?
 
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jkppkjjkp said:
Any other school could do this if they had the money. It favors schools with money so that's why the NCAA is closing the off-site practice loophole that Harbaugh is exploiting to give some cookies to his players.

All other students don't deserve exactly every identical opportunity. I traveled to Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Tucson and Austin on the school's dime as part of my professional development as a scientist, and as somewhat of a reward for the times that I slept in the lab instead of going home because I had to run experiments and for the 30-40 hours a week of unpaid work that I did as part of my training. Because I got to travel on the school's dime, should every other student who didn't have research to present at a meeting have got a free trip too? Because there were other conferences and training seminars nearby should I have been told that the cities that I got to visit were not options?
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How, exactly, does this trip advance these players professional development?
 
sackman said:
Not illegal in the classic sense of somebody would go to jail over it, but illegal in the NCAA "no improper benefits to student athletes" sense. Do all th students at Michigan get a free trip to Rome? Is there an NCAA sanctioned event taking place in Rome? Will any other schools be there? Could any school join them?
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From a Title 9 perspective, maybe 85 women wolverine scholarship athletes will get to do a little foreign traveling and practicing, too.
 
sackman said:
How, exactly, does this trip advance these players professional development?
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It doesn't but it gives them a chance to see a part of the world many of them wouldn't in life. That's fine by me for them to see something they might not ever get to.
 
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sackman said:
How, exactly, does this trip advance these players professional development?
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I did not mean to imply the standard was professional development must happen for travel to be ok; that said, practice is development. Global travel is a particularly valuable experience, as a team this is also a team building experience. Michigan also had some mention of players staying abroad to pursue educational opportunities and internships.

I'm taking the stance that the University should make opportunities and incentives available to students participating in extra-curricular activities. Sometimes, there will be some frivolous characteristics of said opportunities; i.e. going to Rome may be overkill. I don't think Michigan is out of line in using resources to provide enriched experiences to their student athletes. Title IX should be looked at here to ensure that the boys aren't always getting the goodies, and the NCAA has every right to try to create rules to keep competitive balance at each school.

I don't love the idea of paying football players, but I'm OK with some of these types of "compensation" for their work. Part of the trip can be seen as a reward for their work in the weight room, film study, and on the practice field. If we can show that UofM is neglecting other athletes or students then criticising the trip is fair game, otherwise it's not a bad thing that these kids, who are working their tails off, get a little benefit that isn't cash, strippers, cars, drugs, or swag.
 
Michigan made Harbaugh the highest paid football coach (College or NFL), and they recently hired Pep Hamilton away from the Browns making him the 3rd assistant coach on their staff who will make more than $1M a year. That Big 10 money must be nice.
 
That's not really Big-10 money lol, that's just Michigan being Michigan. Largest living alumni base in the country and countless big money boosters who care about academics and athletics.
 
I could give a **** what Michigan does, **** them and Harbaugh. He's hilarious but a ****ing weirdo.
 
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