Why ESPN and The General Media Still Don't Get It

ESPN's Joe Schad just doesn't get it. His generalized sound bites on ESPN (notably this one) fail to address the critical - and only - issue in this soon-to-be non-story: whether extra time spent on football was mandatory. Sadly, his report is also emblematic of the national reporting services' coverage of this issue.

For those folks not paying attention closely at home, the issue isn't how hard the players worked (for those details, check out the Free Press's original article, where you're likely to be inundated with hours, days, and numbers), where they were on Sundays (same), or how many bench presses they did.

The issue is whether hours spent above and beyond the NCAA limit were MANDATORY, i.e. REQUIRED, by the coaching staff. Yet the hours they worked is all we hear about.

Schad's recent piece cites one former starter and one current starter as saying they worked excessive hours, but the incomplete report is silent about the hours break-down, whether the players who commented knew certain activities were eligible for "counting" under the NCAA's rules (sorry Toney Clemons, eating dinner at Schembechler Hall doesn't count), and, most importantly, whether they were actually required to work those hours.

Schad says the players "told me that the report of excessive training and football activities is accurate. Both players told me they'd spend up to 12 hours on Sundays at the team facilities and that they put in workouts that were about twice as much as allowed in the off-season."

At first glance the above quote suggests that the kids are being drawn-and-quartered every week against their will. But what the quotes don't mention is whether the extra time was mandatory. It merely says there was excessive work. Shame on Schad. His unnamed sources and quotes don't address the only issue.

Surely, on any team, you're likely to find a few 18 and 19 year-old kids who think extra time is mandatory when coaches reward the guy next to them for voluntarily putting in extra work with the strength and conditioning coach. In these situations, they feel pressure to put in the extra work. But that's a far cry from having the coaching staff forcing it down your throats, evidence of which will never been uncovered. And it's a far cry from violating NCAA rules.

The critical and only issue is whether the "excessive training and football activities" were mandatory. Why don't journalists like Schad stop asking players how hard they work and start focusing on that?