The congratulatory phone call Geno Auriemma made to Little League phenom Mo’Ne Davis apparently is an NCAA violation after all.
Multiple news outlets in Connecticut reported Thursday afternoon that the NCAA deemed Huskies’ coach Geno Auriemma’s two-minute conversation with Davis a secondary violation.
The specific rule is NCAA bylaw 13.1.3.1, which states the following:
“Telephone calls to an individual (or his or her relatives or legal guardians) may not be made before September 1 at the beginning of his or her junior year in high school (subject to the exceptions below). If an individual attends an educational institution that uses a nontraditional academic calendar (e.g., Southern Hemisphere), telephone calls to the individual (or his or her relatives or legal guardians) may not be made before the opening day of classes of his or her junior year in high school.”
The ruling has caused quite a bit of confusion. As Blue Star Media’s Dick Weiss noted earlier today, the NCAA does not consider an athlete a college prospect before reaching high school. Davis, who led the Taney Dragons team from Philadelphia into the Little League World Series, is 13 years old and is in the eighth grade.
UConn athletics director Warde Manuel was quoted as saying that the school disagreed with the decision. He said that before Auriemma called Davis, the coach checked with, and received clearance, from the UConn compliance office. Said Manuel:
“While UConn will continue to adhere to the NCAA and conference rules, I believe that upon request from a friend to Geno, a proud Philadelphian, to call a young lady representing the City of Brotherly Love who had accomplished historic feats in the Little League World Series, should not constitute a violation especially due to the fact that NCAA rules do not classify Mo’ne as a prospective student-athlete.”
Auriemma said earlier this week that a conference representing a school outside of the American Athletic Association made a complaint about Auriemma’s call to the league office.
NCAA compliance expert John Infante noted the use of the word “individual” included in the bylaw language, which would cover more that athletes the NCAA considers college prospects. In The Sporting News, Infante wrote that what Auriemma did technically is a violation, but he doesn’t think it should be.
I’m not one to round off on the NCAA because so many do it and it’s so ridiculously easy but this one’s a real head-scratcher. For a brief moment when I first heard Geno had called Davis I wondered if he should have done that. I never thought anything like this would come about.
Then again, how long have I been covering women’s college basketaball? Almost 25 years now, and this is about as petty an incident as I’ve heard.
In 2008, UConn self-reported a secondary violation to the NCAA after the SEC complained about a visit that Moore, then a high school star, made to ESPN headquarters. The trip was arranged by a UConn women’s basketball staffer, and then-Tennessee coach Pat Summitt asked her conference to formalize the complaint.
The acrimony between Summitt and Auriemma that revolved heavily around Moore’s recruitment eventually led to the cancellation of the UConn-Tennessee rivalry.
In the case that was reported this week, both the school and the conference have not yet been identified. Auriemma wouldn’t do so in previous interviews, but said that “it shows you not only what is wrong for things that go on but also with some of the people that I coach against.”
In interviews during her Little League run, Davis said one of her ultimate goals in sports is to play point guard for UConn, and she was seen wearing a Huskies’ jersey at the WNBA playoffs in Minnesota, where she visited with Moore of the Lynx, the league’s newly named MVP.
On Wednesday, Davis was feted by the Los Angeles Dodgers, who invited her to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. One of her autograph seekers was Yasiel Puig.
