[log in to unmask] wrote:
: At a press conference in Orono earlier today, Tupper said that AD Mike
: Plosek was not at fault in the fiasco because he was "traumatized"when
: he found out aboutthe mess, and that is why he did not react properly.
: He went on to say that Woody Carville was the one at fault for not
: informing the coaches that they were going to be using ineligible
: players himself.
 
It's hard to tell if John was misinformed, misheard, or just chose his
words badly but this report doesn't reflect what I heard over the radio
yesterday.
 
In Tupper's report, he did not absolve Carville or Ploszek of
responsibility. In fact it was not his charge really to assign blame, but
rather to detail the break down that took place. Briefly:
 
Carville--Tupper said that Carville stumbled in a couple places. He did
not notify anybody as soon as he had been told by his student worker of
the problem. Then, while he is actually responsive to the Registrar's
office (read Ploszek is NOT his boss) he told only Ploszek. Tupper felt
that he should have told others, including the various coaches and despite
whatever Ploszek may have said to him.
 
Ploszek--Tupper brought up the idea of Ploszek being traumatized to
explain his actions, not to relieve him of the responsibility of them. I
believe he said something to the effect that it was "unconscionable" for
him to allow 2 athletes whose eligiblility was in question participate in
athletic events. However, he (Tupper) felt any delay in notifying NCAA was
an attempt to make double sure the facts were right, that there were no
other similar problems in past years and that this delay did not reflect a
cover-up or the intent to cover-up.
 
Hutchinson--Even President Hutchinson was criticized. Tupper felt that as
the chief officer of the U of Maine, Hutchinson was ultimately responsible
for making sure the proper people had been notified and proper steps taken
to ensure the athletes in question would not participate and NCAA would be
informed. He was notified of the problem before the weekend in question
and his error, apparently, was in taking for granted that his subordinates
would take care of the situation properly.
 
The athletes--Tupper found the athletes affected by this to be totally
innocent. They relied in good faith on the advice from the Compliance
Office and in no way had any hand in this incident.
 
I hope this clears up this report for some of you. Hutchinson will be
announcing his plans for Ploszek and Carville Real Soon Now. I'm sure
someone will post when he announces
 
-- John Grover
 
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John Grover                             "When you pray for rain,"
Computing Center                        "you got to deal with the mud."
University of Maine System                    -- Denzel Washington