My colleague Andy Bitter spoke with AD Whit Babcock this morning about the fines that Bud Foster mentioned for players yesterday. Some interesting responses for sure:
"AB: What did you find out about the proposed fine system?
WB: First things first: yesterday at practice, a guy that was watching practice just mentioned something to me about, ‘Hey, did you see on the team TV board something about a fine system?’ And I said, ‘No, I didn’t see that.’ I assumed, and I have seen this in other places, that if, let’s say we’re paying $9 an hour for a tutor and if a player misses a tutoring session that they have to pay that back. So I made a note to myself to talk to coach [Frank Beamer] and [director of operations] John Ballein today, and then I went on to the Blacksburg Sports Club and saw that it was much more than that. So what I’ve done, I’ve met with coach Beamer, John Ballein and coach Foster. We talked about it. There has been in place for a number of years, not to this extent, but for a number of years, a little bit of a, and I hate to use the word, but I can’t use another one, but a fine system, disciplinary for our players and such. And I think it’s come out of bowl type stuff. So I was not aware that we were doing that. It’s not against NCAA rules. It’s probably more prevalent than people think, but I was not aware of it. So I got up to speed on that. I got up to speed on the fact that certainly anything out of cost of attendance would not be permissible and I shut it all down. Now, I would also like to say this: I really admire coach Beamer, the behavior of our players, the accountability, the discipline, the clean program. I admire what he’s done. But I just think this is a new era and we all agreed this morning that we would stop this practice in total.
AB: Was the original idea to extend it to the cost of attendance or limit it to the bowl allowance?
WB: Thank you for asking. Bud just misspoke on that part. We do a lot of education on cost of attendance. I think what Bud was trying to say was discipline has changed over the years. Maybe some of the things that we did in the old days and physical punishment and things like that is maybe not good. I think what Bud was trying to say is he believes in discipline and that was one way to get the guys’ attention. I’ve also been told it’s not something that we had in the past acted on or that we have done some of that in the past, but no, none of it can be or was associated with cost of attendance. So that was Bud speaking alone and proposing something. But nobody had gotten fined under the new system and we squashed it.
AB: Are you shutting down the bowl allowance fines as well?
WB: All of it.
AB: Given the climate of college sports these days, was that concerning to you to find out a fine system for the bowl allowance had even been in place?
WB: Yes and no. Yes, it was surprising. I wasn’t aware of it. But I certainly don’t argue with coach Beamer’s track record of 29 years and how he does it. He runs it as good and as respectful as any place I’ve been, the player accountability. And we’re going to do what’s good for Virginia Tech. But there’s a number of schools that have some similar things. I’m just more used to being around it from the academic side. And we may actually revisit that part of it. I just felt like today it was better to knock it all out. Just because we’ve been doing something for a long time doesn’t mean we will. But academically, for example, if kids miss tutors or study halls or summer school and fail classes, I might -- might -- be open to some kind of accountability there. But anyways, some of it was surprising, but I don’t question coach Beamer’s track record or his method. It was just something that caught a lot of us a little by surprise. And I think Bud got out over his skis a little bit on that one.
AB: I know you delegate a lot and like to let programs on their own at Virginia Tech, without looking over their shoulder. Do you feel the need for a little more oversight after something like this or are you comfortable with your management style?
WB: Actually, I’m comfortable with it. And one thing that we did this year, because with the industry climate out there and team rules for all of our sports tend to evolve for all of our sports, right, with different coaches, we actually gathered up all of our team rules for every sport. We analyzed them. We had the general counsel’s office of the university analyze them. Because what you don’t want is inconsistencies from team to team. So I’m very pleased with the management of it. And again, the quote, fine situation, for academics and other things has been around for a long time. I just think the timing of it and the optics of it and Bud’s good intention, he just got out a little bit in front of himself, but I met with him and coach and John Ballein and we’re all on the same page and feel like there’s closure there. In the whole scheme of things, with everything we’ve got going on in the media today, especially in Roanoke, I wouldn’t say this is a huge deal comparatively, but it’s certainly something we wanted to be transparent about and bring closure to."
"AB: What did you find out about the proposed fine system?
WB: First things first: yesterday at practice, a guy that was watching practice just mentioned something to me about, ‘Hey, did you see on the team TV board something about a fine system?’ And I said, ‘No, I didn’t see that.’ I assumed, and I have seen this in other places, that if, let’s say we’re paying $9 an hour for a tutor and if a player misses a tutoring session that they have to pay that back. So I made a note to myself to talk to coach [Frank Beamer] and [director of operations] John Ballein today, and then I went on to the Blacksburg Sports Club and saw that it was much more than that. So what I’ve done, I’ve met with coach Beamer, John Ballein and coach Foster. We talked about it. There has been in place for a number of years, not to this extent, but for a number of years, a little bit of a, and I hate to use the word, but I can’t use another one, but a fine system, disciplinary for our players and such. And I think it’s come out of bowl type stuff. So I was not aware that we were doing that. It’s not against NCAA rules. It’s probably more prevalent than people think, but I was not aware of it. So I got up to speed on that. I got up to speed on the fact that certainly anything out of cost of attendance would not be permissible and I shut it all down. Now, I would also like to say this: I really admire coach Beamer, the behavior of our players, the accountability, the discipline, the clean program. I admire what he’s done. But I just think this is a new era and we all agreed this morning that we would stop this practice in total.
AB: Was the original idea to extend it to the cost of attendance or limit it to the bowl allowance?
WB: Thank you for asking. Bud just misspoke on that part. We do a lot of education on cost of attendance. I think what Bud was trying to say was discipline has changed over the years. Maybe some of the things that we did in the old days and physical punishment and things like that is maybe not good. I think what Bud was trying to say is he believes in discipline and that was one way to get the guys’ attention. I’ve also been told it’s not something that we had in the past acted on or that we have done some of that in the past, but no, none of it can be or was associated with cost of attendance. So that was Bud speaking alone and proposing something. But nobody had gotten fined under the new system and we squashed it.
AB: Are you shutting down the bowl allowance fines as well?
WB: All of it.
AB: Given the climate of college sports these days, was that concerning to you to find out a fine system for the bowl allowance had even been in place?
WB: Yes and no. Yes, it was surprising. I wasn’t aware of it. But I certainly don’t argue with coach Beamer’s track record of 29 years and how he does it. He runs it as good and as respectful as any place I’ve been, the player accountability. And we’re going to do what’s good for Virginia Tech. But there’s a number of schools that have some similar things. I’m just more used to being around it from the academic side. And we may actually revisit that part of it. I just felt like today it was better to knock it all out. Just because we’ve been doing something for a long time doesn’t mean we will. But academically, for example, if kids miss tutors or study halls or summer school and fail classes, I might -- might -- be open to some kind of accountability there. But anyways, some of it was surprising, but I don’t question coach Beamer’s track record or his method. It was just something that caught a lot of us a little by surprise. And I think Bud got out over his skis a little bit on that one.
AB: I know you delegate a lot and like to let programs on their own at Virginia Tech, without looking over their shoulder. Do you feel the need for a little more oversight after something like this or are you comfortable with your management style?
WB: Actually, I’m comfortable with it. And one thing that we did this year, because with the industry climate out there and team rules for all of our sports tend to evolve for all of our sports, right, with different coaches, we actually gathered up all of our team rules for every sport. We analyzed them. We had the general counsel’s office of the university analyze them. Because what you don’t want is inconsistencies from team to team. So I’m very pleased with the management of it. And again, the quote, fine situation, for academics and other things has been around for a long time. I just think the timing of it and the optics of it and Bud’s good intention, he just got out a little bit in front of himself, but I met with him and coach and John Ballein and we’re all on the same page and feel like there’s closure there. In the whole scheme of things, with everything we’ve got going on in the media today, especially in Roanoke, I wouldn’t say this is a huge deal comparatively, but it’s certainly something we wanted to be transparent about and bring closure to."
