Photo : John Bazemore ( AP The NCAA’s new transfer waiver rule lets players make the case that they should be allowed to play right away at their new schools, so long as their transfer was triggered by hardships beyond their control. Holding aside, for the moment, that requiring a waiver in the first place is bogus and unfair, probably nobody in the NCAA anticipated this process would open precisely the can of worms that has now been opened for Texas A&M, where the hardships being described by an outgoing transfer include a whole damn catalogue of violations. Advertisement Linebacker Santino Marchiol left Texas A&M this summer, after redshirting as a freshman last season while recovering from ankle surgery. Marchiol has since enrolled at Arizona and is practicing with their football team, under Kevin Sumlin, who originally recruited him to A&M but was fired last November. Marchiol would like to play right away at Arizona, without sitting out a year as a transfer, something NCAA rules only make possible if Marchiol can show his transfer from A&M is due to “documented mitigating circumstances that are outside student-athlete’s control and directly impact the health, safety and well-being of the student-athlete.” Marchiol’s case here is both reasonable and righteous: he says Fisher’s program is exploitative and corrupt, and is not what players recruited by Sumlin signed up for. If demonstrating that case means shedding light on violations, responsibility for that shouldn’t fall on a player with a full year of eligibility at stake. What Marchiol describes in this USA Today report includes optional offseason summer workouts being turned into mandatory practices; pre-dawn “academic” sessions being used for film study; clandestine cash transfers between coaches and players, for recruiting purposes; and, of course, the same kind of toxic and insane disregard for player health that was recently exposed in the football program at Maryland. You might find yourself having a hard time getting very worked up about the recruiting violations described here—a couple cash-loaded handshakes between coaches and those players who’ve been assigned to “make sure [recruits] have a good time” during unofficial visits, amounting to a few hundred bucks spent on snacks and drinks—but the stuff about abusing players’ time and bodies should resonate with anyone who recoiled at the reports out of Maryland. Marchiol describes his football commitments as more like a full-time job, clogging the hours before, during, and after his school schedule every day, with conditioning sessions held as early as 5:15 in the morning, and “voluntary” sessions that were run as mandatory practices by barking coaches who are prohibited by NCAA rules from even attending these workouts: While the bylaws are vague enough to allow for wide latitude — in other words, 7-on-7 isn’t a real offensive or defensive alignment — Marchiol described sessions that mirrored a standard football practice. “We’d be in our defense running our plays and if the offense caught a ball you’d see Elko go running over and go, ‘What the f—-? You’re supposed to (cover) here over the top,’” Marchiol said, describing a voluntary workout. And it sounds very much like Fisher is running a standard, D.J. Durkin-esque, “Junction Boys Syndrome*” style conditioning program. For example, Marchiol had three screws inserted in his left foot as a freshman, to correct a Lisfranc fracture. On June 11 he was training with the team when he heard a “pop” and felt pain in the foot [CORRECTION: The “pop” was in Marchiol’s right, non-surgically repaired foot] . Director of athletic training Dan Jacobi and athletic trainer Dalis Boyette reportedly rubbed Tiger Balm on the foot, taped it up, advised Marchiol to take a couple ibuprofen, and sent him back out for more, much to his discomfort: He practiced the rest of the week and said his lower leg continued to swell and showed significant bruising. Marchiol said he believes he was pushed to play through the injury because of a belief coaches frequently shared loudly with the players: The Aggies program had been like a country club under Sumlin. In fact, he said, everything in the message of Fisher and his assistants had been themed to demand more toughness, from the duration of workouts to the language coaches used on the field to players being told outright that highly rated recruits were coming to replace them. “They called us soft all the time,” Marchiol said. “They kept telling us, ‘This is gonna get worse, you haven’t seen shit.’ “ Advertisement Marchiol spent that practice running 24 100-yard sprints, “until he could not feel his ankle anymore.” A week later, he left the program altogether. Marchiol reportedly did not contact the NCAA directly with his observations, but detailed them in a letter to Arizona’s compliance office, as part of his effort to receive a transfer waiver and play this upcoming season for Sumlin at Arizona. Texas A&M told USA Today that they “are reviewing the situation with the NCAA and the SEC Office.” You should read the whole report, it’s really something.<doc-sep>Former Texas A&M linebacker Santino Marchiol is alleging that Texas A&M violated multiple NCAA rules under new coach Jimbo Fisher, according to a report from USA Today. Marchiol, a rising redshirt freshman who followed former Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin to Arizona, claims that he was given cash by staff members to host prospects on unofficial visits, the new staff organized summer practices that are not permitted by NCAA rules and the staff pushed him to work through an ankle injury in an attempt to change the culture of the program. The cash was allegedly given to Marchiol by linebackers coach Bradley Dale Peveto on two separate occasions. He alleges that he received $300 in a bathroom from Peveto after the spring game, and $400 in June to host another prospect. "You know how you tip people in Vegas? He had the cash in his hand and he like handed it to us like, here (with a handshake)," Marchiol told USA Today. The remaining allegations both point to a culture change that Fisher has been trying to instill in College Station. Marchiol claims that coaches were present during offseason conditioning far beyond the eight hours per week they are allotted under NCAA rules. The alleged practices included coaches operating as if they were normal practices that take place during camp, and Marchiol believes the coaching staff -- including defensive coordinator Mike Elko -- knew that it was breaking the rules. "[Elko] said, 'We're going to have a lot of meetings and practices that aren't technically required, but you guys have to be here because you're way behind. We need to win,'" Marchiol told USA Today. Fisher was asked at SEC media days about comments he made prior to the event about the players being "soft" when he got to College Station. "No. I didn't say [soft] -- I just said we're going to play tough," he said. "How they played, I have no idea. I have no idea and again did not refer to anything back. And it's hard to -- the way a coach plays his team until you understand and been in his shoes and understand that team, I think it's very hard to say anything about him. I just say we have to play with great toughness. We have to play with tremendous physicality. I think the teams in this league that win, the teams that win national championships, and the success we had at Florida State, that's how we played." Marchiol's third allegation claims the staff rushed him back from an ankle injury that continued to swell in order to instill that "toughness." Fisher has been adamant about how things need to change in Aggieland ever since taking over the job. "In our short time in A&M, we've been there since December, I've been very busy trying to establish the things and put the culture in place in which we think we have to have to be successful in this league, as I know this is as good a league as there is in college football," he said at SEC media days. "And we know that you'll be challenged every week, so there's a way in which you have to go about things and a process in which things have to be done to get the results in which you need. There's no shortcut. Because, like I said, whatever you don't – the 'I' you don't dot, the 'T' you don't cross gets exposed in this league they quickly." This story came to light not because Marchiol held a grudge against his former school, but because he wants to play at his new one. He told USA Today that the NCAA is looking into the matter after he filed a waiver to gain immediate eligibility at Arizona due to new transfer legislation passed in April by the NCAA Division I Council. Amendment 5 (a) allows players to receive a waiver for immediate eligibility if "the transfer is due to documented mitigating circumstances that are outside the student-athlete's control and directly impact the health, safety and well-being of the student-athlete." As a result of the attempt to gain eligibility under that amendment, Marchiol documented the allegations in the waiver request, which is still pending according to USA Today. Marchiol was a four-star prospect from IMG Academy in Florida in the class of 2017. Texas A&M opens the 2018 season on Aug. 30 against Northwestern State.<doc-sep>
When rules change, there are always bound to be unintended consequences. The college football world saw one of those revealed Tuesday following in a situation that could open the floodgates for how potential NCAA violations are reported. Former Texas A&M linebacker Santino Marchiol -- now at Arizona with former Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin -- accused new TAMU coach Jimbo Fisher of multiple NCAA violations in a report by USA Today. Those allegations include cash payments from linebackers coach Bradley Dale Peveto to current players (in order to host prospects on unofficial visits), coaches running hands-on practices and study sessions far beyond the eight-hour-per-week limit allowed under NCAA rules, and a potential misdiagnosis of an ankle injury that resulted in pressure to play through pain. No matter whether you believe Fisher's new program is as dirty as a pig in mud or Marchiol has an axe to grind, the important part of the story is how these allegations came about. Marchiol, a redshirt freshman, didn't turn Texas A&M in to the NCAA -- at least, not directly. He detailed allegations against his former school in a waiver request to Arizona's compliance department as an attempt to get the NCAA to clear him to play for the Wildcats immediately. Why? Because new transfer legislation adopted by the NCAA Division I Council in April have provided that opportunity. Players can gain a waiver to play immediately if "the transfer is due to documented mitigating circumstances that are outside the student-athlete's control and directly impact the health, safety and well-being of the student-athlete." Again, documented mitigating circumstances. Think about what that actually means. The intent of the rule is to allow players -- in circumstances that are less-than-desirable for reasons they don't control -- to have a little bit more flexibility in their eligibility. That's great in theory, right? Here's the problem: If Fisher's attempt to change the culture at Texas A&M resulted in a misdiagnosis of Marchiol's injury, that has clearly impacted his health. Therefore, it must be documented. Don't blame Marchiol. He's just following the rules by reporting it. If an injury to a player occurs during an unauthorized practice, it must be documented in a transfer waiver request. Bam, there's an NCAA violation delivered on a silver platter. If a player -- willingly or unwillingly -- gets cash from a coach to host a prospect on an unofficial visit, that directly impacts the well-being of the student-athlete. After all, his eligibility is at risk. Let's document that, too. Could Marchiol be out to get Texas A&M? Possibly. I don't know, and quite honestly, I don't care all that much. That's between him and the new staff. It's not the point here. The bigger point is that Marchiol opened the eyes of an unintended consequence of legislation that is designed to benefit the student-athlete but could come at the expense of institutions that players are departing. What if a player does hold a grudge against a program or staff member, wants to do what's best for himself and wouldn't mind taking that program or staff member down in the process? It's simple: File a waiver for immediate eligibility and spill all of the beans. That player might not gain his eligibility, but if the NCAA comes calling at the old school, it still serves part of its purpose, right? This puts enormous pressure on coaching staffs around the country. They have to make sure that the corners they do cut -- and let's be honest, there are plenty -- are not able to be documented. In Marchiol's case, text messages from current Aggies defensive coordinator Mike Elko are just one lane of the documentation road for NCAA investigators to go down. If those trade secrets are kept in house (in this case, say, with a burner phone), coaches better hope they don't have any disgruntled players. If they do, those trade secrets can get out by filing a simple transfer waiver request. Greater flexibility for transfer players is a good thing. It's why the transfer working group was created and why the NCAA adopted the legislation. But unintended consequences to rule changes always exist, and Marchiol's quest for immediate eligibility uncovered a massive one that may wind up being a huge deal for not just Texas A&M but all of college football.