NORMAN — In the year since the Oklahoma athletic department found out football players were getting paid for work they didn't perform, the university has made many improvements to its compliance department.
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Most of those changes aren't visible to OU fans. But at least one is.
Eight signs have been hung on concrete pillars in various spots inside Gaylord Family—Oklahoma Memorial Stadium that try to answer the question, "What is an extra benefit?”
The sign was developed by the revamped OU compliance department to inform fans of some examples of what the NCAA classifies as an extra benefit.
The signs touche on as many examples as possible in its three-foot-by-four-foot space, from giving a student-athlete a birthday card to providing free housing.
"It's certainly not an exhaustive list,” said OU's director of compliance Jason Leonard.
"Some of the stuff that's on there is just common knowledge. People would just understand that those things are an extra benefit. Something as simple as a birthday card could be an NCAA violation, and I don't think the general public knows that.”
The sign has been copied in a smaller version and included in the football game-day program as well, as OU tries to spread its message.
"The sign is a small part of our overall goal of improving our rules education in the community,” Leonard said. "We have 85,000 people per game, so if we can put up some signs in the stadium, those individuals will have an opportunity to read them and learn a little bit more about the rules that we're trying to present to the public.”
The toughest part about producing the sign was putting it in language that was easily understood — quite the opposite of the NCAA manual.
"We modified the sign a number of times,” Leonard said. "We wanted to make sure that the general public, when they read it once, they understood the meaning of it.”
The signs aren't an NCAA mandate as part of the probation the university was placed on earlier this summer. Rather, it was part of the continuing effort of the university and its compliance department to educate everyone involved about the rules.
"We just want to make sure that our boosters, alumni, etc., are educated on NCAA rules,” Leonard said. "The signs are a part of that.”
And only a small part.
The compliance department staff has been increased. They produce literature which is included in a variety of monthly or quarterly newsletters sent out by the university and other OU groups.
"We have created a rules education video for our student-athletes,” Leonard added. "Every year, our student-athletes are required to complete a bunch of packets, so we tried to make it easier for them to understand rules education, both for our new and existing student-athletes.
"We're just trying to do our part in educating our student-athletes and the public,” Leonard said. "There's a lot of NCAA rules that affect our student-athletes. Hopefully, it's helping out.”
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Well, let's see. When I was 18 I made something like 13,000 that year working full time at minimum wage. According to the OU website, the estimated yearly cost for attendance at OU for a resident is 14675 dollars, 23789 for a non-resident. So, it looks to me like an education in trade for playing football 4 months a year is a pretty good deal. How many people do you know that make 24000 dollars for four months work? I understand that the NCAA is making tons of money off what these athletes do, but do you think Dell Computers, Mobil Energy, or AT&T should pay employees extra income in addition to what they earn for working just because Dell makes a ton of money off what these people do? In addition, with the education they receive at OU, they are, more than likely, going to be compensated quite nicely when they acquire a career after football, as well. Don't kid yourself, college sports is a business and these athletes are well compensated for what they do. I wish someone would pay me 24000 dollars a year to play a game.
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