Dennis “the Trader to his own players menace” Franchione is not having a good day. Today Texas A&M officials ordered him to shut down Coach Fran.com, he also was admonished by the university. The Athletic Director Bill Byrne went over the whole gathering of information process on his weekly web blog and points out that there have been NCAA violations which the school will report. Meanwhile I wonder if Coach Fran is pulling a Houston Nutt and contacting schools who might need a coach next year, or at least calling a moving company because I don’t think he’ll be their coach after this weekend.

“Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione will escape any serious sanctions because of his VIP Connection e-mail newsletter.

But he did not escape unscathed.

Here are the key restrictions he will face:

-Dennis Franchione will discontinue CoachFran.com.

-Franchione or any company under his contorl is to no longer employ any staff members that could be construed as representing Texas A&M or providing information or reports relative to his position as head coach at Texas A&M.

-A&M will issue a letter of admonishment to Franchione.

-The institution will reduce the number of permissible off-campus visits for each referenced prospective student athlete by one for each impermissible reference to the prospective student athete. The NCAA limit is 6 off campus contacts.

The confirms the income Franchione generated from the VIP Connection was unreported and therefore in violation of NCAA and his contract rules”

Yes I know the original author misspelled “control” & “Athlete” sheesh, talk about high journalism standards… Though Coach Fran escape sanctions by the NCAA this drama is far from being over with the A&M fan base and school officials.

“The school said it found no evidence that Franchione or McKenzie used any of the information they released for gambling or wagering purposes.

Fran generated $26,002.00 over two years for the VIP Connection newsletter in which he charged subscribers $1,200 annually. He also made a total of $80,339.53 with income from CoachFran.com. But his net profit was just $37,806.32 after expenses.”

He sold is soul for $37,806.32. I sold mine for Tennessee football tickets on the 50 yard line, yeah I came out ahead. Coach Fran also went against his contract with A&M that states they will not have to pay the buy clause if he is fired. I’m wondering what the hell they are waiting on.

Here’s what the AD had to say about this sordid situation on his weekly blog. God I love being able to use the word sordid it should be used more often.

First concerning Specific Big 12 and NCAA Issues.

“NCAA Rule:
11.2.2 Athletically Related Income. Contractual agreements, including letters of appointment, between a full-time or part-time athletics department staff member (excluding secretarial or clerical personnel) and an institution shall include the stipulation that the staff member is required to provide a written detailed account annually to the president or chancellor for all athletically related income and benefits from sources outside the institution. In addition, the approval of all athletically related income and benefits shall be consistent with the institution’s policy related to outside income and benefits applicable to all full-time or part-time employees.

Summary of Facts and Background:
Upon employing Dennis Franchione, Texas A&M University was aware of the external internet interests of Dennis Franchione, and it specifically included stipulations in Section 10 of his contract that outside income includes income generated through internet web sites. Through the 2005-06 academic year, Dennis Franchione has not reported the revenue/income received through the Internet web site, CoachFran.com, and the “VIP Connection.” He should have, but Dennis Franchione mistakenly thought that he did not have to report this income until he actually received proceeds from the third party web site consultant company that exceeded expenses incurred for maintaining and running the web site. Therefore, he did not report the revenue to the institution. Dennis Franchione did not directly receive any of the proceeds until June 26, 2007, and he would have reported the income as part of the institution’s upcoming 2006-07 outside income report.

Response from NCAA:
The NCAA membership services staff confirmed that the funds maintained by a third party web site consulting company to offset the expenses for CoachFran.com were income and should have been reported to appropriate institutional authorities in the interest of full disclosure, institutional control and the monitoring of employee activities. Therefore, Texas A&M University will report a violation to the NCAA.”

Concerning Recruiting

“NCAA Rule:
13.10.2 Comments Before Signing. Before signing a prospective student-athlete to a National Letter of Intent or an institution’s written offer of admission and/or financial aid, a member institution may comment publicly only to the extent of confirming its recruitment of the prospective student-athlete. The institution may not comment generally on the prospective student-athlete’s ability or the contribution that the prospective student-athlete might make to the institution’s team; further, the institution is precluded from commenting in any manner as to the likelihood of the prospective student-athlete’s signing with that institution. Violations of this bylaw do not affect a prospective student-athlete’s eligibility and are considered institutional violations per Constitution 2.8.1.

Summary of Facts:
Occasionally, the “VIP Connection” contained the name of prospective student-athletes or mentioned information specific to a prospective student-athlete without stating the prospect’s name.

Response from NCAA
The NCAA Membership Services staff has informed the institution that several of the comments discovered to have been made in the “VIP Connection” are contrary to this provision and should be reported as violations.”

That’s a biggie with the NCAA…I mean huge.

“The Big 12 principles and standards of sportsmanship include a standard for the conduct of administrators, coaches and student-athletes immediately preceding, during or following athletics events. This standard of conduct, including changes made by the Big 12 Board of Directors to prohibit any public comments on officiating or the quality of their work, was shared by Bill Byrne on December 12, 2006 with all members of the Texas A&M coaching staff and senior staff members group, which included Mike McKenzie. The comments contained in an April 13, 2007 “VIP Connection” e-mail appear inconsistent with the Big 12’s expected standard of conduct and has been reported to the Big 12 for appropriate actions.”

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So basically Coach Fran is Coach Fucked by his stupidity. In my opinion I believe they should fire him today or at the very latest Sunday. I’m sure those Alabama fans that were angry when left are thanking their lucky stars that he did leave. I’m going to be curious to see what sanctions the NCAA levels against A&M as well. If they (NCAA) don’t do anything much, then that will another story write after they, in my opinion, unfairly leveled Oklahoma over their QB. Which Oklahoma self reported and also immediately kicked that jerk out of school.

So I profess on this day 10/11/07.

TtT