Posted by stinenavy on 4/19/2013 11:37:00 PM (view original):
So what's your take on you violating the 1000 mile rule listed on the fair play guidelines?
ill just come out and say it up front - my take is kind of a cop out, to be honest - in one regard - but i think there is also some validity to my defense here, so bear with me. its a combination of a couple things. first, for context, the fairplay guidelines are unclear and what they say and what they mean (evidenced by the response to certain issues) are often significantly out of whack. taking fair play guidelines as written, literally, often violates the spirit of the law, and often leads to conclusions which are not consistent with how CS views the issues (evidences by their actions). that perspective is important to my stance on this one.
secondly, the old rule was, "you couldnt have 2 teams in the same division, in the same geographic region". when the rule got changed, what i remember hearing about is that it was changed to be 1000 miles, to eliminate the subjectivity. when rules changed, i did reread the fairplay guideilnes, and that sounded reasonable to me. ive had SIUE and South Carolina together much longer than i considered the possibility that having two teams *in different divisions* within 1000 miles was not allowed. simply reading the rules, nothing was mentioned, and i didnt think of it - and ive never seen *anything* from CS that makes it clear that you cant have rules in different divisions.
so, having SIUE and south carolina, when some time ago (like 8 months maybe), there was a thread where someone questioned someone who had 2 teams, but they were in different divisions, 1000 miles apart. then, i realize the fair play guidelines JUST say 1000 miles apart, which generally, without specifying if same division or not, would suggest it doesnt matter, 1000 miles is the rule no matter what the division. however, i chose not to press the issue or get clarification, and thats the cop out. i probably should have but i honestly can say, i figured it was at least a 50/50 chance that seble meant to change the regional thing to 1000 miles and didnt intentionally change the divisional rule. however, given the thread from 2 days ago, im pretty sure he will respond "doesnt matter what division" if he is asked, right now. a year ago? i could very easily see it going either way. CS should make these rule changes clear, and they dont, and i didnt take it upon myself to clarify. i have not picked up teams in different divisions within 1000 miles since becoming aware it was possibly not allowed. ive had SIUE for 5 years, and ivr legally had a d1 team in d1 tark within 1000 miles of that school, for most of my d1 career. legally. i have no clue if CS meant to outlaw that or not, but i felt i had a reasonable cause to believe that the intention was really to change the "within the same region" part to 1000 miles. and i still have never seen teams moved for being within 1000 miles in different divisions - while ive seen a handful in the same division.
so, in summary, im not convinced im breaking the rules, even though i admit its kind of a cop out not to know and not to ask. i do think seble would say division doesnt matter today, but i think there are really good odds that was not his intention, and he would have said it has to be the same division, if asked when he changed the rule. furthermore, i think i had those 2 teams before the rule changed, and i dont recall seble asking the community to change teams on their own. when asked, he said he would make a coach move, immediately or at the end of the season, if brought up to him. this has always been a grey area and the longest standing rule - even when it WASNT the rule - was that you could do whatever you wanted with multiple teams as long as you didnt negatively impact everybody, AKA, as long as nobody complained. so this is not a black and white issue even if the rule is black and white, and its not, and i believe i had the teams before hand too, which is meaningful because when asked about existing coaches, seble has said he would enforce the rule if pressed (as opposed to saying, those coaches needed to immediately comply) - which to me suggests he really was not trying to make existing coaches move - rather, to have a solid defense when he moved a coach who did something that caused someone to complain about it.