Bad News for West Virginia on the Sports Betting Page. The West Virginia Mountaineers received bad news on Thursday that made the sports betting page. The NCAA has said that West Virginia committed five major rules violations and one secondary violation from 2005 to 2009. West Virginia will probably not be affected this season in terms of Internet sports betting but the NCAA could impose penalties down the road.
Sports betting page odds list West Virginia behind Pittsburgh and Cincinnati in the Big East. The Mountaineers have an exciting running back in Noel Devine but they are not considered national title contenders. West Virginia should have a winning season in 2010 but their future is a bit murky with possible NCAA sanctions hanging over their head.
The NCAA said that many of the violations occurred under former head coach Rich Rodriguez who is now at Michigan. The allegations say that Rodriguez and current head coach Bill Stewart did not do enough to ensure compliance to NCAA rules. The NCAA has said the same thing about Rodriguez in his time at Michigan. The NCAA has spent almost a year looking into violations that occurred under Rodriguez. The university has taken steps to try and avoid future violations as they reduced the number of football staff members and they reorganized the student manager program. Michigan earlier this year reduced the number of their assistant coaches and made other changes.
The list of violations at West Virginia goes back to 2005-2006. The NCAA said that between the 2005-06 and 2007-08 seasons, non-coaching staff members monitored and/or conducted skill-development activities with football players at least two days a week in the spring and summer. They also said that in that same time period non-coaching staff members analyzed video with football players. Another violation was that non-coaching staff members sat in on coaches’ meetings that they were not supposed to be at. Another violation was that from 2007-08 to 2009-10, non-coaching staff members provided advice and/or corrections to players in regards to technique and plays.
Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez is already under fire at Michigan for the violations at that school and the team’s poor performance and now he will face even greater scrutiny with the West Virginia violations. The Mountaineers may recover from the NCAA penalties but unless Rodriguez wins big at Michigan he may not.