Seven behaviors coaches can change in order to build a better partnership with Compliance
By Robert Greim
Coaches need all the support they can get when it comes to building a championship program. Of all the offices within an Athletics department, a solid partnership with your Compliance officer can help you navigate many obstacles to success while providing your staff with a trustworthy advocate who will keep you safe in the performance of your duties. This article provides brutally honest suggestions to help you make Compliance professionals a steadfast ally. Before you read further, just know that you will need to let go of any preconceived ideas about the relationship between coaches and Compliance and open your mind to a new paradigm.
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Avoid viewing Compliance as the police and start calling them your legislative support staff. Many people don’t know this, but the primary charge of Compliance is education, not investigation. Think about it; when heavy drama occurs within an athletics department, the NCAA’s Enforcement staff comes in to investigate, not your chief Compliance officer. While it’s true that the Compliance office must monitor your behavior by asking for documents and stopping in at practice, they are not internal affairs. It might be said in jest but referring to Compliance as the police or Big Brother doesn’t make for a healthy work environment for them; you can help by changing your vocabulary.
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Avoid giving hypothetical scenarios to your Compliance office when asking “may I” questions and start giving as many exact details as you can; you are in a safe space. One assistant men’s basketball coach at a DI non-football institution made me a better Compliance professional because he was always 100% honest about what he wanted to accomplish when recruiting and let me know about the sometimes-awkward scenarios his recruits were in. If a Compliance professional knows about AAU shenanigans and questionable junior college activities or other nefarious actors, he can advise you properly and protect you and your program from unexpected drama.
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Avoid publicly doubting the guidance offered to you by your chief Compliance officer when you are around your coaching colleagues and instead, start asking for clarification directly from Compliance on the front end. If a different Compliance officer in the past has allowed you to approach a situation differently than your current Compliance officer, just explain that to her. She will be willing to vet it with her colleagues and try her best to find an ethical way to help you accomplish your goal. These different interpretations are part of the “Seven keys to understanding frustration with legislation”, which you can read about in the January/February 2019 Journal of NCAA Compliance (www.hackneypublications.com).
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Avoid trying to fix rules violations and start just reporting them. A head football coach I worked with at an FCS school had his most successful season when he stopped obsessing over matters outside of his control and started focusing on winning football games. If his staff practiced too long, he just reported it and moved on. If a student-athlete endorsed a business on Twitter, he just reported it and moved on. He realized there was no need for him to build his own legal defense because that is the job of a good Compliance officer. Remember, Level III violations are a good thing; the national office expects a few each year and they do not stay on a coach’s permanent record. Also, it looks worse to Enforcement if you go a few years without a Level III because you are either not monitoring your behavior or not being educated about new legislation.
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Avoid trying to micromanage department processes outside of your scope and start buying in. That same head football coach realized there was no need to get mired in the weeds of course selection, scholarship check processing, campus parking ticket excuses and the like. Instead, he let Compliance create student-friendly processes for these matters and decided to publicly endorse them. He realized he had been spending 50% of his energy fighting bureaucracy and trying to find ways around processes when he could spend just 3% of his energy getting people to buy in. You are an expert in your sport and your team will be successful if only they buy into your system. Likewise, your Compliance officer is an expert in administration, and you will be successful if only you buy in.
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Avoid using language that blows situations out of proportion and start saving your passionate conversations for times that are more appropriate. In Athletics, if every single one of your recruits is portrayed as the difference maker you absolutely have to land, if every data entry error related to CARA or study hall hours is cause for an ear-shattering reprimand, if every NCAA waiver is approached as a life-and-death decision, your passion in those cases might eventually start to fall on deaf ears. Everyone knows the story of the boy who cried wolf and how after so many times of escalating a situation, people stopped taking him seriously. While good coaches are often passionate, saving that emotion for the right time will make it more impactful when you display it.
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Avoid only thanking Compliance professionals when they get a waiver approved, and start including them in staff activities. It may seem over-simplified but being treated to a non-work-related lunch, receiving a quarter-zip pullover just like the coaching staff wears, being invited to happy hours, or joining the team for a pre-game meal means more than you know.
SPC Athletics will visit your campus to lead your coaches and Compliance staff through an honest workshop that will reset the relationship into a healthy partnership. Text “compliance advice” to 573-587-2137 and visit spcathleticsconsulting.com
