Sam McDonnell - he coached her at Newbury for 4 years and Im sure was close with her family. she went to Alabama but the moment UCLA hired Brosnan she transferred. ironically, she's not that great of a runner. I can understand getting fired for poaching a Young or Sahlman, but McDonnel? poor guy.
Haha classic!!! But yeah we knew this was going on.
When is the last time an NCAA track coach got caught cheating like this?
I think it isn’t that big of a deal but I honestly can’t remember a similar case. Cheating happens but how is he the only one to get caught… cover your tracks man
It was incredibly obvious. UCLA is a very good school and I can see how it'd be attractive to runners, especially those from California, but having multiple people commit within one day of entering the portal just is too obvious to ignore. If he was at Stanford it could appear more legit (I could see someone immediately committing there if offered) but having 3+ people immediately commit to UCLA just doesn't add up without tampering
Brosnan was crazy enough to tell high school runners that he was recruiting that there were several college runners that had already agreed to run for him at UCLA but that weren't in the portal yet. He literally was admitting to tampering. I personally heard him say that on two occasions. I didn't say anything to him about how risky that was to tamper, and even riskier to admit it, because that's none of my business. But I was surprised at how open he was about it.
The stupid thing was that those girls might have transferred to UCLA anyway if he had just been a little bit more patient. One girl he had coached at Newbury Park and 2 other girls he knew personally from when they ran for high schools in Southern California. There was no need for him to break the rules.
I just read the report, and honestly, it’s frustrating. Brosnan didn’t tamper with anything; he just spoke to a parent from Newbury Park who had a kid at another school he’s known for years. This whole thing feels stupid and dumb. I wasted 45 minutes reading it only to find out there’s nothing meaningful or important here.
This is a great point! What Brosnan did sounds insignificant compared to athletes now being allowed to get paid millions, but he basically was harassing parents (putting pressure on them to get their kids to transfer). It's really sleazy.
He even probably contacted the siblings or parents of Nico and Colin Sahlman to try to get them to transfer. If he risked a violation for Samantha McDonnell, why wouldn't he also risk a violation for Nico and Colin?
The report is actually pretty sad. Brosnan was definitely in the wrong here and deserves his punishment but the NCAA does look pretty harsh as well. Timeline is basically:
1. Brosnan becomes friends (as in, has them over for dinner often) with the parents of "Prospect 1" and "Prospect 2" during his time as a HS coach
2. Once Brosnan takes the UCLA job he continues being friends with the parents. Per the NCAA report, this is already a tampering violation, since the bylaws do not differentiate between athletics related and non-athletics-related contact with "individuals associated with an athlete"
3. Prospect 1's mother gets cancer, Prospect 2's dad has a series of strokes; Brosnan continues has conversations with both sets of parents (still a violation)
4. On a few occasions, both sets of parents mention the possibility of transferring; Brosnan tells them he can't talk about it until P1/2 are in the portal (he's wrong, he can't even talk to the parents at all about anything)
5. Transfers happen, coaches get mad, NCAA investigates
6. Brosnan delays meeting with NCAA, claims he wants to review the data they scraped from his phone (I guess the NCAA just hoovers up all of your personal data when you piss them off?) and this is deemed a non-cooperation (I don't really follow this part too well, it's not clear if he was acting on advice from his attorneys or what; the report claims it wasn't related to the phone data)
Items 2-5 are the reason for the tampering violation, item 6 is the reason for non-cooperation.
Again, he was 100% in the wrong in terms of what the rules are but it's pretty brutal to tell a friend "hey because I have this job and because your kid runs in the NCAA, I can't pick up the phone when you call me about your wife having cancer."
I just read the report, and honestly, it’s frustrating. Brosnan didn’t tamper with anything; he just spoke to a parent from Newbury Park who had a kid at another school he’s known for years. This whole thing feels stupid and dumb. I wasted 45 minutes reading it only to find out there’s nothing meaningful or important here.
I agree, I just read the whole thing and it clearly states Brosnan knew his father for years, and all parties confirmed there was no recruiting or tampering involved. How is a phone call to a previous friend even a violation? Seriously, how can the NCAA tell you who you can and can’t be friends with? It doesn’t make any sense.
The report speaks of prospect #1 of not feeling safe after a break in the house twice with detail explained.
Prospect #1 did not receive adequate protection from east coast school and didn’t want to return to accommodation.
Prospect #1 parent had a stroke recently and she wanted to be closer to home.
Prospect #1 appears was seeking safety more than anything. No scholarship Money was granted.
prospect #2 Mother is dying of cancer.
After reading this it appears more to this story than Brosnan but outside forces forcing the move.
There was also a relationship with Mr Lanana and an investigator on panel but NCAA appears to think it was not a conflict of interest. I’m rather surprised by lack on nuisance in this case. Definitely, trauma was involved by the decision to move. Interesting when you go dapper.
Also the panel agreed that east coast runner moved back to west coast regardless of who was coach for many factors. Panel conceded this point in the report.
It appears negligence was shown by east coast school regarding the accommodations after the break in.