And The Hits Just Keep On Comin'

Apparently, Michigan didn't keep workout logs or records of any kind that would be able to track the exact amount of time it's football players spent doing team activities that would count as "countable" hours for the 2008 season...Rodriguez's first at Michigan.

Now it should be noted(!) that this finding is the result of an internal audit...and not the NCAA's investigation. This report is from an audit done solely by the university for its own purposes. This report was finished approximately two months before the Free Press story alleging Rodriguez and company had broken NCAA rules governing allotted time for team activities.

Michigan AD Bill Martin's comments to the AP today:

"I don't know what the NCAA is going to find...I do know this is not academic fraud or gambling.

"I'm not involved with the investigation. It's being handled by our general counsel. We're the ones who picked up the phone to call the NCAA about this."

According to ESPN's Adam Rittenberg, this was found out months ago, but is just now being reported because it will be a topic of discussion this Thursday at a UM board of regents meeting.

The audit's main area of concern is the lack of paperwork turned in from the football program for the 2008 season. As of the report dated July 24, 2009, no official paperwork had been turned in to the university. The football program was the only varsity program at Michigan that did not complete and turn in the monthly CARA (Countable Athletically Related Activities) forms.

The audit did not find any issues of "non-compliance", but at the time of the audit, no forms were available for review. According to the university, all forms for the current season have been turned in on time.

So, either Michigan didn't keep records at all...or kept really bad records and didn't have anything worth turning in, or kept really awesome records that they just forgot to turn in at the end of each month. We really don't know. All I do know is, this is yet another distraction and setback that this team so desperately needs to avoid right now.