And I’d have to think he aged a little more Tuesday.

Before that, this is from the email inbox:

My company allows us two 15 minute breaks each day.  Several months ago, some people complained anonymously to HR that I was spending more than 30 minutes each day on the WVU Sports Blog with Mike Casazza.  

I told my HR department “I follow the rules.”

An IT audit found that I had exceeded the 30 minute allotment by more than 40 hours during football and basketball season.  HR is deliberating on what punishment to take but in the meantime I’ve decided to proactively punish myself by taking the following actions:

– I will reduce my WVU Sports Blog with Mike Casazza consumption by 80 hours

– I will eliminate the viewing of MSNSportsNet, Brian Bennett’s blog, John Flowers’s Twitter feed, and Smoking Musket (except on Wednesdays)

I do dispute, however, that I failed to promote an atmosphere of
productivity in the workplace.

I’m sure HR will look favorably on what is certainly a more than adequate punishment for my transgressions.

Yours truly,
overtheSEC

The Detroit Free Press has it covered — and I mean completely covered — with regard to what happened and what it all means. It’s worth your while if you’re interested. In essence, though, this is UM’s “My bad,” its attempt to self police responsibly and with a plea for mercy and its plans for how to punish itself.

It is not over, though. Not at all.

The Wolverines must still appear before the NCAA and it is the NCAA that ultimately says what will happen. Without getting into great detail — he’s at UM now, not here … sorry — the large issue is an admission it happened, but no one really claiming responsibility. It’s either the school’s fault or an individual/group of individuals who must take the fall here. Someone or something facilitated and allowed this to happen and, as best as I can tell, that’s not spelled out.

Unless you count the ambiguous “we” and I don’t and I assume the NCAA won’t.

Also, you absolutely do not lie to the NCAA and there appears to be a great deal of deception or attempted deception here … and the name Alex Herron becomes very important. He lied. He got caught. He got fired.

He was also at WVU. With no comments on the record from WVU and no way to concretely connect WVU Rodriguez to UM Rodriguez, it’s only speculative to say what this can mean for WVU. What we do know, though, is Herron was one of those assistants to the assistant at WVU and seemed to have the same job description there that he did here. And he is accused of participating in breaking the rules there and covering up. It’s only logical to assume the NCAA is going to study the infrastructure at WVU. That’s likely the scope of whatever inquiry the NCAA made previously.