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Evans Out at Georgia
University of Georgia Athletic Director Damon Evans resigned after an incident on June 30. That night, Evans was arrested and charged with driving under the influence and failure to maintain a lane. A woman in the car with him at the time was charged with disorderly conduct.

Not surprisingly, the incident brought negative publicity to the university, and Evans resigned on July 6. He will be paid three months of severance--his annual salary increased to $550,000 the same day as his arrest--and receive a $100,000 longevity bonus. He had been at the school since July 2004.

Trojans in Trouble
By now, you've likely heard of the penalties handed down to the University of Southern California's women's tennis, men's basketball, and football programs on June 10. While the penalties imposed by both the university and the NCAA are numerous, for Trojan Athletic Director Mike Garrett, the most difficult part may be the NCAA's use of the phrase "lack of institutional control" to describe the overall environment in USC's athletic department.

Although the school self-imposed penalties on the men's basketball and women's tennis team, they chose not to punish the football team. The NCAA wasn't as lenient, handing out six sanctions to the football squad. USC is appealing some of the penalties, asking that a two-year bowl ban be reduced to one year and that yearly football scholarship reductions from 2011-2013 be cut from ten to five. The NCAA Infractions committee doesn't meet again until September.

Not long after that hammer fell, Garrett found himself in the news again. In June, USC accused several schools of tampering with football player Dillon Baxter by contacting him without USC's permission. After the allegations turned out to be false, Garrett issued letters of apology to the athletic directors at Florida, Alabama, Washington, Oregon, and Fresno State.

Garrett and the Trojans are hoping to now be more proactive in order to stay off the NCAA radar. The university is requiring all football players to meet with compliance officials before July 23 and to bring current copies of their housing lease, car-related data, and summer and academic year employment information to the meetings.

Facebook Misuse Results in Violations
Social networking is all the rage on college campuses, but as a pair of SEC schools have learned, you have to be careful what you post.

Florida assistant coaches were found to have posted on a recruit's Facebook wall three times, twice on Aug. 5, 2009 and once more two days later. The Aug. 7 post was self-reported. And earlier this year, Mississippi assistant coach Chris Vaughn commented on a pair of photos on a recruit's Facebook wall. The photos resembled recruiting letters, but were in promotional poster format. Both schools faced sanctions from the NCAA in July as a result of the infractions.

Because Facebook walls are considered open forums by the NCAA, coaches are not allowed to post or comment on them. Sending direct, private messages to a recruit through Facebook is allowed, as that is considered similar to e-mail.

Oregon's Paper Mess
There's some unrest brewing for the University of Oregon, and it has suddenly become a lot more visible. The school is constructing a new $200 million basketball arena, but there's been public outcry over the way the university has made the project's records available. And now, the displeasure is being shown in a very public way.

For the second time in months, a large billboard was erected criticizing the university. The most recent one, located on Franklin Boulevard near the uncompleted arena, reads: "got transparency?", a take on the popular "Got Milk?" advertisements. Darin Dehle, Director of Capital Construction at Oregon, contends that the university has released all the records, although not always in a timely manner.

This is not the first time Oregon has been criticized for not doing its due diligence on paperwork. In March, it was revealed the school did not have written terms of employment for former athletic director Mike Bellotti, who now works at ESPN. After that came to light, Oregon promised to tighten its business practices and had Dana Altman, the school's new men's basketball coach, sign a term sheet at his introductory press conference. However, as of today Altman has still not signed a formal contract.

Arkansas State Under Investigation
Arkansas State University has received a letter of inquiry from the NCAA about violations regarding ineligible athletes and academic fraud. In February 2009, the school penalized itself $43,500 after discovering academic advisors were improperly calculating the number of credit hours athletes had received towards degree completion and their number of transfer credit hours. The advisors were rounding percentages up rather than down, as is required by the NCAA. That penalty isn't going to be enough for the NCAA.

The NCAA had hoped to have the investigation completed last week, although it said it will provide the university with updates of its status. The next status report is scheduled for Dec. 30.

Patrick Bohn is an Assistant Editor at Athletic Management.