Michigan coach John Beilein has agreed to be the chairman of a new panel on ethics to review rules and educate coaches to minimize the number of incidental violations. The panel includes Boston College’s Al Skinner, Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel, Stanford’s Johnny Dawkins, Butler’s Brad Stevens, Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings, and former South Carolina and Wake Forest coach Dave Odom. The panel will include four other members — including two assistant coaches. The Associated Press provides more information about the panel’s mission and Beilein’s preliminary agenda.
“There’s a spirit to the rules we all need to follow. We don’t want to be, as coaches, trying to find our way around the rules,” Beilein told The Associated Press. “There’s a spirit we have to live by.”
Beilein wants discussions to focus on a variety of topics, including a rule’s intent. He also anticipates debating issues such as the expanding use of social networking sites.
“These areas do come up with Twittering and Skype, and with advice, we can address these things,” Beilein said. “We have to ask, is it inappropriate, for instance, to e-mail a player the night before we go to a game to see if he’s healthy and going to play before we travel 2,000 miles away?”
Beilein wants to clarify the gray areas for all coaches and give recruits and their families more information to explain why coaches act the way they do.
“That’s a situation where you have to politely exit the situation,” Beilein said. “If you say nothing, that’s rude. So we have to educate recruits on why coaches need to be anti-social sometimes or sit in a certain area at games.”
