Among Vols' 2017 NCAA violations, Rick Barnes used own money to boost assistant's pay

Tennessee men's basketball coach Rick Barnes thought assistant Desmond Oliver deserved more money than he was making, so Barnes reached into his own pocket to supplement Oliver’s pay.

“It was important to me that Des Oliver made the same amount of money as” fellow assistant Michael Schwartz, Barnes told USA TODAY Network - Tennessee. “I just felt those two positions needed to be equal. They felt it wasn’t in the budget. I just said, ‘I am going to pay it myself.’”

Barnes’ good-will gesture resulted in an NCAA Level III violation of rule 11.3.2.2, which pertains to supplemental pay. Tennessee submitted the violation in October.

Barnes didn’t know he was violating an NCAA rule and openly told his supervisor that he’d supplemented Oliver’s pay, according to a compilation of UT’s self-reported NCAA violations for 2017, obtained via an open-records request.

Barnes’ supervisor notified the compliance office of a potential violation, and Barnes stopped the payments. Tennessee's response included educating Barnes on the rule. The SEC and NCAA accepted UT’s action and didn’t impose additional penalties.

Since then, Oliver received a raise, pulling his salary more in line with that of Schwartz.

“The point is, I wanted him to be paid the same as the other assistants, because I know how hard he works,” Barnes said. “I still think those guys should be paid more money. When (former athletic director John Currie) came in, they fixed it. It’s equal now. But for a year, I did it. He works his butt off. It was important to me that he knows how much we all appreciate him.”

Barnes’ payments were one of 11 NCAA violations Tennessee reported in 2017, according to records obtained by USA TODAY Network - Tennessee. Each infraction was recorded as a Level III violation — considered a minor infraction — and resulted in mild punishment from the institution. In most cases, the NCAA didn’t administer additional penalties.

“Last year’s violations are a continued representation of the strong culture of compliance that exists at Tennessee,” Andrew Donovan, Tennessee’s associate athletic director for compliance, wrote in an email to USA TODAY Network – Tennessee. “Our coaches and staff view compliance as a shared responsibility and hold themselves and each other accountable. They are committed to doing things the right way and achieving success within the confines of the NCAA rules.

“The NCAA manual is more than 400 pages of thousands of rules, which are nuanced into thousands more interpretations of those rules, so it is expected that Level III violations may occur on occasion. They’re inadvertent and oftentimes technical mistakes that we seek to avoid through communication and regular rules education. However, they happen from time to time and in many ways demonstrate a healthy compliance program.”

Recruiting violations accounted for five of the 11 violations Tennessee reported in 2017.

Baseball reported three violations, the most of any sport. In one case, a volunteer assistant received complimentary admission to the football team’s home opener against Indiana State, at which the baseball coaching staff was recognized on the field.

Effective Aug. 1, new NCAA legislation would allow volunteer assistants to receive game tickets during recruiting visits, meaning that the volunteer coach’s action would not be considered a violation in the future.

In another instance involving the baseball team, an agent contacted professional teams on a player’s behalf. Dave Serrano, who was then UT’s baseball coach, reported the violation upon learning of it, according to the report. The player did not enter into a verbal or written agreement with the agent, did not receive benefits and did not agree to agree to future representation. The player was withheld from 20 percent of the regular-season games.

In an infraction involving the men's golf team, two non-scholarship players received textbooks, even though they could not be provided with a book scholarship because they were not on athletic aid. The textbooks totaled a value of $318.19. The athletes were required to pay that amount to charity to offset the cost of the books. Letters of education were issued to the team’s academic adviser, who reported the mistake upon realizing it, and the bookstore employee.

Football and women’s basketball were among the sports that did not report any violations in 2017.

The News Sentinel's Mike Wilson contributed to this story.

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