| No, we aren't saying that cheating is normal. "Normative cheating" was a term first used by Professor James H. Frey, now dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He defined normative cheating as "strategies that are necessary to meet the goals of winning and are brought on by stresses that accompany the goals." These strategies are used by some of the top coaches and programs in the nation. They don't break the rules, and they would sue you for slander if you suggested it. They are, however, masters at pushing the envelope, at using loopholes and fine points to gain a competitive advantage.
If a coach is under intense pressure to win (as most coaches are), and there are either rational or seemingly irrational rules that stand in the way, that coach will be tempted to try to find a way around the stress-creating situation without breaking the letter of the law.
It's difficult to give precise examples of normative cheating, because what might be technically within the rules today will, if exploited enough, be against the rules tomorrow. So the practitioners of normative cheating are constantly shifting between the cracks in the rules. Here are three examples:
1) The most popular language for freshman athletes at a prominent university is Portuguese. Why? Since few if any students have studied Portuguese in high school, the athlete is not competing against students with higher levels of knowledge. The athlete, therefore, is less likely to get a bad grade.
2) In certain sports there are limits placed on the number of preseason competitions, and in all sports there are stringent regulations governing recruiting, so to get around these restrictions some colleges will schedule preseason "workouts" against the very best sixteen to eighteen year old club teams in neighboring states. These scrimmages, conducted under full game conditions, don't count as "competitions" but do allow the sponsoring coach to try out the best high school players without violating the "no tryouts" rule. At the same time the coach gets to show off the campus and the program without counting it as an official visit.
3) There is a rule that you cannot send newspaper clipping to recruits. It was probably made so that big programs with lots of press would not overwhelm a recruit with big scrapbooks of clippings. What you can do, though, is send a letter to a player and have copies of the clippings on the back. There may be only one sentence on the front of the letter, but the practice does not violate the law.
When the NCAA creates rules, normative cheaters find ways to get around them. For example, the NCAA had a rule you could only provide your athletes with one free meal a day. The rule defined a meal as food served in a food service facility. Several athletic programs got around the program by having microwaves and commercial refrigerators installed in the weight room. The weight room wasn't a food service facility; it was a training facility. It really didn't serve meals; it served nutritional supplements. This use of normative cheating allowed the program to serve free food around the clock.
Even the high schools are getting into normative cheating. Since open enrollment became the law in many states, programs are competing against each other for stars with offers of weekend or summer jobs, deals on shoes, athletic gear, and even cars. Many coaches who are forbidden by the rules to work directly with the kids until a certain date encourage "captain's practices." A helpful parent or student videotapes the practice for later review by the coach, who gives the captains their agenda for the next practice when he or she just happens to run into them the next day at school. Some prep programs are notorious for their abuse of the practice of hiring "coaching interns," who normally don't count against the maximum allowable number of coaches.
Deciding when to push the envelope and when to draw the line are tough decisions coaches face. It's difficult to draw a hard stance against normative cheating when your competition is doing it and winning, or when your administration is pushing you to win. Just be certain that you keep in mind who you are, what you're program's mission is, and why you are doing what you are doing so that you don't step over the line and do something you may later regret. When in doubt, don't risk it. Or consult your fellow coaching colleagues in the association to get an outside opinion on your situation. Complicated rules are tough to work with, but often they have been made complicated only in response to the actions of normative cheaters!
John Anderson is the Head Baseball Coach for the University of Minnesota. Rick Aberman, PhD. Is a Sports Psychotherapist who specializes in athletic counseling and leadership team building. Their book, "Why Good Coaches Quit - And How You Can Stay in the Game," is available from your local bookstore or from Fairview Press by calling 1-800-544-8207.
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