A passion for compliance

A lifelong love of sports indirectly led Jayson Santos to Southeast Missouri State.

Santos now hopes to help the university's coaches and athletes, if not find a love for NCAA rules and regulations, at least understand them better.

The 27-year-old Santos is less than a week on the job as Southeast's new assistant athletic director for compliance. He believes his basic task is relatively simple.

"My goal is not so much to be the rules guy, but to help educate the staff, coaches and student-athletes about this is what they can and can't do," Santos said. "Let me help you understand the rules, so you won't run into problems."

Santos' hiring appears to be an important one for the university in the light of NCAA rules violations committed by both basketball programs.

Southeast's compliance position became vacant following the 2005-06 school year when Alicia Scott resigned.

She had been the assistant athletic director for compliance and student services for 10 years, but the university planned to redefine the position to work fulltime on compliance.

The restructuring was one of the recommendations made in a status report issued by the Ohio Valley Conference from its investigation of NCAA violations committed by the women's basketball program.

During the investigation, seven areas of violations were uncovered in the women's basketball program and one violation in men's basketball that took place over the last two years.

Without getting into specifics of both cases, Santos said his job is to try and make sure occurrences like those are as few and far between as possible. He knows that isn't always easy.

"The NCAA manual is so vast, it's not always easy to understand," said Santos from behind the desk in his office at the Redhawks Success Center.

As Santos spoke, he displayed the brand-new NCAA Division I manual that features 460 pages covering 29 sports.

"There is just so much information in here," Santos said. "I'm hoping to develop a manual for our coaches, staff and student-athletes to simplify things.

"I think the system they've had here is pretty good. It's not like it's in shambles. It's just a matter of getting it back on its feet, maybe add some things, tweak some things. It's just a matter of making people more comfortable."

Santos said the fact Southeast hired a fulltime employee to focus solely on compliance is a step in the right direction. He also will have a part-time employee working under him.

"I think it's important," Santos said. "They've made a commitment by doing this."

Knowing the rules

If anybody would appear to have a grasp on NCAA rules and regulations, it is Santos, who most recently worked as an intern in membership services with the NCAA national office in Indianapolis. He also has a law degree.

At the NCAA, Santos provided rules interpretations for NCAA member institutions and the general public. He also analyzed and processed initial eligibility, progress-toward-degree and administrative review subcommittee waivers.

"We feel fortunate to be able to hire Jayson Santos," Southeast athletic director Don Kaverman said in a news release issued Monday. "He has a law degree and a year of experience working at the NCAA office. He knows compliance and he knows the NCAA systems."

Santos believes his experience at the NCAA office will be invaluable in his new position -- and probably helped him land at Southeast.

"Working at the NCAA was rules boot camp," he said. "I was forced to understand things, because people are going to ask questions. I dealt with schools, parents. You have to be able to explain it.

"Knowing how the NCAA thinks and works will really help me here. It's a huge advantage. When I came here for my interview, I sold them on that. I know how the NCAA thinks. I understand the rules, and if there is something I have a problem with, I have the connections to help me understand."

"Because," added Santos, "these rules are so vast, you can't know everything."

Diverse background

To say that Santos has a diverse background wouldn't be doing his situation justice.

A native of Houston, Santos said he has always been a huge sports fan. At an an early age, he decided he would love to make a living in that field.

"I always thought, 'How can I get into sports?'" he said.

A three-sport athlete in high school, Santos majored in journalism at the University of Texas. He worked three years for the student television station, anchoring and producing his own sports television show.

"I originally wanted to be a sports anchor, but after I graduated from Texas I couldn't find anything in broadcasting," he said. "So I was thinking about another way to get into athletics."

Being a sports agent appealed to him, so he pursued a law degree from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University in Houston.

"But I found out that being a sports agent wasn't for me," Santos said. "I'm not that aggressive."

Santos also discovered that practicing law was not to his liking.

"It didn't fascinate me," he said. "I could do it, but I wanted to do something I really enjoy."

While at Texas Southern, Santos sought out athletic director Alois Blackwell for advice. That move paid dividends.

"I e-mailed him and asked him if there was anything I can use my law degree for in sports," explained Santos. "He was very helpful. He told me about compliance. I thought, 'That sounds great to me. I'll give it a shot.'"

While still in law school, Santos served as an intern for the Texas Southern athletic department, including sports information, game-day operations and compliance.

"I mainly did sports information things, but I also did some compliance and I really liked it," Santos said.

After graduating from law school, Santos contacted the NCAA. There wasn't a full-time opening, but he secured the yearlong paid internship that led to his hiring by Southeast.

Love for compliance

Santos, who is single, said he surprises plenty of people when he tells them of his passion for the compliance field.

"Once I got into it, I absolutely loved it," he said. "People were like, 'You're not going to like it,' but I loved going to work. It intrigued me more than anything in the legal profession. I just really enjoy it."

Santos said his long-range goal is to be a Division I athletic director, but for now he's happy to be in Cape Girardeau, working for Southeast.

"I'm excited to be here. It's a big opportunity for me. There are really good people here who can help me grow," he said. "I know I have to pay my dues and this is a great start for me."

Santos, who has already met most of Southeast's head coaches since beginning his duties Tuesday, said his door will always be open to coaches and athletes.

"Any questions at all, I want them to just come to me," he said. "I've even experienced that to a small extent so far. Coaches have called me with 'Can we do this?'

"I respect what college athletes have to go through, to juggle sports and academics. I want to be able to help the student-athletes achieve all they can."