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July 17

NCAA Throws Book at Cheating Coaches

The National Collegiate Athletic Association does not like it when coaches fail to tell the truth, as two former coaches at Texas Southern University and the institution itself learned the hard way Wednesday.

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The NCAA’s Division I Committee on Infractions imposed a serious set of penalties on the university’s softball and men’s and women’s tennis programs after concluding that their former coaches had misled athletes and institutional officials alike, breaking numerous association rules along the way. For their wrongdoing, they and the university (and its current athletes) will pay: The coaches face restrictions on their ability to coach at NCAA member colleges in the future, the university must forfeit victories in which the teams’ ineligible athletes competed, and the softball team must forgo postseason competition next year, a punishment the NCAA imposes relatively rarely these days.

The NCAA panel’s report on the Texas Southern case states that the former tennis coach lured international athletes to the university with the pledge of full scholarships that he was unable to deliver. Ultimately, the coach provided $19,000 in improper funds to 22 students, including personal funds and illegitimately diverted scholarships meant for other athletes. After the funds fell short, the NCAA found, “three of the international student-athletes faced eviction from their apartment and were reduced to subsisting on bread and water because they had no money for rent or food.”

The former tennis coach, according to the release, “was charged with unethical conduct for also luring student-athletes to campus.” The NCAA will require him to appear before the infractions panel if he seeks employment at an NCAA institution within the next four years. As part of self-imposed penalties in response to the violations, which were reported to the university by an anonymous source, Texas Southern suspended the tennis program in spring 2007 and for the entirety of the 2007-8 academic year. In addition, according to the report, the university has reduced the number of tennis program scholarships for the next two academic years. The NCAA required the men’s and women’s teams to vacate all wins in which the ineligible students participated.

The former softball coach at the university allowed an ineligible athlete to participate in 47 practice sessions and nine games in spring 2004. Not only did the former coach knowingly allow the student to participate in these events, but he allowed the ineligible student to play on the team under the name of an injured teammate, who was eligible for action but left the team, during five of those games. In addition to those on-the-field infractions, the NCAA panel found that the ineligible student in question was also improperly compensated more than $1,500 by traveling with the rest of the softball team and receiving her academic textbooks without cost.

The NCAA found the former softball coach for engaging in “unethical conduct for providing false and misleading information regarding the violations.” The coach must appear before the NCAA panel if he seeks employment at an NCAA institution within three years. The coach, however, is not to only one to suffer the consequences of the coach’s actions. The softball team must vacate all of the wins in which the ineligible athlete competed, including championships. And the team is barred from competing in league or other championships after the conclusion of the 2009 regular season.

During a news conference Wednesday, Josephine Potuto, chair of the Division I Committee on Infractions said of these incidents: “The failure to report a violation to NCAA enforcement staff and to report to the student-athlete reinstatement staff when the violation has affected a student-athlete’s eligibility is really a failure to understand the basic N.C.A.A. rules 101.”

As these athletic programs relied on coach-supplied information for accuracy, which was subsequently not confirmed by the university, Potuto said the information the two coaches provided amounted to lies.

Officials from Texas Southern’s athletics department did not return calls Wednesday afternoon about the penalties.

— David Moltz

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Comments

The Untouchables

I don’t know which is my favorite organization, the National Collegiate Athletic Association or the National Rifle Association. Birds of a feather ...

But I’m really impressed with the NCAA for “throwing the book” at the tennis coaches at Texas Southern University. That’s impressive.

On the other hand, Andrew, give me a call when the NCAA does something about the football and basketball programs at the University of Southern California ... that is, besides assume the fetal position under their desks when the subject is broached.

Frizbane Manley, at 8:10 am EDT on July 17, 2008

A “major league” waste of resources

The NFL needs to step up to have a farm league just as MLB has done succesfully all around the country. If they want to develop and recruit players they should do so.

Big ticket college sports should not exist. One example after another exist of just how much college football, b-ball et al have become a bad fit for the academy.

In order to return reason and academic rigor to colleges these programs should return to their amatuer beginnings. Colleges should not have to make room for athletes marking time until they can go pro. “Scholar"ships should be given to scholars. And the huge exspenses made to athletic programs should be returned to the academy so that all students can have an immediate reduction in tuition.

Bob, at 10:10 am EDT on July 17, 2008

Nice ability to use anything to open your steam vents. Tennis and basketball coaches violate NCAA rules and members, presumably from the academy, write responses slamming the National Rifle Association, the National Football League, The University of Southern California, and college football and basketball coaches as a class.

Did either of you read anything other than the letters, N-C-A-A? If Frizbane and Bob could offer any connection between the content of the story and the groups they attacked it would certainly be enlightening. The next time you wonder why nobody takes your opinions seriously about the role that intercollegiate athletics plays in academia, re-read your own comments.

Michael, at 5:35 pm EDT on July 17, 2008

It is not the vents you should be paying attention to...

Michael, rather than being an apologist for the NFL, et al you might employ some reasoned analysis to the story. Don’t confuse venting with irrationality.

Many of us in academe see the various widespread and continual abuses that happen in the name of athletics, that seem to be increasing over time rather than going away despite these regulatory groups best efforts, and conclude that it is the model itself that needs to be changed.

I cannot speak for anyone else, but the NCAA’s record as well as that of many coaches and big time college sports programs readily lend themselves to criticism.

Various studies have lent doubt to the claims that these mega athletic programs add any real value to the mission of the college, except to make a small minority of colleges feel good about the numbers in the win column.

In fact it is the “good” athletics programs that stick out like a sore thumb. To be clear, by good, I don’t mean those with the most wins or money.

Given the increasingly limited resources that are available to colleges one might conclude that these institutions would be better off divesting themselves of their athletics programs and using the money for the original purpose for which all colleges exist...to educate.

Sports are a nice diversion, but not primary to the purpose of the academy.

Bob, at 6:25 pm EDT on July 17, 2008

My Apologies

Needless to say, Michael, my putting the NCAA and the NRA in an equivalence class of organizations whose very negative impact on the well-being of American society was grossly unfair ... to the NRA.

I tender my apology to all who were incensed by the carelessness of the association I suggested.

My comment about the NCAA’s heroic stand vis-a-vis the tennis coaches at Texas Southern and their lack of enthusiasm for going after the football and basketball programs at Southern Cal (remember, for example, Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo ... or is that just “old news?”) was meant to remind Inside Higher Ed readers that the NCAA is all about money. You can bet your britches that the Texas Southern tennis team is contributing nothing to NCAA coffers; whereas the Southern Cal football and basketball programs ... well, you know all about that I’m sure.

Here are a couple of interesting factoids for you:

1. Approximately 2% of students at American universities participate in intercollegiate athletics. I, therefore, encourage you to go to the NCAA’s official web-site to check out that organization’s concern about and commitment to intramural athletics (for the other 98% of students) ...

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal

2. Despite the excellent work of the NCAA, a 1989 Harris poll discovered that 78% of Americans believed “big-time intercollegiate athletics were out of control.”

For more of my comments about the NCAA, go to ...

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/07/15/diacon

Frizbane Manley, at 11:15 pm EDT on July 17, 2008

cheating coaches, enabling NCAA

Frizbane is exactly right—the NCAA is very brave when it comes to throwing the book at small schools and at coaches in small, non-revenue sports like tennis.

But what about Division 1 basketball coaches who are allowed to cheat at one school, leave just as sanctions are being imposed, sign a multi-million-dollar contract at another school, and then repeat the process all over again—with hardly a notice, or any thrown books, from the NCAA.

When the NCAA “throws the book” at _those_ coaches and at the schools (and college presidents) that enable them, let me know, Until then, I am not impressed by the NCAA trying to look tough by beating up on little guys.

Timothy, at 10:45 pm EDT on July 19, 2008

Sad but true

The sad but true fact of the matter is that big time athletics are going NOWHERE for those who advocate they be discontinued. Come on guys, this is BIG, BIG money for most mega-universities and those schools have deep pockets and some very big connections in the public sector.

My take is that the NCAA has outlived its usefulness, and should be overhauled. If you have never read the NCAA manual for compliance, I highly recommend it for those nights when you simply can’t get to sleep. It is a very interesting read, just ask any compliance officer at any DI school. No, we, being the administrators at colleges and universities, must take a new stand, stop putting coaches into situations where they feel the need to cheat, and overhaul the whole darn system. For those who wonder, I am the VP for Enrollment Management at a Division III college with oversight responsibility for athletics; I have also served at a Division I university as the Compliance Officer and Director of Admissions.

MartinT, at 4:30 pm EDT on July 22, 2008

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