NCAA Punishes Miles College

The National Collegiate Athletic Association has levied a weighty set of punishments against Miles College for major violations in all 10 of its sports. Wednesday, in a public report, the Division II Committee on Infractions said that “from the 2004-05 though 2008-09 academic years, Miles allowed 124 athletes in all 10 of its sports to practice, compete, receive travel expenses and/or receive athletically related aid while ineligible.” These students were ineligible for numerous reasons, but most did not meet the NCAA’s initial or continuing academic requirements to play. The committee discovered that Miles “did not have written procedures for certifying the eligibility of initial enrollees, continuing student-athletes and transfers.” During the investigation of this violation, the committee noted that the former director of athletics “provided false and misleading information to the NCAA enforcement staff.” In another violation, the committee reported that the former head track coach “knowingly allowed six student-athletes to participate under assumed names during the 2006-7 academic year.” Also, the committee found that the track coach at the time “worked with an administrator at another institution to fabricate results from two women’s outdoor track meets to make it appear that Miles College had enough participants to meet NCAA sport sponsorship minimums." As punishment, Miles will serve a four-year probation, all of its sports are banned from the postseason this year and all games during which ineligible athletes competed must be vacated. The former athletics director and track coach, whom the report did not identify by name but who could be identified through news reports as Augustus James and Marcus Dowdell, also have four- and three-year show-cause orders, respectively -- meaning any institution that hires them during that period must report to the NCAA how it will monitor their behavior.