NCAA Punishes Lincoln U. (Pa.) and Missouri-St. Louis

National Collegiate Athletic Association panels punished Pennsylvania's Lincoln University and the University of Missouri at St. Louis late last week for major violations in their sports programs. The NCAA's Division III Committee on Infractions, in a case processed through the association's summary disposition process, concluded that Lincoln had let ineligible athletes compete in a wide range of sports, including men’s track and field, men’s cross country, men’s soccer, women’s volleyball and men’s basketball, and that the former men's and women's track coach -- who also was athletics director -- had engaged in unethical conduct. All of Lincoln's teams are banned from postseason play in the 2010-11 academic year, and the men's basketball and track and field programs are barred from playing on television. The NCAA's Division II Committee on Infractions, meanwhile, punished Missouri-St. Louis because of gambling-related violations in its men's golf program. The panel found that the university's former golf coach had not only wagered himself, through participation in fantasy football and baseball leagues, but had a former volunteer assistant coach and athletes from the university help him run a fantasy football business that he owned. The university is on two years' probation, and the former golf coach faces restrictions if he seeks to work at an NCAA member college through 2013.