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The National Collegiate Athletic Association on Tuesday imposed penalties on two athletics programs at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Pete Dolan, the university’s former men’s and women’s track and cross-country head coach who led the teams for more than 30 years, punished college athletes when they did not record training activity on NCAA-mandated days off. The head and assistant coaches of the men’s water polo team were involved in unlawfully housing a recruit before he was enrolled at the university and paid two athletes’ rent, according to the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions’s report on the violations.
The violations amounted to level II, the second-highest level of infraction, the NCAA said. UC Santa Barbara will be charged a $5,000 fine, plus 1 percent of the budget from all three teams. The track and cross-country and men’s water polo programs will also face various recruiting and scholarship reductions and restrictions. Track and cross-country athletes’ maximum training and practice will be reduced by four hours each week.
Dolan was terminated as track and cross-country coach in November 2018 and filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the university, the Santa Barbara Independent reported. Both men’s water polo head coach Wolf Wigo and assistant coach Ryan McMillen remain employed by UC Santa Barbara. Wigo will have recruiting restrictions, and both coaches will be suspended for the start of the next season.
“UC Santa Barbara is disappointed that the violations happened,” the university said in a statement. “The university is committed to learning from the process and continuing to promote student-athlete welfare and competition with integrity as core values of the university's athletics department.”
