NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions
Penalizes Alcorn State for Women's Basketball
Violations
June 29, 2006
INDIANAPOLIS—The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions
has placed a one-year postseason ban on the Alcorn State University
women's basketball team and levied several other penalties
for numerous rules violations in the sport.
The case involved, among other things, the playing of ineligible
players, impermissible extra benefits in the form of travel
expenses, improper financial aid and violations on limits for
practices.
The committee concluded there was a lack of institutional
control at the university and made ethical conduct findings
against the women's head coach and her husband, who served
as a volunteer coach for the team and previously was employed
as the university's men's basketball head coach.
"The committee concluded that Alcorn State's women's
basketball program was plagued by a lack of direction and poor
decision-making," the committee said in its report. "This
mismanagement of the women's basketball program occurred even
though the program was lead by an individual with 27 years
of collegiate coaching experience, all of it at Alcorn State."
The committee noted that the university has taken steps to
regain institutional control but emphasized it was still troubled
that the university believed all the violations were secondary
in nature.
The women's head coach was cited for allowing four student-athletes
who were not full-time students or certified for initial eligibility
to travel with the team. She also allowed three of them to
practice with the team and one of them to receive financial
aid when she was not eligible.
The coach and her staff also exceeded weekly limits on practices;
failed to provide a day off from practice each week; allowed
assistant coaches not certified to recruit off-campus to do
so; and permitted her husband to actively coach, exceeding
the four-coach limit in women's basketball.
In addition, the committee found that the head coach violated
the NCAA's principle of ethical conduct by falsifying practice
logs and providing "false and misleading information" to
NCAA enforcement staff regarding several findings.
The committee also charged the volunteer coach with an ethical
conduct violation for providing false and misleading information
to NCAA enforcement staff.
In addition to the postseason ban and the findings of lack
of institutional control and ethical conduct, the Committee
on Infractions has imposed the following penalties in this
case:
* Public reprimand and censure; * Three years of probation
starting June 29, 2006; * Loss of one scholarship in women's
basketball for the 2006-07 academic year. The university can
defer this penalty to 2007-08. The university previously reduced
one scholarship for 2005-06, a penalty the committee adopted
as its own.
* The women's basketball program was limited to 10 official
visits in 2005-06, down from 12 visits, a self-imposed penalty
by the university adopted by the committee as its own.
* The institution will vacate all contests in which the ineligible
student-athlete who received impermissible financial aid participated,
starting with the spring semester in 2003-04 through 2005-06,
including the 2005 Division I women's basketball tournament.
Individual records of this student-athlete must be vacated
as well. The records must be configured in all women's basketball
publications, and any public reference to the 2005 NCAA tournament
appearance must be removed from, including but not limited
to, public areas such as the basketball arena and athletics
department stationary.
* The committee adopted as its own a university penalty that
suspended the head coach from coaching duties for the first
two regular season games in 2004-05.
* The university must not allow the head coach to participate
in the first week of practice for three seasons starting in
2006-07. If the university does not withhold the coach from
practice, it must appear before the committee and explain why
it did not do so as part of the NCAA's "show cause" bylaw.
* The university must prohibit the volunteer coach from any
coaching activity at the institution during the three-year
probationary period. If the university does not do so, it must
appear before the committee and explain its actions as part
of the NCAA's "show cause" bylaw.
* The committee adopted as its own penalty the university's
dissolution of the volunteer coaching position for 2004-05.
* The committee adopted as its own penalty the university's
requirement that the women's basketball staff attend an NCAA
regional compliance seminar in 2005-06.
* The head coach is barred from service on any NCAA committee
during the three-year period of probation.
Members of the Division I Committee on Infractions who heard
this case were Josephine Potuto, professor of law, University
of Nebraska, Lincoln, vice-chair of the committee and acting
chair for this case; Jack H. Friedenthal, professor of law,
George Washington University; Edward (Ted) Leland, vice president
for advancement, University of the Pacific; Andrea Myers, director
of athletics emeritus, Indiana State University; James Park,
Jr., attorney, Frost Brown Todd LLC; and Thomas E. Yeager,
commissioner, Colonial Athletic Association.
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