INDIANAPOLIS --- The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has placed Arizona State University on two years probation for lack of institutional control and impermissible financial aid.

The committee also imposed a six-year show cause provision on the former compliance assistant for violations of extra benefits and unethical conduct rules. 

The violations surfaced in September 2004 when a football student-athlete told a member of the football coaching staff that he had received extra benefits from a compliance assistant in the athletics department.

The institution launched a thorough investigation into the compliance assistant's activities, and in doing so, discovered unrelated problems in its own financial aid monitoring system that resulted in impermissible aid being granted to 61 additional student-athletes.  However, even with the over awards, no team limits were exceeded.

"The committee noted the immediate response by the institution when the violations were disclosed and its complete cooperation with the Pacific-10 Conference and the NCAA.  Arizona State University should be commended for its response," said committee chair Gene Marsh, a professor of law at the University of Alabama.  The show cause against the former compliance assistant was imposed because she knowingly provided impermissible benefits and financial aid to two student-athletes.

This penalty means that any NCAA institution seeking to hire the former compliance assistant for athletically related employment over the next six years must appear before the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions to determine whether her activities should be limited.

As the investigation unfolded, it was determined that the former compliance assistant gave a student-athlete use of her personal automobile; arranged for his utilities to be opened under her name, which saved him a $200 deposit; and allowed him to use her personal charge account to spend $900 toward the purchase of wheels and tires for his car.

The former compliance assistant also arranged to have the student-athlete receive financial aid for being enrolled in one eight-week course during the first session of summer classes and one five-week course during the second summer session.  However, the student-athlete only attended one five-week course during the first session and no course during the second.  The result was that a total of $890 in impermissible financial aid was awarded to the student-athlete.

She also allowed the same student-athlete and another student-athlete to take textbooks from her office and sell them for cash. 

"The intentional violations of NCAA bylaws by someone in a position responsible for preventing the very violations she committed resulted in a finding of unethical conduct against the compliance assistant and the six-year show cause penalty," Marsh said.

Over the course of the investigation into the former compliance assistant's activities, the institution discovered that 61 student-athletes had received too much financial aid between the fall 2002 and summer 2004 terms.  This problem was unrelated to the findings against the former compliance assistant.

The committee determined that the excessive awards – ranging in value from $4 to $833 – were the result of inadequate controls over how financial aid is calculated and textbooks distributed.  This resulted in a finding by the committee of lack of institutional control, the lone finding in the case with which Arizona State disagreed.

"All of these violations appeared unintentional and the student-athletes seemed unaware that they had received too much aid," Marsh said.  "However, the widespread and preventable nature of these violations compelled the committee to find lack of institutional control."

During the probationary period, which expires November 9, 2007, the university shall audit all aspects of its financial aid distribution and textbook distribution and return systems as directed by the Pac-10 Conference and provide a copy of the conference report to the committee.

The university must submit a preliminary report to the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions by January 15, 2006, setting forth a schedule for completing the audit and implementing necessary changes in its aid and textbook systems.

The institution shall be subject to NCAA legislation regarding repeat violators for a five-year period beginning September 22, 2005.

In addition to Marsh, the members of the Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case were Paul T. Dee, director of athletics, University of Miami (Florida); Alfred Lechner, Jr., vice-president, Tyco International (US) Inc., Princeton, New Jersey; James Park Jr., attorney, Lexington, Kentucky; Josephine Potuto, professor of law, University of Nebraska and Thomas E. Yeager, commissioner of the Colonial Athletic Association.