INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA Division II Committee on Infractions has penalized Oklahoma Panhandle State University and its former head softball coach for unethical conduct committed by the coach, as well as a number of secondary violations.

The committee found that on two occasions during the 2001-02 academic year, the former head coach engaged in unethical conduct. He provided two term papers to a student-athlete so that she could turn them in for credit in a course taught by the former head coach. She turned in one of the papers. On a separate occasion, he supplied another student-athlete with a copy of an exam for a correspondence course.

The institution self-reported the violations to the NCAA enforcement staff. The former head coach, who was present at the institution's hearing, disagreed with the facts of the case.

The penalties include a three-year probation against the institution, which had already self-imposed several penalties including a three-year probation against the softball team. All NCAA-imposed probationary periods, including this one, are against the entire institution rather than individual teams.

The committee also determined that the former head coach, whose coaching contract was not renewed for 2005-06, should be prohibited from teaching at his present institution. If his present institution does not prohibit him from teaching during the 2006-07 academic year, the institution and the former head coach must appear before the committee to determine whether further penalties are warranted.

The institution also self-reported a number of secondary violations that were adopted by the committee. In 2003 and 2004 the former head softball coach secured hotel rooms for the parents of student-athletes and on some occasions, the institution paid for the rooms. During a four year period between 2001-02 and 2004-05 the former coach provided his team with impermissible travel outfits. These sets of facts resulted in two secondary violations of extra benefits legislation. The committee also cited the institution for failure to monitor the softball program's lodging expenses.

There was also a secondary finding of unethical conduct against a men's basketball student assistant coach and a women's basketball student-athlete. The two collaborated on an assignment and turned in nearly identical work in a class titled The Fundamentals of Teaching Baseball and Softball.

In addition to probation and the teaching ban against the former head coach, the committee imposed a penalty of public reprimand and censure. The committee also adopted the penalties that were self-imposed by the institution, including:

• The current head softball coach, compliance coordinator and athletic director will be required to attend an NCAA regional rules seminar in 2006.
• The softball team will lose one room waiver for the next three years to restore the extra benefit received by the parents of student-athletes.
• The basketball student assistant coach was not rehired and will not be considered for an athletics position at the institution.
• The women's basketball student-athlete was declared ineligible and withheld from nine competitions.

Four representatives from member institutions and one member of the public comprise the Division II Committee on Infractions, a body responsible for independently adjudicating infractions cases investigated by the NCAA enforcement.

The committee members who heard this case were Robertha Abney, associate director of athletics/SWA, Slippery Rock University; Jean Paul Bradshaw II, attorney, Kansas City, Missouri; Les Brinson, faculty athletics representative, North Carolina Central University; and Bruce Kirsh, director of athletics, Franklin Pierce College.