INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA Division II Committee on Infractions has penalized Lane College for a number of major violations in the institution's athletic program. This case involved multiple major violations occurring over several years, which led to findings of a lack of institutional control and a failure to monitor.

Penalties for the violations include placing the college on four years of probation; vacation of records; a reduction in available scholarships; and ineligibility for telecast opportunities during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years. In addition, the former director of athletics was given a four-year show-cause penalty. Under this penalty, should the former director of athletics seek athletically related employment with this or any other NCAA institution during this time period, he and the hiring institution must appear before the Committee on Infractions to determine whether his duties should be limited.

The committee stated in its report that this case "is another in a long line of cases involving institutions that have failed to establish and maintain adequate athletics compliance systems." 

It was found that the former director of athletics, who was lacking a support staff and running the department by himself, failed to establish a certification system. He alone made the eligibility decisions and erroneously applied initial eligibility, satisfactory progress and transfer eligibility rules on a regular basis.

As a result, from 2001-02 through 2006-07, 32 student-athletes in eight sports were allowed to practice, compete and receive financial aid while ineligible. There were no additional checks of eligibility decisions prior to 2001-02, though the committee said problems likely existed.

The student-athletes were ineligible due to a variety of reasons, including but not limited to failing to meet initial-eligibility, transfer, and progress-toward-degree requirements, as well as exceeding the limit on seasons of competition and violating the 10-semester rule.

Additionally, 48 student-athletes in seven sports competed without being included on squad lists. Four of these student-athletes were in baseball; 13 in men's basketball; nine in women's basketball; one in women's cross country; 15 in football; five in softball and one in women's volleyball.

This failure to correctly apply the basic rules in each of these areas led to findings of failure to monitor and lack of institutional control violations.

Even when given information by the enforcement staff regarding possible ineligible participation, the former athletics director and the institution did not detect participation violations in a timely fashion. In fact, more than half of the student-athletes who competed while ineligible did so after the former director of athletics was given notice that possible problems existed. Further, the institution failed to respond to enforcement staff inquiries in a timely fashion, did not conduct adequate reviews of possible problems when they were called to its attention and submitted incomplete and inaccurate responses to inquiries made by the enforcement staff.

The committee did note that the institution made substantial improvements in the administration of the athletics program since 2005. A position for a compliance officer is now funded, a certification team has been created, and both the faculty athletics representative and registrar have received or will receive NCAA rules training. The conference office is also more actively involved in the certification process of its members. The improvements made by the institution mitigated the penalties imposed by the committee.

In determining the penalties, the committee considered the university's self-imposed penalties and corrective actions. The penalties, some of which were self-imposed by the institution and adopted by the committee, are as follows:

•         Public reprimand and censure.

•         Four years of probation from February 27, 2008 to February 26, 2011.

•         Vacation of all wins in which ineligible student-athletes participated.  The institution shall reconfigure the records of the head coaches in the affected sports to reflect the vacated performances. The vacated results shall be included in all publications and public reference in which athletics performances are referenced, including but not limited to media guides, recruiting materials, Web sites, institutional and NCAA archives, athletic department stationary and banners displayed in public areas.

•         The former director of athletics was given a show-cause penalty effective until February 26, 2011.

•         The institution's athletics teams shall not be eligible to appear in any telecast during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years. This ineligibility to appear on television shall include live broadcasts, delayed broadcasts, cable, Web and broadband broadcasts and game footage that exceeds a total of five minutes on coaches shows at the institution.

•         Reduction in scholarships for football, men's basketball and women's basketball for the academic years 2008-09 and 2009-10. The dollar amount of financial aid awards given in these years shall total no more than 90 percent of the amounts awarded in those sports during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years.

The Division II Committee on Infractions consists of conference and institutional athletics administrators, faculty and a member of the public. The committee independently decides cases investigated by the NCAA enforcement staff and determines appropriate penalties. The committee's findings may be appealed to the Division II Infractions Appeals Committee.