INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has penalized Texas Christian University for major and secondary violations in its men's tennis program. This case involves impermissible phone contacts and a failure to monitor by the institution and the former head coach.

The violations include 105 impermissible phone calls made by members of the men's tennis coaching staff to 24 prospective student-athletes during the four years from summer of 2002 through the spring of 2006. More than 70 calls were made by the former head coach.

The institution is a repeat violator and the committee noted that, as in the previous infractions case, the violations in this matter involve, at least in part, a failure to monitor international student-athletes.

Penalties for the violations, including those self-imposed by the institution, include two years of probation, a reduction in recruiting activity, and a reduction in the number of men's tennis scholarships for one academic year.

The committee found that the institution's and the former head coach's failure to monitor the tennis program allowed the violations to continue for a number of years before being discovered. During the 2002-03 and 2003-04 academic years, the institution's coaches were required to maintain logs of recruiting calls in their offices. Compliance personnel visited the coaches' offices occasionally to check the records, but no cross-checking with institution phone bills occurred. This resulted in the former head coach's impermissible calls, which he had not recorded, going undetected. Beginning in 2004-05 the coaches were expected to submit their phone logs to the compliance office for review. However, the former head coach kept, at best, insufficient information regarding phone calls and did not have a system for tracking them nor submitting information to the compliance staff. The violations were discovered following the 2005-06 academic year when a member of the compliance staff was performing a year-end review of all phone records.

In addition, from June 1 to Aug. 11, 2005, an assistant men's tennis coach made impermissible contact with a prospective student-athlete he formerly coached at another institution by placing 23 telephone calls to the young man. These calls were made prior to obtaining written permission from the director of athletics of the prospective student-athlete's previous institution. There was an apparent miscommunication between the former director of compliance and the former head coach at Texas Christian regarding whether the assistant coach's pre-existing relationship with the prospective student-athlete allowed him to speak to the young man before obtaining the previous institution's permission. As such, the assistant coach believed he was allowed to maintain contact.

This case involved a secondary violation as well, which is outlined in the Committee on Infractions' public report.

In determining the penalties, the Committee on Infractions considered the institution'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.

•         Two years of probation (February 28, 2008, to February 27, 2010).

•         Discontinuation of all international expense-paid recruiting visits for men's tennis during May 27, 2006 through May 27, 2007. (Self-imposed by institution).

•         Discontinuation of all international off-campus recruiting activities for men's tennis during May 27, 2006 through May 27, 2007. (Self-imposed by institution).

•         Discontinuation of all domestic off-campus recruiting activities except for evaluation purposes only (no in-person contact) for men's tennis during May 27, 2006 through May 27, 2007. (Self-imposed by institution).

•         Reduction of financial aid awards in men's tennis from the 2006-07 academic year to 3.5 equivalencies from the maximum allowable equivalency of 4.5. (Self-imposed by institution).