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For Immediate Release

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Contact(s)

Stacey Osburn
Associate Director of Public and Media Relations
317/917-6117

INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has found that the University of Texas, Pan-American, committed major violations in its men’s basketball program. The case involved recruiting violations and a failure to monitor by the university.

Penalties in this case include two years probation, multiple recruiting restrictions and scholarship reductions.

This case was resolved through the summary disposition process, a cooperative effort where the involved parties submit the case to the Committee on Infractions in written form. When the NCAA enforcement staff, the university and involved individuals agree to the facts of the case and the university-proposed penalties, they may use this process instead of having a formal hearing.

From August 2006 through the 2007-08 academic year, members of the men’s basketball coaching staff made a total of 44 impermissible phone calls to 13 prospective student-athletes. Further, during the summer and fall of 2006, members of the coaching staff provided inducements to a prospective student-athlete and made a visit to his home during a noncontact period. Starting at approximately the same time and continuing through the spring of 2007, the volunteer strength and conditioning coach also had impermissible contact with the prospective student-athlete when he prepared and supervised conditioning exercises for him.

The committee also found the university failed to monitor the number of recruiting telephone calls made by the men’s basketball coaching staff, which led to the university not detecting inaccurate reporting by the coaching staff.

The penalties in this case include:

• Public reprimand and censure.
• Two years of probation from March 30, 2010, through March 29, 2012.
• For the 2009-10 academic year, the university will limit the number of calls to high school prospective student-athletes to one call per week, a decrease from the permissible two calls per week. During this time, it will also limit the number of calls to two-year transfer student-athletes to one call every two weeks. This is a decrease from the permissible one call per week.
• Reduce the number of recruiting opportunities per prospect from seven to four, and reduce the number of contacts to no greater than two per prospect from 2009-10, beginning May 1, 2009.
• Reduce the number of permissible off-campus recruiters from three to two for the 2009-10 academic year.
• Reduce the number of athletic scholarships from 13 to 12 for the 2009-10 academic year.
• Reduce the number of assistant coaches from three to two for the 2009-10 academic year.

The members of the Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case include Paul Dee, lecturer in law and education at the University of Miami and formerly the institution's athletics director and general counsel. He is the chair of the Committee on Infractions. Other members are Dennis Thomas, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and formerly director of athletics at Hampton University; James O’Fallon, a law professor and faculty athletic representative for University of Oregon; Britton Banowsky, commissioner of Conference USA; and Eleanor Myers, faculty athletics representative and law professor at Temple University.

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