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For Immediate Release

Thursday, June 17, 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 San Francisco committed major violations in its athletics program. The university self-discovered and self-reported the violations in this case, which involved more than $13,000 in impermissible purchases with textbook scholarship money, 535 cost-free long-distance telephone calls, and a failure to monitor by the university.

Penalties in this case include two years probation, scholarship reductions and a required charity donation of nearly $28,000.

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.

During the spring of 2004 through the 2005-06 academic years, 108 student-athletes used book-related athletic scholarship money to purchase items other than required course-related textbooks. The university provided each student-athlete receiving a book scholarship with a $400 account in the bookstore. Due to failures in the university’s processes and procedures, student-athletes were able to use any remaining money after purchasing their own textbooks to purchase non-required textbooks for friends, other student-athletes or personal use. The average benefit for each involved individual over the five-semester period the violations occurred was approximately $130. These violations were uncovered after the university’s executive administration initiated a preliminary review of its textbook processes after reading an article about a recent infractions case involving textbook scholarship expenditures.

During the fall of 2006 through December 2007, six men’s basketball student-athletes made numerous long-distance telephone calls using a university long-distance telephone access code assigned to the former head coach. The number of impermissible calls placed by each of the student-athletes ranged from eight to 179 calls.

The committee also found the university failed to monitor certain aspects of its athletics program. Although there is no evidence that anyone on the men’s basketball staff authorized the impermissible calls, the committee found the staff failed to monitor the use of the access code. The committee also found that the university failed to monitor the administration of textbook scholarship funds or provide adequate rules education regarding its use.

The penalties in this case include:

• Public reprimand and censure.
• Two years of probation from June 17, 2010, through June 16, 2012.
• Reduction of one athletics scholarship in men’s basketball during the 2008-09 academic year, which limited the university to 12 total scholarships that year (Self-imposed by the university).
• Donation of $27,814 to the university’s charity of choice. This amount represents twice the approximate value of benefits obtained through the textbook scholarship violations.

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 Britton Banowsky, commissioner of Conference USA; Melissa Conboy, deputy director of athletics at University of Notre Dame; Brian Halloran, attorney and the manager/general counsel of Painted Hills Wind Developers; Eleanor Myers, faculty athletics representative and law professor at Temple University; James O’Fallon, a law professor and faculty athletic representative for University of Oregon; and Dennis Thomas, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and formerly director of athletics at Hampton University.

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