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For Immediate Release

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Contact(s)

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

INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA Division III Committee on Infractions has found Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, committed major and secondary violations in its athletics program. The case centers on violations of eligibility rules in multiple sports, including men’s track and field, men’s cross country, men’s soccer, women’s volleyball and men’s basketball. The violations also include unethical conduct by the former head men’s and women’s track coach, who also served as athletic director, as well as a lack of institutional control.

Penalties in this case include three years probation; postseason ban in all sports; television ban for men’s basketball and men’s track and field; $5,000 penalty; vacation of records, including championship participation; and recruiting restrictions, among others. The former track coach received a three-year show-cause order, which outlines how his athletic duties must be limited at any present or future employing institutions. The public report further details these limitations.

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 the 2003-04 academic year through 2008-09, the university allowed 27 student-athletes to practice, compete and receive travel-related expenses while ineligible. The student-athletes were not eligible for a variety of reasons, including not meeting transfer requirements, lacking full-time enrollment, not attaining minimum grade point average or not serving an academic year of residence. Seven of the student-athletes were ineligible for more than one reason.

In addition, the former track coach knowingly allowed three ineligible men’s track and field student-athletes to compete and receive travel-related expenses from the spring of 2004 through the spring of 2008. Two of these student-athletes participated in the Division III indoor and outdoor track and field championships while ineligible.

The case also included a secondary violation as a result of the head men’s basketball coach allowing a student-athlete to travel with the team to the first game of the 2008 season and receive travel-related expenses, even though his amateur status had not yet been certified. After the university learned of the violation, it failed to withhold the student-athlete from competition or apply for reinstatement of his eligibility.

The committee noted the violations occurred and remained undetected over a long period in part because the university did not have an adequate system of rules education and athletics compliance in place. As a result, it found the university and former track coach failed to exercise control and monitoring of the athletics program in its certification of student-athletes.

The penalties in this case include:

• Public reprimand and censure (self-imposed by the university).
• Three years of probation from September 2, 2010, through September 1, 2013 (self-imposed by the university).
• Three-year show-cause order for the former track coach from September 2, 2010, through September 1, 2013.
• No expense-paid recruiting visits or off-campus recruiting opportunities during one year of the probation for men’s basketball, as well as men’s indoor and outdoor track and field (self-imposed by the university).
• $5,000 penalty to the NCAA (self-imposed by the university).
• Vacation of records for all competitions in which ineligible student-athletes competed in the 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2008-09 seasons (self-imposed by the university). The public report includes additional details.
• One-year television ban for men’s basketball and men’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams (self-imposed by the university).
• Two-year postseason ban for men’s indoor and outdoor track. One-year postseason ban for men’s basketball (self-imposed by the university).  One-year postseason ban for all other sports (imposed by the Committee on Infractions). The public report includes additional details.

The members of the Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case include Mary Jo Gunning, Marywood University athletic director and chair of the Committee on Infractions. Other members are Dave Cecil, Transylvania University director of financial aid; Keith Jacques, attorney for Smith Elliott Smith & Garmey; Germaine Yolanda McAuley, Spelman College director of athletics; and Stuart Robinson, State University College at New Paltz director of athletics.