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For Immediate Release

Friday, February 4, 2011

Embargoed Until

3 p.m. Eastern Time

Contact(s)

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

INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA Division II Committee on Infractions has penalized the University of Southern Indiana for major and secondary violations in its men’s basketball program. The case includes extra benefit violations, unethical conduct by a former assistant coach and a failure to promote an atmosphere for compliance by the former head coach.

Penalties for the violations include one-year of probation, a one-year postseason ban for men’s basketball, a vacation of records, a $2,500 penalty for the university, a three-year show-cause order for a former assistant coach and a two-year show-cause order for the former head coach.

The show-cause penalties outline how the duties of the former head and assistant coaches must be limited at their present and any future employing institutions. These limitations are further detailed in the public infractions report.

The majority of the violations in this case centered on the actions of a former assistant coach. On two occasions, this former assistant coach provided extra benefits to a men’s basketball student-athlete valued at approximately $1,300 when he purchased airline tickets for the young man. Later, the former assistant coach violated the principles of ethical conduct when he lied to investigators and submitted a falsified receipt during the investigation.

The committee found the former head coach failed to monitor the activities of the former assistant coach’s involvement in the violations. The former head coach was also found to have failed to promote an atmosphere for compliance when he instructed and provided money for another assistant coach to violate NCAA rules by providing impermissible transportation for a prospect. The committee noted that by instructing the former assistant coach to violate the recruiting transportation rules within the first month of the assistant’s job, he was sending a direct message to the young coach that such behavior is acceptable. As a result, it stated in its report, “The committee cannot conceive of many situations where a failure to promote an atmosphere for rules compliance is clearer.”

Further, the former assistant coach also arranged for fraudulent academic credit for another men’s basketball student-athlete when he asked a booster on two separate occasions to complete coursework on behalf of a student-athlete whose grade-point average had fallen below the necessary minimum to maintain athletic eligibility under NCAA rules. This coursework included a written assignment and a final exam paper. In addition to arranging for fraudulent credit, the former assistant coach insisted on two different occasions that he was not involved in committing academic fraud despite evidence to the contrary.

The penalties, some of which were self-imposed by the institution or conference and adopted by the committee, are as follows:

• Public reprimand and censure.
• One year of probation from February 4, 2011, to February 3, 2012.   The committee limited the probation to one year given the exemplary level of cooperation by the university during the investigation, as well as additional reasons cited by the committee. In part, these included the fact that the case did not involve a failure to monitor or lack of institutional control by the university, the violations were all committed by staff no longer at the school, and the committee determined the university’s self-imposed penalties and corrective actions in large part addressed the violations.
• Postseason ban for men’s basketball after the 2009-10 season (imposed by the Great Lakes Valley Conference Council of Presidents).
• Vacation of all wins in which the two men’s basketball student-athletes competed while ineligible. The public infractions report contains further details.
• Disassociation of the involved booster from the university’s athletics program for at least five years. This disassociation includes the refusal of any financial or recruiting assistance, as well as other conditions, which the public report further details.
• Two-year show-cause order for the former head men’s basketball coach (February 4, 2011, to February 3, 2013). The public report further details the conditions of this show-cause order.
• Three-year show-cause order for the former assistant men’s basketball coach (February 4, 2011, to February 3, 2014). The public report further details the conditions of this show-cause order.
• A $2,500 penalty.

The members of the NCAA Division II Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case are Wendy Taylor May, chair, senior associate athletics director, University of California, San Diego; Jean Paul Bradshaw II, attorney, Lathrop & Gage L.C; Bridget Lyons, senior associate director of athletics, Barry University; and Julie Rochester, faculty athletic representative and associate professor for Northern Michigan University.