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For Immediate Release

Friday, August 19, 2011

Contact(s)

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

INDIANAPOLIS---Texas A&M International University committed major violations involving failure to monitor by both the institution and the former head men’s basketball coach, according to findings by the Division II Committee on Infractions. The case also involved academic fraud by six student-athletes across various sports, two of whom competed while ineligible. The involved sports include men’s and women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, baseball and men’s golf.

Penalties in this case include two years of probation, a vacation of records for the men’s basketball program, scholarship reductions, recruiting restrictions and permanent ineligibility at the institution for the student-athletes involved in academic fraud.

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 penalties proposed by the university, they may use this process instead of a formal hearing.

Six student-athletes committed academic fraud after receiving the answer key to a college-level Spanish placement exam, according to findings by the committee. The student-athletes took the exam to satisfy the foreign language credit requirements necessary for graduation. Because two of the men’s basketball student-athletes used the grades to meet NCAA continuing eligibility standards, they competed while ineligible.

These violations led to a failure to monitor by the university regarding certain aspects of the certification process. Specifically, it failed to determine the validity of the information that served as the basis for the two men’s basketball student-athletes’ eligibility. The former head coach was also cited for failure to monitor for not sufficiently reviewing all information available to him regarding the eligibility of the two men’s basketball student-athletes. The committee also found he did not detect the student-athletes’ academic fraud when information regarding their inability to pass the exam was available.

The penalties in this case are as follows:

• Public reprimand and censure.
• Two years probation from August 19, 2011, through August 18, 2013.
• Vacation of all games in which the two men’s student-athletes competed during the 2008-09 season while ineligible. The records of both student athletes and the former head coach will also be adjusted to reflect the vacation of games. The public report includes additional details.
• Permanent ineligibility for any student-athlete involved in the academic fraud who remains enrolled at the institution with eligibility remaining.
• Reductions in the number of financial aid awards in the sport of men’s basketball from a 7.58 equivalency award for the 2008-09 academic year to a 3.32 equivalency for the 2009-10 academic year.
• Reduction of one week of off-campus recruiting during the March recruiting period.

The members of the Division II Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case include Bridget Lyons, chair and senior associate director of athletics, Barry University; Jean Paul Bradshaw II, attorney, Lathrop & Gage L.C; Wendy Taylor May, senior associate athletics director, University of California, San Diego; Julie Rochester, faculty athletic representative and associate professor for Northern Michigan University; Carey Snyder, associate director of athletics at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania; and Harry Stinson III, assistant athletic director of compliance at Kentucky State University.