OVC issues report about womens basketball program

The Compliance Group provided the Ohio Valley Conference and Southeast Missouri State with a status report on the inquiries into the university's women's basketball program. The report, which was released Friday, included a briefing of the violations and recommendations for self-imposed sanctions, which the school will adopt.

Specific details on the violations are expected later this summer in the NCAA report, which also may include additional violations.

Women's violations

• Several prospective and enrolled student-athletes received automobile transportation arranged or provided by a member of the women's basketball staff between regional airports and Cape Girardeau.
• A student-athlete transported a few prospects to campus for the prospects' official visit.
• The university provided a per diem from the university funds for a few days over the Christmas holidays to a small number of student-athletes in women's basketball during a period when the student-athletes were not entitled to such meal money.
• A prospect living in the Cape Girardeau area prior to fulltime enrollment utilized the computer of a women's basketball coaching staff member and also received automobile transportation from the staff member, which included the moving of a used bed to the young lady's residence.
• Several prospects who were living in the Cape Girardeau area in the summer prior to fulltime enrollment who had signed National Letters of Intent resided in a house, and the prospects did not pay for the lodging or did not pay the appropriate amount.
• Several prospects who had signed National Letters of Intent volunteered to be involved in the women's basketball summer camp.
• Women's basketball staff members observed workouts during the summer of several prospective and enrolled student-athletes.

Self-imposed sanctions

• Reduce by three the number of grants-in-aid that can be awarded to student-athletes in women's basketball during the 2006-07 academic year.
• Reduce the number of recruiting days in women's basketball from 85 to 80 during the period of September 2006 to August 2007.
• Request the OVC office to conduct an annual compliance audit of certain recruiting documents such as contacts and evaluations, official visit records, etc., in women's basketball. Also, request the OVC office to review generally the institution's monitoring of recruiting records in all sports and the means by which it monitors those student-athletes who are ineligible to travel.
• Include in the new contract of the head women's basketball coach that: 1, if a major violation is found by the NCAA Committee on Infractions that occured during a period in which he was the head coach, regardless of whether he is named in the finding, he could be released from his contract; and 2, specific evaluation criteria in the compliance area (e.g., timely submission of monthly reports, attendance at educational sessions) will be part of his performance evaluation.
• Prohibit the head women's basketball coach from any off-campus recruiting activities during the July 2006 evaluation period in order for him to more effectively monitor the activities of prospective and enrolled student-athletes living in the community during the summer.
• Require all members of the women's basketball coaching staff to attend the next available NCAA Regional Compliance Seminar.
• Restructure the Assistant Director of Athletics for Compliance and Academic Services position and reassign the responsibilities for supervision of the academic services area (.25 full-time employees) to another individual within the athletics department resulting in the compliance position being considered at 1.00 FTE. Also, reaffirm the Compliance Assistant position would remain to be funded at .5 FTE resulting in those individuals assigned total responsibility in the compliance area at 1.5 FTE.