University announces NCAA violations, sanctions

SEMO discloses NCAA violations in men's and women's basketball programs, school will begin self-imposed sanctions while awaiting completion of NCAA investigation

Southeast Missouri State University's women's and men's basketball programs violated NCAA regulations, school officials announced at a news conference on Friday.

School president Dr. Ken Dobbins said the university will self impose sanctions while awaiting completion of an NCAA investigation into the women's program.

Violations in the women's program dealt with transportation, meals and other services provided to some student-athletes or prospects.

The university will impose a number of sanctions, chief among them: A reduction of three scholarships and reduction in the number of recruiting days allowed the coaching staff from September of this year to August 2007.

The school also announced that two male student-athletes in the 2005-2006 season and one player in the 2004-2005 basketball season traveled with the men's team to away games even though they weren't eligible to play. Dobbins said that was a secondary infraction of NCAA rules.

The university plans to impose a $12,600 financial penalty on the men's basketball program and reduce the number of recruiting days from September of this year to August 2007.

According to a press release, specific details on violations are expected later this summer in an NCAA report, which also may include additional violations. For now, these are the violations included in a press release as well as the university's self-imposed sanctions:

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.

~For more details, check out Saturday's Southeast Missourian.