B.J. Smith's four years will be annulled

Wipe out the B.J. Smith era.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions decided during an October meeting that Southeast Missouri State University should vacate all of its victories achieved during Smith's four years as coach and have its 2006 NCAA tournament appearance taken away as well.

In response to a recent request by the Southeast Missourian for records related to the 22-month-old NCAA investigation of the women's basketball program, the university on Wednesday released a letter sent by Josephine Potuto, vice chair of the Committee on Infractions, that outlined the penalties imposed and the factors considered.

University president Dr. Ken Dobbins disputed the committee's decision. He was planning to attend a meeting of the committee Saturday to appeal the decision as part of an expedited appeal process, but that has been canceled. According to a correspondence written Wednesday by Dobbins to the director of the committee, Smith has asked for a full hearing, which will not take place until April 2008 at the earliest.

Smith, who coached the program from 2002-03 to 2005-06 before resigning in December 2007, had the option for a full or expedited hearing since he was cited with additional sanctions, Dobbins said. Those sanctions have not been disclosed.

Dobbins said he believes the sanctions adopted by the university in June 2006, when a preliminary report was made public, were appropriate. He said he thought similar or worse infractions had been made at other universities when the NCAA didn't force the universities to vacate records.

"We believe the actions we took are appropriate to what violations occurred," Dobbins said.

Dobbins echoed what athletic director Don Kaverman has said about the findings in the summary disposition. Both say the findings, which were accepted by the committee in September of this year, are not substantially different from those released in the preliminary report done by The Compliance Group on the Ohio Valley Conference's behalf.

That report outlined the areas of violations, including improper transportation of prospective student-athletes from airports and on official visits, prospects receiving summer lodging without paying rent or paying an inappropriate amount, and members of the women's basketball staff observing summer workouts of prospective and enrolled student-athletes. The report was not specific about the number of incidents that took place.

The report also outlined sanctions including a reduction of scholarships from 15 to 12 for 2006-07, when the program won its second consecutive conference championship; a reduction in recruiting days from 85 to 80 for 2006-07; and a restriction on off-campus recruiting by Smith during the July 2006 evaluation period so that he could monitor summer activity in the program.

The university adopted those sanctions and others included in the report. It acknowledged in a recent news release that one sanction requiring members of the coaching staff to attend a regional compliance seminar was not met because all the coaches from 2005-06 had left the staff by the time a seminar was available.

"I believe, based on the infractions about which we received information and reported and we just had reviewed [by the committee], with all the self-sanctions we imposed last year, we feel that's enough," Dobbins said.

But the letter from Potuto to Southeast, dated Oct. 9, included strong language in its reasons for the additional penalties.

The letter stated that the violations were serious and intentional, noting that Smith observed athletically related activities impermissibly after being instructed not to do so. The letter cited the direct involvement of Smith and the "large number of violations." In addition, the letter said the further penalty was applicable because it involved "ineligible competition in a case where there was also a finding of a lack of institutional control."

"We take issue with several things they do to justify the vacation of records," Dobbins said. "That's a very, very severe penalty. We don't believe we received unfair competitive advantages based on these types of violations. We don't have the types of violations that raise to the level of vacating records."

Southeast had the OVC's best record -- 79-41 -- over the four-year span that Smith coached the team. The team finished second in the OVC tournament in 2002-03, Smith's first season, and lost a heartbreaking overtime decision in the 2004-05 title game. The Redhawks tied for the conference regular-season title in 2005-06 and won the conference tournament to clinch its first NCAA tournament appearance. Southeast lost to Stanford in that tournament game in Denver.

But by then, the program had become the subject of an investigation when Dobbins asked OVC commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher to probe allegations about violations made by a former assistant coach. The NCAA became involved soon after.

Southeast added another OVC title in 2006-07 under acting coach John Ishee, who stepped in when Smith resigned in December 2006 after he had been placed on leave the previous month for instructing a class that met infrequently that semester.

Asked for comment on Wednesday, Smith said, "I truly wish I could, but I just can't until it's resolved."

He referred any further inquiries to his attorney.

The 2007 championship banners, which include the two OVC title flags -- regular season and tournament -- as well as an NCAA tournament appearance banner that was not included last year, were raised to the rafters of the Show Me Center last week and are in no danger of coming down.

But the 2006 banners are another matter. "I talked with the commissioner about that, and the OVC has no policy" on taking away championships, Dobbins said.

Not that he's ready to give up the wins and championships just yet anyway.

"We will continue to appeal," Dobbins said, "and we will exhaust all appeals."