Sanctions appealed: SE will contest additional NCAA penalties

~ Women's basketball program may have to vacate victories from its 2005-06 championship season.

Southeast Missouri State will appeal additional sanctions recommended last month by the NCAA's Committee on Infractions.

University president Dr. Kenneth Dobbins will meet with the committee during its Dec. 8 meeting in Indianapolis, according to a release issued Thursday afternoon by Southeast. The university did not disclose the additional sanctions, citing the "ongoing NCAA summary disposition process," but a September correspondence to the university from the committee's vice chair said "it appears the only question regarding additional penalties is limited to whether a vacation of records [wins] would be appropriate in this case."

Dobbins was at an off-campus meeting on Thursday afternoon and not available for comment.

Southeast athletic director Don Kaverman said, "I am not going to have any comment beyond what is in the release."

The release said Dobbins has asked Kaverman, Ohio Valley Conference commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher and consultant Chuck Smrt to join him at the committee meeting.

Smrt's firm, The Compliance Group, was contracted by the OVC to conduct the investigation on the league's behalf after Dobbins' request for an inquiry in January 2006.

The release did not say when the university was informed of the action by the committee, which took place during the meeting in Kansas City on Oct. 5 through 7.

The university received a letter Sept. 10 from Josephine Potuto, vice chair of the committee, that said Southeast's case had been reviewed at an August meeting and that it would be revisited in October.

Her letter said the committee accepted the findings of the report by the NCAA's enforcement group, compiled in a cooperative effort with the university, the OVC and The Compliance Group. But the letter also said the committee found a review of the penalties "appropriate."

The committee had not specified what period of time could be covered in vacating the program's wins, but it's possible the 2005-2006 OVC championship season could be included. The Redhawks that season, when the NCAA investigation was launched, won 22 games and appeared in the NCAA tournament for the first time.

The university, prior to that tournament loss to Stanford, had to go through the procedure of having some players declared ineligible and having their eligibility restored.

Those players had received some of the improper benefits the university disclosed in a preliminary report released in June 2006. Included in those benefits were lodging for prospective student-athletes who did not pay an appropriate amount of rent or did not pay rent at all; improper transportation to regional airports provided by a staff member for prospective and enrolled student-athletes; transportation provided by a student athlete for prospects for official visits; meal money provided during a holiday period when it was prohibited; and the use of a staff member's computer by a prospective student-athlete, who also was assisted in transporting and moving a used bed.

That report did not specify how often those violations of NCAA rules took place.

The university's release Thursday mentioned some of the sanctions taken by the program in June 2006 -- a reduction in scholarships for 2006-2007 and a reduction in recruiting days among others.

It also noted that one of the sanctions -- requiring members of the coaching staff at that time to attend a regional compliance seminar -- apparently was not carried out. "Prior to the opportunity to attend a seminar, all coaching staff members had left the university," the release said.