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The NCAA News -- October 25, 1999

Infractions case: University of Virginia

The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has found the University of Virginia in violation of NCAA bylaws involving the recruitment of a prospective men's basketball student-athlete. The committee determined that the violations were secondary in nature and imposed public announcement of reprimand as one of its penalties.

Among other penalties, the university will be required to reduce the number of grants-in-aid for the men's basketball program by one for the 2000-01 academic year.

A secondary violation is one that provides only a limited recruiting or competitive advantage and that is isolated or inadvertent in nature.

The committee determined the violations were secondary because the more serious and related violations involved one prospective student-athlete and resulted in a limited recruiting advantage since the violations occurred after the prospect had signed two National Letters of Intent with the university. Some violations concerning a representative of the university's athletics interests, though involving benefits with a high monetary value, occurred after the prospect had been charged with a felony crime and been told by the university that he would not be permitted to participate as a student-athlete.

The violations involved improper recruiting inducements to a prospective student-athlete by members of the men's basketball coaching staff and representatives of the university's athletics interests.

Specifically, the former head men's basketball coach arranged for a representative of the university's athletics interests to rent an apartment to the prospect during early 1996. The arrangement included a $50 deposit and $200 per month rent. However, rent was not paid for the short duration of the living arrangement. The representative of the university's athletics interests provided impermissible transportation, occasional meals, long-distance telephone usage and cash totaling $50 to $100 to the prospect.

In addition, following the first incident, another representative of the university's athletics interests provided the prospective student-athlete with legal expenses, impermissible transportation, lodging, meals, spending money and other benefits totaling approximately $14,000.

The committee determined the institution, including members of the men's basketball staff, failed to monitor the recruitment of the prospective student-athlete to ensure compliance with NCAA rules.

The university also self-reported two other violations. A third representative of the university's athletics interests transported and accompanied in his personal airplane the head men's basketball coach and an assistant men's basketball coach on several trips to high-school basketball contests. The transportation was provided as a donation to the university but it was not properly documented and recorded as such. The representative also had recruiting contacts with four prospective student-athletes during their official paid visits to the university, in violation of NCAA rules.

The committee also said it was concerned about the lack of monitoring and oversight by the athletics administration over the men's basketball program. The committee accepted corrective actions taken by the university but also imposed the following penalties: