The NCAA Division I Infractions Appeals Committee has upheld a two-year show-cause penalty for the former head men’s basketball coach at Ohio State University, but the committee has ordered that the penalty run from March 10, 2006, instead of from May 9, 2007, as the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions had determined.

The revised effective dates of the show-cause penalty are from March 10, 2006, to March 9, 2008. Accordingly, should the former head coach seek athletically related employment with another NCAA institution during that time, he and the hiring institution must appear before the Committee on Infractions to determine whether his duties should be limited.

In March 2006, the Committee on Infractions issued an infractions report that included findings of violations and imposed a show-cause penalty against the former coach, who subsequently appealed the findings before the Infractions Appeals Committee in October 2006.

As a part of that appeals decision, the former head coach’s penalty was remanded to the Committee on Infractions for reconsideration due to the reversal of one of the Committee on Infractions findings. In May 2007, the Committee on Infractions reduced the show-cause penalty from the original five-year sanction to a two-year penalty beginning May 9, 2007 (the date of the Ohio State’s supplemental report of infractions). The former head coach appealed the revised penalty, resulting in this latest decision.

As a part of this appeal, the former head coach asserted that the revised penalty should be set aside on the grounds that it is excessive, inappropriate and arbitrary given past precedent. The Infractions Appeals Committee found that, given the standards it has articulated and applied in previous cases, there was no basis on which to conclude the penalty imposed was either excessive or inappropriate. However, the committee revised the period of the show-cause order to run from March 10, 2006, to March 9, 2008. In considering the former head coach’s appeal, the Infractions Appeals Committee reviewed the notice of appeal; the transcripts of the university’s hearings before the Committee on Infractions; and the submissions by the former head coach and the Committee on Infractions in preparation for this appellate decision.

The members of the Infractions Appeals Committee who heard this case were: Christopher L. Griffin, Foley & Lardner LLP, chair; William P. Hoye, Institute for the International Education of Students; Terry Don Phillips, Clemson University; Noel M. Ragsdale, University of Southern California; and Allan A. Ryan Jr., Harvard University.