The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions is requiring Memphis to vacate all its men’s basketball wins in the 2007-08 season during which an ineligible player participated, including the Tigers’ run in the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship that ended with a championship-game loss to Kansas.

The school also was cited for major and secondary violations in its women’s golf program.

The committee found that a basketball student-athlete competed while ineligible during the entire 2007-08 season due to an invalidated SAT score.

The Chicago Public Schools Internal Audit division first contacted Memphis officials regarding potential academic issues involving the student-athlete in October 2007. During that initial investigation, the Illinois Office of the Inspector General also received an allegation that irregularities may have occurred with the SAT exam the student-athlete took during May 2007 in Detroit.

The university began an independent investigation, which included a November 2007 interview of the student-athlete. The university was unable to substantiate the allegations of academic improprieties and cleared the student-athlete to compete during the 2007-08 season.

ETS, the SAT security testing agency, conducted its own independent investigation. As a result, it notified the student-athlete, the university and the NCAA Eligibility Center on May 5, 2008, that it had canceled the test score. The Committee on Infractions concluded that the student-athlete was academically ineligible to compete during the entire season due to this canceled test score.

The university asserted that it did not have enough information to conclude before the start of the season that the test score would be canceled. The committee, however, found that argument irrelevant as the university was able to compete with an ineligible student-athlete for an entire season.

The basketball case also involved extra benefits. During the 2007-08 academic year, the university provided more than $1,700 in impermissible benefits to the same student-athlete’s brother. Those benefits were occasional free transportation on the team’s charter plane for out-of-town contests, as well as occasional free lodging at the team hotel.

During the investigation, the enforcement staff requested that the athletics department review travel records to confirm that the brother paid for his flights and lodging when traveling with the basketball team. When the university found this did not occur on every occasion, it cited “administrative error in the institution’s athletics business office” and could not provide further explanation. The finding of these violations led the committee to determine that the university violated the principle of rules compliance: failing to monitor its athletics program.

In the women’s golf case, the committee found that the former head women’s golf coach provided more than $3,000 in extra benefits to four golfers from 2004 to 2008, including gifts, airfare, lodging, NFL game tickets and meals. The former golf coach provided most of these impermissible benefits to one golf student-athlete, who received $2,764.45 in extra benefits and recruiting inducements.

In September 2004 and November 2007, the former head coach also provided several golf student-athletes impermissible restaurant meals during official paid visits of other prospective student-athletes.

The committee found that the former head coach failed to deport herself in accordance with the generally recognized high standards of honesty and sportsmanship normally associated with the conduct and administration of intercollegiate athletics. This finding was based on her knowing involvement in providing extra benefits to student-athletes and recruitment inducements to prospective student-athletes.

In addition, the former head coach provided false and misleading information to the university regarding the violations and refused to furnish requested information to the NCAA enforcement staff. The former head coach did not submit a response to the Committee on Infractions regarding the allegations and refused to participate in an interview with the enforcement staff.

The penalties for both the men’s basketball and women’s golf violations, some of which were self-imposed by the institution and adopted by the committee, are as follows:

• Public reprimand and censure.
• Three years of probation (August 20, 2009, to August 19, 2012).
• Five-year show-cause penalty for the former head women’s golf coach (August 20, 2009, to August 14, 2014).
• Limit of five equivalency scholarships for women’s golf from 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years. This represents a reduction of one equivalency from the maximum of six equivalencies in women's golf. (Self-imposed by the institution.)
• Vacation of all wins in which the men’s basketball student-athlete competed while ineligible during the 2007-08 regular season and 2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.
• The university must return all money it received to date through Conference USA revenue sharing for its appearance in the 2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. All future distributions to the university from this appearance must be withheld by the conference and forfeited to the NCAA.
• Beginning in April 2005 through the fall of 2007, one golf student-athlete received more than $2,700 in recruiting inducements and extra benefits. Because of this, the university must vacate of all match results in which the student-athlete participated.

The members of the Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case include Paul Dee, lecturer of law and education at Miami (Florida) and formerly the institution’s athletics director and general counsel. He is the chair of the Committee on Infractions. Other members are John S. Black, attorney; Melissa Conboy, deputy director of athletics at Notre Dame; Eileen Jennings, general counsel at Central Michigan; Dennis Thomas, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and formerly director of athletics at Hampton; and Andrea Meyers, athletics director emeritus at Indiana State.