The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has levied penalties against South Alabama’s men’s tennis program that include a postseason ban and scholarship reductions.

The case involves major violations, including unethical conduct by the former head coach, the university’s failure to monitor, impermissible financial aid and loans, improper student-athlete certification, and an impermissible decrease in athletics scholarships.

Penalties, including those self-imposed by the university, are three years of probation, scholarship reductions, a vacation of records, permanent disassociation of the former head coach, a ban on postseason competition for the 2010 men’s tennis season, and a four-year show-cause order for the former head coach.

Under the show-cause order, should the former head coach seek athletically related employment with any NCAA institution during this time, he and his hiring institution must appear before the Committee on Infractions to determine whether his duties should be limited at the new institution for a designated period.

The university is a repeat violator, having appeared before the committee in 2001 for violations in its men’s basketball program. Because the university had a previous major-violations case within five years (the penalties in the 2001 case were ongoing when the violations in men’s tennis occurred), it is eligible to receive harsher penalties. As a result, the university received the 2010 men’s tennis postseason ban.

The former head coach provided more than $12,000 in impermissible financial aid to five international men’s tennis student-athletes over six years. On various occasions either before or during their enrollment, the former head coach promised four of the young men more financial aid than he was able to award. These four student-athletes believed they had a full scholarship, based on representations made to them by the former head coach. To make up the difference, the former head coach either provided the student-athletes with cash or made payments on their student accounts at the university. As a result, the university exceeded its financial aid limits for men’s tennis from 2000-01 through 2004-05 academic years.

The former head coach also provided $3,000 cash to one of these student-athletes to allow the young man to obtain an international visa.

The former head coach acted contrary to the principles of ethical conduct when he knowingly provided impermissible financial aid and extra benefits to the student-athletes and then refused to furnish the NCAA enforcement staff with information relevant to the investigation. He declined the enforcement staff’s interview requests on eight occasions over about six months.

In addition, the university impermissibly decreased the financial aid of a men’s tennis student-athlete. The student-athlete was awarded a 71 percent scholarship for the 2004-05 academic year, 35 percent of which was administered during the 2004 fall semester. Before the start of the spring semester, the university terminated the student-athlete’s scholarship for the remainder of the academic year and failed to notify the student-athlete of the opportunity for a hearing to contest the reduction.

Based on these violations, it was found that the university failed to monitor the conduct and administration of its men’s tennis program. Further, the university failed to monitor certain aspects of its athletics program with regard to international student-athletes, including the administration of financial aid award notification and the failure to properly certify the amateurism of 27 student-athletes in 10 sports.

The penalties, some of which were self-imposed by the institution and adopted by the committee, are below.

• Public reprimand and censure.
• Three years of probation (May 12, 2009, to May 11, 2012).
• Total reduction of men’s tennis scholarships by 1.78 from the 2007-08 academic year through 2010-11. (Self-imposed by the university.)
• Two-year university ban on awarding athletics scholarships at the start of the second semester for men’s tennis mid-year transfer students, beginning in January 2008. (Self-imposed by the university.)
• Disassociation of the former head coach permanently from the program. (Self-imposed by the university.)
• Vacation of the university’s first-place finish in the Sun Belt Conference championship for 2001 and 2002 and its third-place finish in the 2005 and 2006 championships. (Self-imposed by the university.)
• Vacation of the university’s participation in the 2001 and 2002 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships. (Self-imposed by the university.)
• The men’s tennis team must end its 2010 season with the last regularly scheduled, in-season contest and is not eligible to participate in any postseason competition after that season.
• Vacation of all wins in which the ineligible student-athletes competed while ineligible.  The individual records of these student-athletes shall be vacated as well. Further, the university’s records regarding men’s tennis and the record of the head coach will be reconfigured to reflect the vacated wins and so recorded in all publications in which men’s tennis records are reported, including university media guides, recruiting material, and university and NCAA archives. Finally, any public reference to these vacated contests, including conference championships, won during this time shall be removed from athletics department stationary, banners displayed in public areas and any other forum in which they may appear.  
• Four-year show-cause order for the former head coach effective from May 12, 2009, through May 11, 2013.

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; Britton Banowsky, commissioner of Conference USA; and Dennis Thomas, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and formerly director of athletics at Hampton.