The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has assessed Southeast Missouri State three years of probation and has reduced scholarships because of major and secondary violations in the school’s men’s basketball program. The committee also penalized the school for a violation in the women’s basketball program.

Additional penalties include recruiting restrictions and a vacation of records.

The violations include extra benefits to two men’s basketball student-athletes and one women’s player, and coaching staff members being present during summer strength and conditioning activities and observing out-of-season pick-up games.

The committee also cited unethical conduct by the former head men’s basketball coach for knowing about the program’s involvement in NCAA violations and providing false and misleading information to the institution and enforcement staff when questioned about his involvement in and knowledge of possible NCAA violations.

An unethical-conduct finding also was levied against the former assistant men’s basketball coach for his knowing involvement in NCAA violations. In addition, the institution was cited for failure to monitor the men’s and women’s basketball programs.

The violation in the women’s program concerned a player who received cash payments for tuition totaling $7,078.61 from a booster in the fall of 2007 and the spring and summer of 2008. The player had exhausted her eligibility and, despite some financial aid provided by the university, needed additional funds to complete her degree. The committee decided the institution did not take sufficient action to prevent the violations from occurring.

The case also involved a secondary infraction involving impermissible financial aid.

The Committee on Infractions noted in its report it was “troubled that the institution has appeared before the committee on two occasions in a one-year period (the school appeared before the committee in April 2008 for violations in the women’s basketball program).

Penalties in this case include:

• Public reprimand and censure.
• Three years of probation to be added to the institution’s current two-year probationary period, which was to conclude June 17, 2010, but now concludes on June 17, 2013.
• Reducing the number of scholarships in men’s basketball for the 2009-10 academic year from the NCAA maximum limit of 13 to 12. (Self-imposed by the university.)
• Reducing the number of off-campus contact and evaluation recruiting opportunities in men’s basketball during the 2009-10 academic year by 15. (Self-imposed by the university.)
• Reducing the number of occasions in which men’s basketball student-athletes may be supervised by strength and conditioning staff to no more than two per week. This is a reduction of 28 opportunities that generally are conducted in May through August. (Self-imposed by the university.)
• Disassociating the booster for three years due to her involvement in the impermissible tuition payments for the student-athlete. (Self-imposed by the university.)
• Vacation of wins in which the involved men’s basketball student-athletes competed during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons; and the vacation of the individual records of the student-athletes and record of the former men’s basketball coach.
• A three-year show-cause period beginning June 30, 2009, and ending June 29, 2012, during which the athletically related activities of the former head coach at any employing NCAA institution will be restricted, including no in-person contact with any employing institution’s men’s basketball team members during summer breaks. Also, if he is employed at a member institution, he must attend at his own cost an NCAA Regional Rules Seminar during each of the years he is employed.
• A one-year show-cause period beginning June 30, 2009, and ending June 29, 2010, during which the athletically related activities of the former assistant coach at any employing NCAA institution will be restricted, including no in-person contact with any employing institution’s men’s basketball team members during summer breaks. Also, if he is employed at a member institution, he must attend at his own cost an NCAA Regional Rules Seminar during each of the years he is employed.

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 chair of the Committee on Infractions. Other members are Britton Banowsky, commissioner of Conference USA; Eileen K. Jennings, general counsel at Central Michigan; Alfred J. Lechner Jr., attorney; and Dennis E. Thomas, commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and formerly athletics director at Hampton.