National Collegiate Athletic Association

NCAA News Archive - 2010

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Feb 11, 2010 3:45:52 PM

The University of Central Florida has been placed on two years of probation after the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions found major violations in the school's football program. Penalties also include recruiting restrictions and a two-week suspension for two former athletics administrators.

The case involves more than 200 impermissible telephone calls and about 100 text messages over 18 months from two non-coaching football staff members (the recruiting administrator and the director of player personnel) to 27 prospective student-athletes and their parents.

These administrators' primary responsibilities involved assisting with on-campus recruiting activities, which included preparing for and coordinating prospects' official and unofficial visits. NCAA rules for non-coaching staff members preclude those individuals from calling or texting messages to – or receiving them from – prospects or their parents for recruiting purposes. Twenty-eight of the text messages were sent before the August 1, 2007, ban on text messages was in place, while the others were sent afterward.

In some instances, these telephone calls also resulted in the university exceeding its limits under NCAA rules for weekly calls. In addition, some recruits were contacted before their senior year of high school, which also is not allowed.

Neither administrator is employed at UCF any longer and must serve the two-week suspensions at their current school.

This case was resolved through the summary-disposition process, a cooperative effort where the involved parties submit the case to the Committee on Infractions in writing. When the NCAA enforcement staff, the university and involved individuals agree to the facts of the case and the university proposes penalties, they may use this process instead of having a formal hearing.

The penalties in this case are as follows:

• Public reprimand and censure.
• Two years of probation from February 11, 2010, through February 10, 2012 (self-imposed by the university).
• Recruiting restrictions for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years (self-imposed by the university).
• Two-week suspension for the former recruiting administrator at his current institution.
• Two-week suspension for the former director of player personnel (self-imposed by his current employing institution).

The members of the Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case include Paul Dee, lecturer in law and education at the University of Miami (Florida) and formerly the institution's athletics director and general counsel. He is the chair of the Committee on Infractions.

Other members are Dennis Thomas, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and formerly director of athletics at Hampton University; James O'Fallon, a law professor and faculty athletic representative for University of Oregon; and Eleanor Myers, faculty athletics representative and professor at Temple University.