NCAA News Archive - 2006

« back to 2006 | Back to NCAA News Archive Index

Infractions case Alcorn State University


Jul 17, 2006 1:01:45 AM



The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has placed a one-year postseason ban on the Alcorn State University women’s basketball team among other penalties for numerous rules violations in the sport.

The case involved, among other things, the use of ineligible players, impermissible extra benefits in the form of travel expenses, improper financial aid and violations on limits for practices.

The committee found a lack of institutional control at the university and made ethical-conduct findings against the head coach and her husband, who served as a volunteer coach for the team and previously was employed as the university’s head men’s basketball coach.

"The committee concluded that Alcorn State’s women's basketball program was plagued by a lack of direction and poor decision-making," the committee said in its report. "This mismanagement of the program occurred even though it was led by an individual with 27 years of collegiate coaching experience, all of it at Alcorn State."

The committee noted that the university has taken steps to regain institutional control but emphasized it was still troubled that the university believed all the violations were secondary in nature.

The head women’s coach was cited for allowing four student-athletes who were not full-time students or certified for initial eligibility to travel with the team. She also allowed three of them to practice with the team and one to receive financial aid when she was not eligible.

The coach and her staff also exceeded weekly limits on practices; failed to provide a day off from practice each week; allowed assistant coaches not certified to recruit off-campus to do so; and permitted her husband to actively coach, exceeding the four-coach limit in women’s basketball.

In addition, the committee found that the head coach violated the NCAA’s principle of ethical conduct by falsifying practice logs and providing "false and misleading information" to NCAA enforcement staff regarding several findings.

The committee also charged the volunteer coach with an ethical-conduct violation for providing false and misleading information to NCAA enforcement staff.

In addition to the postseason ban and the findings of lack of institutional control and ethical conduct, the Committee on Infractions imposed the following penalties:
  • Public reprimand and censure;
  • Three years of probation starting June 29, 2006;
  • Loss of one scholarship in women’s basketball for the 2006-07 academic year. The university can defer this penalty to 2007-08. The university previously reduced one scholarship for 2005-06, a penalty the committee adopted as its own.
  • The women’s basketball program was limited to 10 official visits in 2005-06, down from 12 visits, a self-imposed penalty by the university adopted by the committee as its own.
  • The institution will vacate all contests in which the ineligible student-athlete who received impermissible financial aid participated, starting with the spring semester in 2003-04 through 2005-06, including the 2005 Division I Women’s Basketball Championship. The student’s individual records shall be vacated as well. The records must be configured in all women’s basketball publications, and any public reference to the 2005 NCAA tournament appearance must be removed from, including but not limited to, public areas such as the basketball arena and athletics department stationery.
  • The committee adopted as its own a university penalty that suspended the head coach from coaching duties for the first two regular-season games in 2004-05.
  • The university must not allow the head coach to participate in the first week of practice for three seasons starting in 2006-07. If the university does not withhold the coach from practice, it must appear before the committee and explain why it did not do so as part of the NCAA’s show-cause bylaw.
  • The university must prohibit the volunteer coach from any coaching activity at the institution during the three-year probationary period. If the university does not do so, it must appear before the committee and explain its actions as part of the NCAA’s show-cause bylaw.
  • The committee adopted as its own penalty the university’s dissolution of the volunteer coaching position for 2004-05.
  • The committee adopted as its own penalty the university’s requirement that the women’s basketball staff attend an NCAA regional compliance seminar in 2005-06.
  • The head coach is barred from service on any NCAA committee during the three-year period of probation.

Members of the Division I Committee on Infractions who heard this case were Josephine Potuto, professor of law at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and vice-chair of the committee and acting chair for this case; Jack H. Friedenthal, professor of law, George Washington University; Edward (Ted) Leland, vice president for advancement, University of the Pacific; Andrea Myers, director of athletics emeritus, Indiana State University; James Park, Jr., attorney, Frost Brown Todd LLC; and Thomas E. Yeager, commissioner, Colonial Athletic Association.


© 2010 The National Collegiate Athletic Association
Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy