The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has placed University at Albany on probation for two years and has reduced scholarships and recruiting opportunities because of major violations in the school’s football and baseball programs.

The case involved the use of text messaging, an impermissible form of electronic correspondence to prospective student-athletes, and a failure to monitor by the university.

The case was resolved through the summary-disposition process, a cooperative effort handled in writing rather than through a formal hearing in cases when the NCAA enforcement staff, the university and involved individuals agree to the facts of the case and the penalties proposed by the university. 

On 36 occasions during the 2007 fall semester, after the effective date of NCAA rules eliminating text-message communication with prospects, several assistant football coaches sent impermissible text messages, most via a recruiting software program that enabled a coach to type a single message and send it to several prospects at once. As a result, the 36 occasions when football coaches sent text messages resulted in 331 messages sent and 220 prospects contacted. Further, during the summer of 2008, the head baseball coach sent 56 impermissible text messages to five prospects.

The committee found that the university’s failure to detect and prevent the text messages sent by the football staff demonstrated a failure to monitor. The committee found that while the university compliance staff knew the recruiting software was being used, it did not fully understand its capabilities, and as a result, failed to monitor the use of the software to detect the impermissible text messaging activity in the football program until December 12, 2007.

The penalties in this case are as follows:

•         Public reprimand and censure.

•         Two years of probation (January 27, 2009, to January 26, 2011). (Institution-imposed).

•         Baseball scholarships will be limited to no more than 10.7 for the 2008-09 academic year – a reduction of one equivalency from the maximum of 11.7 equivalencies in baseball. (Institution-imposed).

•         The number of official paid visits in football will be limited to 28 for the 2008-09 academic year – a reduction of 12 from the average number of official visits (40) during the previous four years. (Institution-imposed).

•         The head baseball coach is restricted from all off-campus recruiting activities for one year beginning August 21, 2008. (Institution-imposed).

•         Temporary suspension of recruiting activities for the involved football assistant coaches, as noted in the public report. (Institution-imposed).

•         Suspension of football recruiting activities for four weeks from December 2007 to February 2008. (Institution-imposed).

•         Reduction in the number of football coaches who are allowed to engage in off-campus recruiting at any one time for one year from February 2008 to February 2009. (Institution-imposed).

•         The university suspended recruitment of each prospective student-athlete to whom a message was sent for two weeks for each week during which an impermissible message was sent. (Institution-imposed).

The members of the Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case are Paul Dee, lecturer of law and education at the University of Miami (Florida) and formerly the institution’s general counsel. He is the chair of the Committee on Infractions. Other members are Josephine (Jo) R. Potuto, the Richard H. Larson Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law; Eileen Jennings, general counsel at Central Michigan University; Alfred Lechner Jr., attorney; Dennis Thomas, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and formerly director of athletics at Hampton University; Andrea Meyers, athletics director emeritus, Indiana State University; and James Park Jr., attorney, Lexington, Kentucky.