The NCAA Division I Infractions Appeals Committee has upheld the athletics scholarship reduction penalty for University of New Mexico.

In August 2008, the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions found that two former assistant coaches arranged for an enrolled student-athlete and three prospective student-athletes to enroll in correspondence courses. All three prospects received credit for coursework they did not complete.

As part of its self-imposed penalties, New Mexico reduced its initial grants-in-aid in football by one and reduced the total number of athletics scholarships by two for 2008-09. The Committee on Infractions increased those reductions to require the institution to award no more than 20 initial grants-in-aid and have no more than 80 total counters for each of the three years New Mexico is on probation (2008-09 through 2010-11).

In its appeal, the university argued that the increased reductions were excessive and an abuse of discretion by the Committee on Infractions. According to NCAA rules, a penalty imposed by the Committee on Infractions may be set aside on appeal only if it is “excessive such that it constitutes an abuse of discretion.”

In affirming the penalty, the Infractions Appeals Committee reiterated in its report that academic fraud violations, as this case involved, are serious violations, and stated, “Although the increased scholarship penalties are more severe than those imposed in some other cases involving academic fraud, we do not find that they are excessive.”

In considering the university’s appeal, the Infractions Appeals Committee reviewed the notice of appeal, the transcript of the university’s Committee on Infractions hearing and the submissions by the university and the Committee on Infractions.

The members of the Infractions Appeals Committee who heard this case were Noel M. Ragsdale, University of Southern California, acting committee chair; Susan Cross Lipnickey, Miami University (Ohio); David Williams II, Vanderbilt University; and Jack Friedenthal, George Washington University.