Download the June 2021 University of Idaho Negotiated Resoultion
Idaho committed multiple financial aid violations when it improperly reduced student-athlete scholarships and incorrectly calculated scholarship equivalencies, according to an agreement released by the Division I Committee on Infractions.
The NCAA enforcement staff and the school agreed that, over the span of five academic years, the school reduced the scholarships for student-athletes 139 times without providing notification to those student-athletes in writing or an opportunity for a hearing.
Between fall 2016 and fall 2019, student-athletes were charged for course fees that were covered under their scholarship agreements after dropping the courses past the drop/add deadline for that term's courses. Because the fees effectively reduced the student-athletes' scholarships, the charges were impermissible because the school did not notify the student-athletes in writing about the reductions to their scholarships or their opportunity to have a hearing. The impermissible fees amounted to $7,924 in total.
Additionally, between the 2016-17 and 2020-21 academic years, the school awarded athletics scholarships before institutional financial aid was fully vetted. On 39 occasions, the school impermissibly reduced athletics scholarships to remove athletics-based aid equal to the amount of the nonathletics aid those individuals subsequently received. The school also did not notify those student-athletes about their scholarship reductions in writing or provide an opportunity for a hearing.
According to the agreement, the school also incorrectly calculated scholarship equivalencies for student-athletes whose scholarships included housing and meals. In those cases, the school used the cost of a meal plan that was $720 less than the cost of the maximum meal plan available to all students. The school also incorrectly calculated the actual or average cost of housing when it used the average cost of only two on-campus dorms at the double room rate, instead of a weighted average of all rooms or the actual cost of the room. In both cases, the school's incorrect calculations were violations because it did not follow the established policies and procedures for calculating the cost of attendance.
Further, the parties agreed in the 2021 spring semester, a football student-athlete received his off-campus housing and meals stipend after he graduated following the 2020 fall semester and before he had enrolled in classes for the spring term. The school quickly discovered the violation and went through the reinstatement process before the student-athlete competed. None of the other violations resulted in any student-athletes becoming ineligible, and none of the violations involved student-athletes competing while ineligible.
Lastly, the enforcement staff and school agreed that the financial aid violations demonstrated that the school did not monitor its financial aid processes because it routinely reduced aid without providing written notification and hearing opportunities, improperly calculated equivalencies, and failed to monitor and educate staff members responsible for administering athletics aid.
This case was processed through the negotiated resolution process. The process was used instead of a formal hearing or summary disposition because the university and the enforcement staff agreed on the violations and the penalties. The Division I Committee on Infractions reviewed the case to determine whether the resolution was in the best interests of the Association and whether the agreed-upon penalties were reasonable. Negotiated resolutions may not be appealed and do not set case precedent for other infractions cases.
The university and the enforcement staff used ranges identified by the Division I membership-approved infractions penalty guidelines to agree upon Level II-standard penalties for the university. The report contains the full list of penalties as approved by the Committee on Infractions, including:
- Two years of probation that will run consecutive to the school's current probationary period.
- A $5,000 fine.
- The financial aid liaison in the financial aid department must participate in an NCAA Regional Rules Seminar.
Members of the Committee on Infractions are drawn from NCAA member schools and conferences and members of the public. The committee members who reviewed this case are Thomas Hill, senior vice president emeritus at Iowa State; Jill Redmond, senior associate commissioner at the Atlantic 10 Conference; and Dave Roberts, special assistant to the athletics director at Southern California and chief hearing officer for the panel.