NCAA imposes 2-year probation on Rutgers

NEWARK, N.J. — The NCAA has placed Rutgers on two-year probation and publically reprimanded and censured the university for failing to monitor its football program over a five-year period between 2011 and 2015.

The Division I Committee on Infractions panel ruled Friday that Rutgers did not ensure its football student host group and its drug-testing program followed university policy and NCAA rules.

The panel also said that former football coach Kyle Flood failed to monitor his operations staff and violated university policy by contacting an instructor to make special academic arrangements for a student-athlete.

The ruling was lenient in that the NCAA agreed with most of the self-imposed sanctions that Rutgers sought as punishment for the violations.

Rutgers helped itself by cooperating with the investigation, firing Flood and athletic director Julie

Hermann after the 2015 season, and implementing a new drug testing program and hiring a new chief medical officer. The major difference was the NCAA ordered two years of probation instead of the one year sought. Rutgers admitted in April in responding to an 18-month NCAA investigation that violations had occurred in its football program.

The NCAA accepted most of the university’s self-imposed sanctions to correct them.

Those sanctions included a $5,000 fine, a reduction in the number of permissible off-campus recruiting days, a limit of 36 official visits for high school seniors and transfer students in football during the 2017-18 academic year, and a one-week probation on initiating contacts with prospective student-athletes.

The NCAA could have added additional sanctions by vacating victories, reducing scholarships and banning the team from bowl games.

Rutgers President Robert Barchi thanked the NCAA committee and said the university is moving forward.

“Today, the Committee issued its final report concluding the matter, and not only recognized our cooperation but also acknowledged the extensive changes we have taken in personnel, structure, policies, and compliance,” he said in a statement.