Orange basketball slapped by NCAA
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The NCAA’s committee on infractions issued a scathing report Friday on the conduct of the Syracuse athletic department , particularly its men’s basketball program, saying it violated numerous NCAA rules over the course of more than a decade.
The Syracuse men’s basketball team must forfeit three scholarships each year for the next four seasons; vacate all victories in which an ineligible basketball player participated from 2004 through 2012; reduce permissible off-campus recruiters from four to two; and return all funds received from participation in the Big East Conference tournament in 2011, 2012 and 2013, among other sanctions.
Also, Coach Jim Boeheim will be suspended for the first nine Atlantic Coast Conference games in 201516. He was singled out for his “failure to promote an
atmosphere of compliance and monitor his staff.”
Boeheim was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005, two years after he guided Syracuse to its first national championship. His streak of 35 consecutive 20-victory seasons is an NCAA Division I record. But the committee determined that Boeheim failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance or monitor the activities of those who reported to him regarding academics and boosters.
In a letter to the university community, Syracuse Chancellor Kent Syverud wrote, “Syracuse University did not and does not agree with all the conclusions reached by the NCAA, including some of the findings and penalties included in today’s report. However, we take the report and the issues it identifies very seriously, particularly those that involve academic integrity and the overall well-being of student-athletes.”
Syverud said the university was considering an appeal, and Boeheim may choose to appeal the portions that impact him personally.
The investigation focused on violations committed by the team’s former director of basketball operations, Stan Kissel, as well as a team receptionist in their attempt to restore eligibility of a men’s basketball player. From 2010 to 2012, a support services mentor and a support services tutor also made revisions, created or wrote assignments for three basketball players.
NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson said the university declared center Fab Melo ineligible in 2012 days before the NCAA Tournament started. Melo also missed three Big East games during the season because of an academic issue.
In the 2012-13 season, former forward James Southerland sat out six games for an academic issue related to a term paper but played in the NCAA Tournament and helped lead the Orange to the Final Four.
“Improper institutional involvement and influence in a student’s academic work in order to gain or maintain eligibility is a violation of NCAA rules and a violation of the most fundamental core values of the NCAA and higher education,” the committee wrote.
Furthermore, the committee found that two people with ties to the Syracuse basketball program, both affiliated with the Tri-Valley YMCA in Oneida, N.Y., provided impermissible benefits like meals, transportation and $8,335 in cash to five athletes over the course of 14 months between 2004 and 2005.
The committee also found that from 2001-09 the school did not follow its own written policies and procedures for students who tested positive for banned substances. NCAA rules require that if schools have a drug-testing policy, it must include substances on the banned list and the school must follow its policy. Both Boeheim and Athletic Director Daryl Gross admitted they did not follow Syracuse’s written policy.
In anticipation of the report, Syverud had announced a postseason ban this year for the basketball team.
In addition, the university announced it also had self-imposed other penalties, including elimination of one scholarship for men’s basketball for the 2015-2016 season, vacating 24 men’s basketball victories (15 in 2004-05 and nine in 2011-12), and vacating 11 football victories from 2004-07.
Britton Banowsky, commissioner of Conference USA and the chief hearing officer in the case, said during a teleconference that Syracuse’s behavior went “to the core values of the NCAA and higher education.”
Banowsky argued that NCAA policy was clear that head coaches bear responsibility for violations in their programs and said it was clear that Syracuse failed to self-police.