Baylor’s penalties accepted
NCAA agrees with school’s probation, recruiting limits
Baylor will serve a three-year probation, take a cut in scholarships and work under recruiting restrictions after the NCAA agreed Wednesday with the school’s self-imposed penalties for more than 1,200 impermissible phone calls and text messages from men’s and women’s basketball coaches to recruits over a fouryear period. The NCAA announcement came after a threeyear investigation that began in 2008 during Baylor’s recruitment of Brittney Griner, the 2012 national player of the year who led the Lady Bears to an unprecedented 40-0 season and a win in the national title game last week. Coach Kim Mulkey, who also took Baylor to the 2005 NCAA title, will be barred from off-campus recruiting in July. Also among the sanctions:
-Men’s basketball lost one scholarship for the 2011-12 season and will lose another in 2012-13. The women lost two scholarships in 2011-12.
-Men’s basketball coach Scott Drew will be suspended from all coaching duties for the first two Big 12 Conference games in 2012-13.
-A one-year show-cause order against former men’s assistant coach Mark Morefield for providing the NCAA false and misleading information. He resigned in July 2011.
-Three years of probation ending April 10, 2015.
“We are grateful . . . the NCAA Committee on Infractions has agreed to the facts of this case,” Baylor President Ken Starr said in a statement. “It is important that we acknowledge our errors and respond to them in a manner that is open and honest.”
Because the NCAA committee agreed with Baylor’s handling of the investigation and adopted its self-imposed restrictions, the case is considered closed and there will be no appeal.
Fine investigation:
A man who has accused former Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine of molesting him has been sentenced to three years and three months in prison for sexually abusing a boy in Maine.
Zach Tomaselli, 23, was sentenced Wednesday after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors in December.
Tomaselli is one of three to accuse Fine of molesting them as boys, but his is the only case that falls within the statute of limitations. The U.S. Attorney’s office is investigating his claim that Fine, fired in November, molested him in 2002 in Pittsburgh. Fine has denied the accusations.