NCAA Penalizes Texas Southern University

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA (July 16, 2008) The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has penalized Texas Southern University for major violations in its softball and men’s and women’s tennis programs.

This infractions case involves the former head coaches of the softball program and the men’s and women’s tennis programs committing violations that went undetected by the university. The violations include impermissible benefits and financial aid, lack of institutional control, and unethical conduct against the former head coaches.

Penalties for the violations, including those self-imposed by the institution, include four years of probation; a suspension of the men’s and women’s tennis program; a postseason ban for the 2009 softball season; a reduction in scholarships for men’s and women’s tennis; a vacation of wins for softball and tennis; a four-year show-cause order for the former head tennis coach; and a three-year show-cause order for the former softball coach.

Under these show-cause penalties, should either former head coach seek athletically related employment with this or any other NCAA institution during this time period, the former coach and the hiring institution must appear before the Committee on Infractions to determine whether their duties should be limited.

Regarding the violations in the softball program, the former head coach knowingly allowed an ineligible student-athlete to participate in 47 practice sessions and nine games. In five of those contests the student-athlete represented the university under the name of an injured, eligible softball student-athlete who had left the team. The ineligible student-athlete also received more than $1,500 in impermissible benefits when she traveled with the team and received textbooks at no cost. In addition, the student-athlete was able to access the university’s book system by using the name of another softball student-athlete to obtain free textbooks.

Regarding the violations in the men’s and women’s tennis programs, the former head tennis coach was in charge of two squads that were non-competitive until he began recruiting international student-athletes. The former head coach enticed many of these international student-athletes with promises of full scholarships, which he was unable to deliver once the prospective student-athletes arrived on campus. To fund their costs of attendance, the former head tennis coach utilized legitimate institutional scholarship money, scholarship funds redirected from their intended recipients, personal funds and funds obtained from sponsors. The former tennis coach knowingly provided more than $19,000 of impermissible benefits and financial aid to 22 student-athletes.

Inevitably, the funds ran short and serious student-athlete wellbeing issues arose, as some of the international student-athletes had no money for even basic necessities. For example, three of the international student-athletes faced eviction from their apartments and were reduced to subsisting on bread and water because they had no money for rent or food, according to the committee’s report.

The former head tennis coach failed to provide each prospective student-athlete with financial aid agreements so they would know the dollar amount they would receive, and he provided tax forms to the director of international affairs indicating the prospective student-athletes would be on full scholarship. Because of this, the prospective student-athletes were allowed to enter the United States and the university without showing proof of financial support.

In addition, when the university did not renew one international tennis student-athlete’s athletics aid for the upcoming academic year, the university failed to give her a written statement of the nonrenewal or provide her an appeal hearing opportunity, as required by NCAA rules. It was also found that the university over-awarded athletically related scholarships in the men’s tennis program by the value of 0.13 scholarships.

It was found that both former head coaches acted contrary to the principles of ethical conduct by their involvement in the violations. In addition, the former softball coach was charged with unethical conduct for providing false and misleading information regarding the violations. The former head tennis coach was charged with unethical conduct for also luring student-athletes to campus with false promises of full scholarships.

The committee found that the violations went undetected because the university’s compliance system was inadequate, resulting in a lack of institutional control over the athletics program. The system relied on coaches to supply accurate information to the athletics and university administrations, particularly in the areas of participation records, financial aid distribution and tracking travel expenses. No follow-up was performed to confirm the information was accurate and the coaches were operating within the rules. Because of the lack of supervision, the violations came to light only when they were reported to the university by an anonymous source and a disillusioned tennis student-athlete.

In determining the penalties, the Committee on Infractions considered the university’s self-imposed penalties and corrective actions. The penalties, some of which were self-imposed by the institution and adopted by the committee, are as follows:

• Public reprimand and censure.

• Four years of probation (July 16, 2008, to July 15, 2012).

• Suspension of men’s and women’s tennis program from all competition for the spring 2007, fall 2007 and spring 2008 semesters. (Self-imposed by institution).

• Reduction in scholarships by one for both the 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years for both men’s and women’s tennis. (Self-imposed by institution).

• The softball team shall end its 2009 season with the playing of its last regularly scheduled, in-season contest and is not be eligible to participate in any postseason competition.

• Vacation of all wins in which the ineligible softball student-athlete competed during the spring of 2004. Further, the university shall vacate all tennis victories earned by ineligible student-athletes at any time they were ineligible. The university’s records regarding softball and men’s and women’s tennis will be reconfigured to reflect the vacated records and so recorded in all publications in which softball and men’s and women’s tennis are reported including, but limited to, media guides, recruiting material, electronic and digital media and institutional and NCAA archives. Finally, any public reference to softball and men’s and women’s tennis championships or tournaments won during this time shall be removed including, but not limited to, athletics department stationary, banners displayed in public areas and any other forum in which they appear.

• The former head tennis coach was given a four-year show-cause penalty effective until July 15, 2012.

• The former head softball coach was given a three-year show-cause penalty effective until July 15, 2011.

The members of the Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case are Josephine Potuto, the Richard H. Larson Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law and chair of the committee; Paul Dee, director of athletics at the University of Miami, and formerly the institution's general counsel; Eileen Jennings, general counsel at Central Michigan University; Alfred Lechner, Jr., attorney; Dennis Thomas, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and formerly director of athletics at Hampton University; and Thomas Yeager, commissioner of the Colonial Athletic Association.