Front

Improper Benefits - Crime Count: 9 - limited
Date	Team_Name	Sport	Category	Link	Points	Evidence
2010-05-28	The_Goons	Big East	Small-Time	Crime Link	10	A Connecticut official tells the Associated Press that two assistant coaches have left the men’s program a day before the school plans to hold a news conference to update an NCAA investigation of potential recruiting violations. School officials, including coach Jim Calhoun, were to attend Friday’s on-campus event, along with attorney Rick Evrard, an outside counsel who advises UConn on NCAA-related matters. A school official said assistant coach Patrick Sellers and director of basketball operations Beau Archibald had both agreed to resign from the school in advance of the news conference. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information. The Hartford Courant, citing unidentified sources, first reported the resignations Thursday. Messages seeking comment from the AP were left for Calhoun, Sellers and an NCAA official. The NCAA and the school have been investigating the program since shortly after a report by Yahoo! Sports in March 2009 that former team manager Josh Nochimson helped guide basketball recruit Nate Miles to Connecticut, giving him lodging, transportation, meals and representation. The Yahoo! report also alleged that UConn coaches exceeded limits on the number of phone calls that can be made to recruits.
2010-02-22	IrvinSucks	Big East	Small-Time	Crime Link	10	A Pitt safety got kicked of the team after tweeting pictures of himself with stacks of cash and captions about how football got him that cash. Pics and captions are in the link.
2008-09-03	Perpetrators	Pac 10	Small-Time	Crime Link	10	University of Oregon offensive tackle, Fenuki Tupou, was suspended one game and forced to dnate $110 to charity for accepting a free meal and cash from a representative of a sports management company.
2008-08-19	IrvinSucks	ACC	Small-Time	Crime Link	10	On the eve of his first season as defensive coordinator at the University of Virginia, Bob Pruett is being accused of involvement in academic fraud and the overpayment of players at off-campus jobs while he was head football coach at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. David Ridpath, a former compliance officer at Marshall, filed documents Friday with new allegations against Pruett. They’re part of a lawsuit Ridpath initiated against Marshall, Pruett and Marshall administrators about six years ago. The new filings were first reported Sunday on CBSSports.com. The NCAA penalized Marshall in 2001 for several violations, including academic fraud and lack of institutional control. Pruett was not named in the original NCAA infractions report. Ridpath, now an associate athletic director at Ohio University, believes he was unfairly made a scapegoat at Marshall, the Huntington Herald-Dispatch reported.
2008-07-27	Trailer_Trash	Southland	Small-Time	Crime Link	3	***5 counts of cheating for the 43 unauthorized phone calls to recruits. ***2 counts of academic ineligible for the players who played despite being ineligible ***Improper benefits for the coach using his own funds for recruiting which is a violation. The NCAA has accused Texas A&M-Corpus Christi of nine rules violations, including use of ineligible players, recruiting violations in men’s basketball and lack of institutional control. The alleged violations, eight of them major, occurred mainly between 2004 and 2008 in men’s basketball, women’s volleyball and men’s tennis. The NCAA’s notice of allegations, obtained Saturday by the Associated Press, also accuses athletic director Brian Teter of not reporting to the NCAA his knowledge of two ineligible players and later submitting a false self-report regarding one of those players. Teter failed to conduct himself in accordance with the association’s "high standards of honesty and sportsmanship," the notice said. The NCAA charged the athletic department with a lack of institutional control, saying the school failed to monitor the eligibility of student-athletes, properly train staff in NCAA rules, police itself for rules violations and accurately report any violations. The school has to respond to the allegations by Oct. 29 and is scheduled to appear before the NCAA infractions committee on Dec. 5 in Indianapolis. In a statement, school President Flavius Killebrew said he does not want the school or its athletic department, which started in 1998, to be tarnished by the allegations. "We take the issues presented to us by the NCAA very seriously," Killebrew said. "Our intercollegiate athletic program must be transparent beyond any reproach." The report singles out two former compliance directors and Teter for failing to report ineligible players once they learned of them or for failing to withhold them from competition. A volleyball player was improperly given a sixth year of eligibility and a men’s tennis player was given a partial athletic scholarship when he had not qualified academically and was later allowed to compete even after officials knew he was ineligible, according to the NCAA. Teter did not immediately respond to an e-mail or a phone message left at his office by the Associated Press on Saturday. School spokesman Marshall Collins said Teter remains the athletic director and that Killebrew will ultimately decide his job status. The school received notice of the allegations Thursday, and the president has not decided a course of action, Collins said. "He hasn’t had time himself to read to see if there’s anything that should be done at this time," Collins said. The men’s basketball program, led by former Miami coach Perry Clark, is also a target of the report. The NCAA alleges an assistant coach made at least 43 impermissible phone calls to four recruits. A separate allegation involves the program providing impermissible recruiting inducements to a possible transfer, including transportation to the border town of Laredo so the player could renew his immigration documentation. Included among the allegations is a secondary violation involving men’s basketball, in which the NCAA said Teter told Clark to use personal funds for recruiting and not program funds.
2008-06-19	Trailer_Trash	Ohio Valley	Small-Time	Crime Link	15	Southeast Missouri’s women’s basketball team was ordered to forfeit 44 victories Wednesday and the NCAA placed both the women’s and men’s programs on two years of probation for major and secondary violations. The NCAA Committee on Infractions said the violations in the women’s program in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons primarily involved impermissible housing, transportation and meals for prospective student athletes who moved near the university in the summer before enrolling for the first time. The men’s basketball program was penalized for allowing ineligible transfers to travel and practice. The school was censured for lack of institutional control and a failure by former women’s coach B.J. Smith to monitor the program. Smith was coach from 2002-03 through 2005-06 before resigning in December 2006, compiling a 79-41 record over that span that was the best in the Ohio Valley Conference. Southeast Missouri was 22-9 in 2005-06, winning the conference tournament and playing in the NCAA tournament, and 22-8 in 2004-05, losing in double overtime to Eastern Kentucky in the conference tournament championship game. Ron Hines, spokesman for the athletic department, said the school hasn’t decided if it will appeal the ruling. Penalties, including those self-imposed by the university, also included a reduction in recruiting activity, financial penalties and a reduction in the number of scholarships. The NCAA said its investigation found that seven prospects and one parent received impermissible automobile transportation from women’s basketball managers, players and other prospects, with transportation arranged by members of the coaching staff. In addition, the NCAA said, members of the coaching staff provided impermissible transportation to four prospects from their homes to local venues. Six prospects lived cost-free in an off-campus house rented by women’s basketball players for various periods from a few days to a few weeks over a period of four summers, the NCAA said. The investigation found the women’s coaching staff knew that prospects lived in the housing on some occasions but made no effort to make sure that they paid for it. In addition, members of the women’s coaching staff allowed two prospects to observe or volunteer at summer camps and to receive free housing and meals. The committee found that six women’s basketball prospects participated in voluntary summer workouts conducted by the university’s strength and conditioning coach. The NCAA said Smith had been aware that multiple prospects were in the vicinity of the university working in summer camps and participating in summer conditioning activities. The committee on infractions found that he failed to monitor their activities. In the men’s program, three transfer students traveled with the team and had their expenses paid even though they were ineligible. The violations occurred on multiple occasions over two academic years, resulting in extra benefits totaling between $1,700 and $2,800 for each of the transfers. Hines said those infractions involved players brought on by then-coach Gary Garner because injuries had left him without enough people for five-on-five practices. Hines said Garner wasn’t aware that he was violating NCAA rules. The NCAA said a competitive advantage was gained because the players had an opportunity to acclimate to road travel and further integrate in the team while receiving additional coaching and practice time.
2008-06-19	Trailer_Trash	Ohio Valley	Small-Time	Crime Link	15	Southeast Missouri’s women’s basketball team was ordered to forfeit 44 victories Wednesday and the NCAA placed both the women’s and men’s programs on two years of probation for major and secondary violations. The NCAA Committee on Infractions said the violations in the women’s program in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons primarily involved impermissible housing, transportation and meals for prospective student athletes who moved near the university in the summer before enrolling for the first time. The men’s basketball program was penalized for allowing ineligible transfers to travel and practice. The school was censured for lack of institutional control and a failure by former women’s coach B.J. Smith to monitor the program. Smith was coach from 2002-03 through 2005-06 before resigning in December 2006, compiling a 79-41 record over that span that was the best in the Ohio Valley Conference. Southeast Missouri was 22-9 in 2005-06, winning the conference tournament and playing in the NCAA tournament, and 22-8 in 2004-05, losing in double overtime to Eastern Kentucky in the conference tournament championship game. Ron Hines, spokesman for the athletic department, said the school hasn’t decided if it will appeal the ruling. Penalties, including those self-imposed by the university, also included a reduction in recruiting activity, financial penalties and a reduction in the number of scholarships. The NCAA said its investigation found that seven prospects and one parent received impermissible automobile transportation from women’s basketball managers, players and other prospects, with transportation arranged by members of the coaching staff. In addition, the NCAA said, members of the coaching staff provided impermissible transportation to four prospects from their homes to local venues. Six prospects lived cost-free in an off-campus house rented by women’s basketball players for various periods from a few days to a few weeks over a period of four summers, the NCAA said. The investigation found the women’s coaching staff knew that prospects lived in the housing on some occasions but made no effort to make sure that they paid for it. In addition, members of the women’s coaching staff allowed two prospects to observe or volunteer at summer camps and to receive free housing and meals. The committee found that six women’s basketball prospects participated in voluntary summer workouts conducted by the university’s strength and conditioning coach. The NCAA said Smith had been aware that multiple prospects were in the vicinity of the university working in summer camps and participating in summer conditioning activities. The committee on infractions found that he failed to monitor their activities. In the men’s program, three transfer students traveled with the team and had their expenses paid even though they were ineligible. The violations occurred on multiple occasions over two academic years, resulting in extra benefits totaling between $1,700 and $2,800 for each of the transfers. Hines said those infractions involved players brought on by then-coach Gary Garner because injuries had left him without enough people for five-on-five practices. Hines said Garner wasn’t aware that he was violating NCAA rules. The NCAA said a competitive advantage was gained because the players had an opportunity to acclimate to road travel and further integrate in the team while receiving additional coaching and practice time.
2008-05-11	Perpetrators	Pac 10	Small-Time	Crime Link	10	USC freshman, OJ Mayo, has reportedly received about $30,000 and other benefits from an LA events promoter while he attended high school and college. They money was reportedly intended to ensure he would sign with a northern California sports agency. This is regarded ascheating by the NCAA.
2008-01-26	Perpetrators	Pac 10	Small-Time	Crime Link	10	USC freshman, OJ Mayo, accepted free NBA tickets from Denver Nuggets’ forward, Carmelo Anthony. The NCAA ruled this was a violation as an improper benefit. Mayo was forced to donate the value of the tickets to charity in order to regain his eligibility.