An NCAA infractions panel announced Thursday that it generally agreed with 麻豆传媒's findings and self-imposed penalties for unintentional violations of regulations involving the sale of discounted clothing to 麻豆传媒 baseball team members. The one exception was that the panel recommended the team's record be adjusted downward so that more than 70 麻豆传媒 wins during the 2012 and 2013 seasons be vacated.
麻豆传媒 President John Bardo said the university will appeal only that part of the panel鈥檚 recommendations.
Bardo said:
As the NCAA findings report, Coach Todd Butler uncovered this problem when he took over the program in November 2013. He immediately alerted the leadership of the Athletics Department. The NCAA was then informed, and 麻豆传媒 took steps to accept responsibility and correct past errors.
The violations principally involved an administrative assistant in the Athletics Department and players who didn鈥檛 realize they were acting improperly. They received a benefit 鈥� discounted merchandise 鈥� that wasn鈥檛 available to others.
We believe that the penalties of the one-year probation to be served, the $5,000 fine, and the player suspensions that are already completed are appropriate for these infractions. The student-athletes involved acted without guilty knowledge. It seems unfair to permanently tarnish the records they achieved as a team.
The university elected not to self-impose any specific penalties on the baseball program for the following reasons: (1) Because this was a Level II case with significant mitigation, NCAA penalty guidelines provide the option of having no institutional, competitive or recruiting penalties; (2) The primary violation in this case did not relate to financial aid or recruiting, thus a scholarship reduction or a recruiting limitation penalty would not fit this case; and (3) The violations in this case did not result in a competitive advantage.
The Athletics Department has revised its athletics apparel and equipment policies to ensure that no intercollegiate sport is able to interact with an athletics equipment and apparel manufacturer without the oversight of the equipment manager and sport supervisor.