NCAAdiscusses stricter penalties

Times wires
Friday, December 24, 2010

The NCAA has been busy this season investigating schools for agent-related issues. Most are open cases with unknown consequences for the schools.

But an NCAA panel two years ago recommended stricter punishments for serious rules violators, recommendations that remain under consideration.

"It's definitely not a dead issue," NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said.

In October 2008, a subcommittee of the Division I Committee on Infractions offered its recommendations to the Division I Board of Directors, which typically takes about a year to study proposed rules revisions. The panel's report is confidential. But interviews with its former chairman and others indicate the recommendations include:

• Loss of scholarships. Current rules list it only as a "presumptive" penalty.

• TV bans, a penalty not applied since 1996.

• Clarifying penalties for repeat offenders, including the "death penalty." Shutting down a program has been on the books for 25 years but applied only to SMU for a pay-for-play scandal in 1987. Repeat violators are schools that run afoul of the NCAA more than once every five years.

Wyoming law professor Jerry Parkinson, a former infractions committee member who led the subcommittee review, said the biggest hurdle to the proposed changes is the TV ban. Schools are worried about the loss of shared revenue.

That concern helped drive the decision against the death penalty for Baylor in 2005 after a men's basketball player was convicted of murdering a teammate while their coach attempted to cover up the crime, said Colonial Athletic Association commissioner Tom Yeager, a former infractions committee chairman. The committee instead banned the Bears for one season of Big 12 play.

Julie Roe Lach, the NCAA's vice president of enforcement, declined to discuss specifics. But she suggested the entire enforcement procedure is under review.

"Like anything else," she said, "it's healthy from time to time to take stock of what we're doing and whether it's effective."

Mississippi St.: Coach Dan Mullen is close to finalizing a four-year extension, the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger reported.

Late Thursday: Ronnie Hillman ran for 228 yards and three touchdowns as San Diego State beat Navy (9-4) 35-14 in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. The Mountain West freshman of the year also caught a touchdown pass on the first play of the fourth for a 28-14 lead. The Aztecs (9-4) hadn't won a bowl game since the Pasadena Bowl in December 1969. They had been in only three since, most recently the 1998 Las Vegas.

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