MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Gray Fox]

"Caltech found the violations when the current director of athletics recommended a review of academic records of all 2010-11 student-athletes. When the review revealed eight student-athletes competed while ineligible, Caltech expanded the review of records to previous years. The sports affected include: men's water polo; men's and women's fencing; men's soccer; men's basketball; baseball; men's tennis; women's track and cross country; men's track; and women's swimming and diving.

The penalties include:

    Public reprimand and censure.
    Three years of probation from July 12, 2012, through July 11, 2015.
    A 2012-13 postseason ban for the sports of men's and women's track and field; men's and women's cross country; women's swimming; baseball; men's and women's fencing; men's soccer; men's water polo; men's basketball; and men's and women's tennis. The ban extends to all the annual exemptions of Bylaw 17.1.4.5 and is further detailed in the public report. (Self-imposed by the university)
    Vacation of all wins and individual records earned when ineligible student-athletes participated. (Self-imposed by the university)
    A financial penalty of $5,000. (Self-imposed by the university)
    Elimination of off-campus recruiting activities for the 2012-13 academic year. (Self-imposed by the university)"

Does this mean the basketball victory over Oxy doesn't count?

[Pat Coleman]

It doesn't specify the games but if the issue is the first three weeks of the semester, I believe Oxy is out of luck.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

WOW!!!

[Gray Fox]

I wonder what they will do to Penn State.

[Gregory Sager]

It's like a scoutmaster being led out of a biker bar in handcuffs on an assault-and-battery charge.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I wonder what they will do to Penn State.

I would hope that the NCAA does nothing.  This is WAY beyond NCAA jurisdiction!

But Penn State is in deep doo-doo, with prison sentences for a whole lot of administrators.  Athletically, they may suddenly become Northwestern, if potential recruits (or their parents) give a sh*t about kids.

[WoostAr]

"the win" stands...see article:  http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/07/12/caltech-athletics-hit-with-ncaa-sanctions/

[sac]

I wonder what they will do to Penn State.

I would hope that the NCAA does nothing.  This is WAY beyond NCAA jurisdiction!

But Penn State is in deep doo-doo, with prison sentences for a whole lot of administrators.  Athletically, they may suddenly become Northwestern, if potential recruits (or their parents) give a sh*t about kids.

Actually it is very much within the NCAA's jurisdiction as well as the Big 10 Conference.  PSU had already been given a letter of inquiry back in Nov of 2011.  http://www.ncaa.com/content/ncaa-letter-penn-state

PSU was supposed to respond by last Dec.  The NCAA and Big 10 have both been waiting for the Freeh report.

PSU also had one of its best years in receiving donations.
http://articles.cnn.com/2012-07-09/us/us_pennsylvania-penn-state-donations_1_sandusky-image-joe-paterno-and-university-sandusky-conviction

[hickory_cornhusker]

I wonder what they will do to Penn State.

I would hope that the NCAA does nothing.  This is WAY beyond NCAA jurisdiction!

But Penn State is in deep doo-doo, with prison sentences for a whole lot of administrators.  Athletically, they may suddenly become Northwestern, if potential recruits (or their parents) give a sh*t about kids.

Actually it is very much within the NCAA's jurisdiction as well as the Big 10 Conference.  PSU had already been given a letter of inquiry back in Nov of 2011.  http://www.ncaa.com/content/ncaa-letter-penn-state

PSU was supposed to respond by last Dec.  The NCAA and Big 10 have both been waiting for the Freeh report.

PSU also had one of its best years in receiving donations.
http://articles.cnn.com/2012-07-09/us/us_pennsylvania-penn-state-donations_1_sandusky-image-joe-paterno-and-university-sandusky-conviction

They can send Penn State those letters but what NCAA rule did Penn State break. The "Death Penalty" is only possible if Penn State were a repeat violator which they are not. Lack of Institutional Control is very specific and deals with compliance of the athletic department in regard to NCAA rules.

I don't believe any NCAA rules were broken. The Big Ten might try something but I am unsure of what. Kicking them out of the conference is very unlikely. The NCAA is an athletic association. Not a police force. Let the Department of Justice handle this. The NCAA has a hard enough time enforcing their own rules, let's not pile the enforcement of criminal law on top of that.

[sac]

I wonder what they will do to Penn State.

I would hope that the NCAA does nothing.  This is WAY beyond NCAA jurisdiction!

But Penn State is in deep doo-doo, with prison sentences for a whole lot of administrators.  Athletically, they may suddenly become Northwestern, if potential recruits (or their parents) give a sh*t about kids.

Actually it is very much within the NCAA's jurisdiction as well as the Big 10 Conference.  PSU had already been given a letter of inquiry back in Nov of 2011.  http://www.ncaa.com/content/ncaa-letter-penn-state

PSU was supposed to respond by last Dec.  The NCAA and Big 10 have both been waiting for the Freeh report.

PSU also had one of its best years in receiving donations.
http://articles.cnn.com/2012-07-09/us/us_pennsylvania-penn-state-donations_1_sandusky-image-joe-paterno-and-university-sandusky-conviction

They can send Penn State those letters but what NCAA rule did Penn State break. The "Death Penalty" is only possible if Penn State were a repeat violator which they are not. Lack of Institutional Control is very specific and deals with compliance of the athletic department in regard to NCAA rules.

I don't believe any NCAA rules were broken. The Big Ten might try something but I am unsure of what. Kicking them out of the conference is very unlikely. The NCAA is an athletic association. Not a police force. Let the Department of Justice handle this. The NCAA has a hard enough time enforcing their own rules, let's not pile the enforcement of criminal law on top of that.

Had you read the NCAA's inquiry you would note the NCAA sited about a half dozen NCAA bylaws relating to ethical conduct and the expectations of those who are members of the NCAA.  The NCAA has never taken 'lack of institutional control' lightly as Cal Tech just learned.

This is very much within the NCAA's purview.

[hickory_cornhusker]

I wonder what they will do to Penn State.

I would hope that the NCAA does nothing.  This is WAY beyond NCAA jurisdiction!

But Penn State is in deep doo-doo, with prison sentences for a whole lot of administrators.  Athletically, they may suddenly become Northwestern, if potential recruits (or their parents) give a sh*t about kids.

Actually it is very much within the NCAA's jurisdiction as well as the Big 10 Conference.  PSU had already been given a letter of inquiry back in Nov of 2011.  http://www.ncaa.com/content/ncaa-letter-penn-state

PSU was supposed to respond by last Dec.  The NCAA and Big 10 have both been waiting for the Freeh report.

PSU also had one of its best years in receiving donations.
http://articles.cnn.com/2012-07-09/us/us_pennsylvania-penn-state-donations_1_sandusky-image-joe-paterno-and-university-sandusky-conviction

They can send Penn State those letters but what NCAA rule did Penn State break. The "Death Penalty" is only possible if Penn State were a repeat violator which they are not. Lack of Institutional Control is very specific and deals with compliance of the athletic department in regard to NCAA rules.

I don't believe any NCAA rules were broken. The Big Ten might try something but I am unsure of what. Kicking them out of the conference is very unlikely. The NCAA is an athletic association. Not a police force. Let the Department of Justice handle this. The NCAA has a hard enough time enforcing their own rules, let's not pile the enforcement of criminal law on top of that.

Had you read the NCAA's inquiry you would note the NCAA sited about a half dozen NCAA bylaws relating to ethical conduct and the expectations of those who are members of the NCAA.  The NCAA has never taken 'lack of institutional control' lightly as Cal Tech just learned.

This is very much within the NCAA's purview.

I was wrong. But the question is: What penalties will the NCAA use? This would have to occur under a major infraction. Secondary primarily refers to minor recruiting or competitive advantages with no exchange of extra benefits. Looking at the list of punishments they all are gonna treat this like a normal major violation with very little difference to the Ohio State situation. The public is gonna want more and admittedly these sound rather trivial when viewed in the light of what has happened:

   
• Loss of scholarships
• loss of recruiting visits
• limited number of coaches who can recruit
• loss of exempt game including post season (and if the NCAA doesn't declare lack of institutional control this can't be a punishment (significant competitive advantage, violator still employed, academic fraud or institution is a repeat offender are the other violations that can trigger this punishment))
• vacation of records and/or awards
• financial penalty
• ban on television appearances (this one is the only one that sounds significant and that might just be because I can't remember the last major school to have a major sport get this punishment [SMU? but I would think there would be another one since]){This one might also end up being the punishment that could force the Big Ten to do something since this punishment would directly hurt the rest of the conference and their network}

The "Death Penalty" cannot be used. It can only be used under for Repeat Violators who had another Major Violation in the previous five years. Penn State, for the time being, is one of only four BCS schools to have never had a Major Violation (Northwestern, Boston College and Stanford are the others). The NCAA is gonna get screwed on this deal. The public is gonna demand more on whatever punishment the NCAA gives short of the "Death Penalty" and I'm not sure there is anything that could force the NCAA to give the "Death Penalty" again. That destroyed SMU. It's taken a quarter of a century just to get back to a shadow of what they were. The Southwest Conference's eventual death was accelerated in the wake of it (not the only factor, but an important one).

I do think that out of this the NCAA Manual will need to get a rewrite on how to handle an Ethical Violation like this was. All those punishments sound like they were created for a school that was gaining a recruiting or competitive advantage and that isn't what this was at all.

[sac]

Its possible to put a school on a simple probation and that be it, then if PSU were to violate any further rules they'd be in bigger trouble.  For instance Michigan is currently on probation for football through 2013, the only other punishment they received was a reduction in practice time of 130 hours which they've done away with.   At the moment the probation is more symbolic, but would be used against them if any further violations occurred before 2013 is over  (they would be treated as a repeat offender).

I really have no opinion one way or the other on what PSU should or shouldn't receive, the general consensus seems to be punishing the school in any way is punishing people who had nothing to do with this, (which is actually kind of the NCAA's thing when it comes to punishing schools anyway).  It would seem post-season bans/scholarship reductions, those kinds of things would be a little too much in this case and would severely hurt student athletes who had zero to do with this situation and some of them coming down the pike would have been barely out of diapers when these acts occurred.

I could see limiting recruiting trips or expenses, perhaps withholding some TV money.  In fact I would probably bet the Big Ten will go after Penn State's share of the Big Ten Network payout.

Given the Freeh report, I really don't think there's much doubt PSU had 'lack of institutional control'.  That's a serious violation to the NCAA and is always harshly punished.

If anything the NCAA has shown they have their own 'Too Big to Fail' problems, and I doubt much will come of this that Penn State can't handle from a university operations point of view.  Their real problem will be public opinion and perception.

[sac]

• ban on television appearances (this one is the only one that sounds significant and that might just be because I can't remember the last major school to have a major sport get this punishment [SMU? but I would think there would be another one since]){This one might also end up being the punishment that could force the Big Ten to do something since this punishment would directly hurt the rest of the conference and their network}

I was thinking about this yesterday, with conferences having their own networks a ban on television appearances really isn't a feasible punishment anymore.  If for instance Ohio State would have received a TV ban you diminish the value of the Big Ten Network as a product and in affect punish the entire conference for one teams transgressions.  And even if you institute something like a no national TV ban, the conference simply moves those games to their own network and that really is not much of a punishment at all.

The last school I can remember that received a TV ban was Auburn football in 1993.  They ended up going 11-0 and no one saw a single game.  There may have been a couple since then but I can't remember them, the NCAA stopped using TV bans in 1996.

[dahlby]

Check out Bill Plaschke's article on Caltech on the front page of today's LA Times sports section.

[Gray Fox]

Great article.

Every year there are posters who want Caltech out of the SCIAC because they are not competitive.  This article illustrates exactly why they should be included.