SEMO's penalty: Two years, not four on vacation of records

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball program must vacate records from two seasons — 2004-05 and the 2005-06 Ohio Valley Conference championship campaign — under penalties handed down Wednesday by the NCAA Committee on Infractions.

The program also will be on probation for two years, effective Monday and ending June 17, 2010.

The university has 15 business days to file an appeal. 

The violations detailed in the public infractions report were detailed but not much different from those the university made known in a preliminary report in June 2006. At that time, the university self-imposed sanctions that included reductions in scholarships and recruiting days along with measures to provide better monitoring. 

The committee had sent a letter to the university late last year with intention of imposing an additional penalty — a four-year vacation of wins that would wipe out the entire span of B.J. Smith's coahing career from 2002-03 to 2005-06, in which the program made the first of two consecutive NCAA appearances.

But the April 19 hearing, in which Smith, university officials, conference officials and Chuck Smrt of The Compliance Group were present, led to a reduction of that penalty to two years.

University president Dr. Kenneth Dobbins, who said last year he intended to use the full array to appeal the vacation of records, said Wednesday he was concerned about that penalty but was not committed to an appeal until the facts of the case are reviewed.