SEMO discloses NCAA violations

~ The university will impose sanctions on the men's and women's basketball programs.

Southeast Missouri State University will self-impose sanctions on its women's and men's basketball programs after an Ohio Valley Conference investigation found numerous violations of NCAA rules over the past two years, school officials announced at a news conference on Friday.

University officials said they plan to restructure the athletic department to better ensure compliance with NCAA rules in the future.

Southeast is currently looking to hire a new assistant director of athletics and a part-time assistant who will focus entirely on making sure that coaches and athletic teams follow NCAA regulations.

The school also will pay a self-imposed fine of $12,600 to the NCAA for violations in the men's program and will cut five recruiting days from both the men's and women's basketball programs. The women's coaches will be able to recruit 80 days and the men's coaches, 125 days, from September 2006 to August 2007, school officials said.

Southeast also will have to the foot the bill for the OVC investigation. Conference commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher estimated the cost at about $10,000.

The women's program was found to have provided transportation and other services to several of its players and prospects in violation of NCAA rules.

School officials disclosed for the first time that violations also were uncovered in the men's basketball program and will be reported to the NCAA. University president Dr. Ken Dobbins said the university will self-impose sanctions for those violations too.

Dobbins and athletic director Don Kaverman said violations of NCAA travel rules played no part in the school's decision earlier this year not to renew the contract of Gary Garner as the head coach of the men's basketball team.

School officials announced the self-imposed sanctions on the women's program while awaiting a final report from the NCAA, which is conducting its own investigation.

OVC commissioner Steinbrecher and Charles Smrt of the Compliance Group in Lenexa, Kan., who was hired by the OVC to investigate the allegations, spoke to reporters via telephone at the news conference.

The NCAA is expected to conclude its investigation and announce its findings and penalties concerning the women's program by late July or early August, Dobbins said.

The OVC investigation was conducted over the past five months and closely mirrored the NCAA investigation. Smrt sat in on interviews that NCAA investigators had with coaches and others questioned in the case.

Among the violations in the women's program:

* A member of the basketball staff provided or arranged automobile transportation from regional airports to Cape Girardeau for several players and prospective players.

* Several players were provided money for meals over the Christmas holiday that they weren't entitled to receive.

* Several prospects, who had signed national letters of intent to play for Southeast, resided in a house in Cape Girardeau over a summer but didn't pay for the lodging or didn't pay the full amount.

* Women's basketball staff members observed workouts during the summer of several prospective and enrolled players.

The violations in the men's program weren't as serious, school officials said during a more-than-hour-long news conference at the University Center.

Those violations involved the university's payment of travel costs for three players who weren't eligible to compete but were allowed by then-coach Gary Garner to travel with the team to away games over a two-year period.

During the 2005-2006 season, two student athletes were allowed to travel with the team to away games. One ineligible player traveled with the team to away games in the 2004-2005 year.

Dobbins said school officials want a clean athletic program. "I think the fans should realize we stand for a quality athletic program and we will not tolerate violations of NCAA rules," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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