MU gives formal response to NCAA

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri basketball coach Quin Snyder occasionally, but unintentionally, violated NCAA rules, the university said in a formal response to NCAA allegations. The response included a firm denial Snyder's former top assistant gave a player $250 cash.

"There was no specific intent to violate any rules in the men's basketball program," the university said in the more than 150-page response that arrived Thursday at NCAA headquarters. It was posted Friday on the school's Web site.

The university said it would not challenge the allegations, although it asserted most violations were unintentional, and in all cases qualified as secondary violations, not major ones.

The university added that it had "self-reported" many of the recruiting violations and had already imposed "appropriate, meaningful sanctions," such as making Snyder and current and former basketball staff members sit out recruiting for specified periods.

Missouri agreed "there were occasions when head coach Quin Snyder did not ensure an adequate environment of compliance among his staff."

"The university does not agree, however, that there was evidence that Snyder did not reinforce to his staff the importance of adhering to NCAA legislation" and that any failure "was not due to a lack of desire to be compliant."

As punishment, Snyder started serving a two-year probationary period on July 1, in which he must meet specific standards to show NCAA rules compliance, the school said. He must also forgo seven days of off-campus recruiting during July.

Snyder also had his base salary frozen for two years starting Thursday, and "a public letter of reprimand" will be given to the coach. Missouri is also reducing scholarships for 2005-2006 from 13 to 12.

The report said Snyder and former assistant coach Lane Odom already completed "community service" and other penalties imposed by Missouri.

The university response specifically challenged the NCAA's allegation that former assistant coach Tony Harvey gave ex-player Ricky Clemons $250 in cash during November 2002. The school said the allegation is based on "totally insufficient" evidence, including Clemons' bank records.

"The institution believes this testimony is clearly contrived," the school said.

Harvey has denied giving Clemons money. Clemons has said he received cash from Missouri basketball personnel during his stormy single season as a Tigers point guard, which ended when he was booted from the team in summer 2003, fallout from personal legal problems.

Missouri did acknowledge other violations, including that Harvey -- who resigned June 18 in exchange for a $73,000 payment -- purchased meals for Amateur Athletic Union coaches.

But the school said Harvey did not intend to mislead anyone and didn't submit phony names on expense reimbursement requests.

Harvey, who is black, was quoted as saying he bought the meals to "mend relationships" for the university in black communities and hoped his guests would "share a good word" about Missouri during their travels around the country.

The university said "the majority of allegations are isolated or inadvertent," and "do not result in more than a limited competitive or recruiting advantage."

It added that "the vast majority would be secondary if standing alone," but acknowledged that the "collective nature" of the allegations led the NCAA to say all should be considered major violations.

The response said the NCAA agreed June 18 to drop the phrase "at all times" from an allegation that Snyder repeatedly failed to maintain an atmosphere of NCAA rules compliance.

That revision was meant to "more clearly reflect the staff's intent that it be understood that it was only on certain occasions a lack of monitoring occurred," Missouri's reply said.

It noted that since Snyder became Missouri coach in 1999, his basketball staff had asked for 168 interpretations of NCAA rules from the school's compliance staff -- an indication the violations "were not intentional nor were they based on a lack of desire to be compliant."

Missouri partly blamed Snyder's compliance shortcomings on a lack of "experience in administrative oversight." The job with Missouri is Snyder's first as head coach.

The response said Snyder had already fulfilled one element of his punishment -- apologizing for the NCAA woes during a May 12 news conference at which school officials unveiled the formal notice of allegations.

The NCAA infractions committee is to conduct hearings on the Missouri allegations Aug. 13-15 in Seattle.