The NCAA has announced that Syracuse athletics will be punished for a failure to control and monitor its athletics programs and head basketball coach Jim Boeheim also faces discipline for his failure to monitor his program.
The investigation centers around 10 self-reported violations discovered by Syracuse involving both the school's men's basketball and football teams, according to a decision issued by the Division I Committee on Infractions panel on Friday.
Boeheim was stripped of 108 wins, the most vacated victories in NCAA investigation history, according to Chris Carlson of Syracuse.com. With the ruling, he drops from second to sixth on the NCAA all-time wins list.
He will reportedly appeal the suspension, according to ESPN's Andy Katz.
During the 10-year period that began in 2001, the NCAA says that the university allowed violations to occur in academics, drug testing policy and between a relationship with a booster because the school failed to exercise proper control over the athletics program and did not have an adequate system to monitor the violations.
The NCAA also says Boeheim failed to ensure compliance because he operated under assumptions.
According to the organization's report, the NCAA ordered:
- Five years of probation to run from March 6, 2016 to March 5, 2020
- A nine-game suspension from conference play for head basketball coach Jim Boeheim
- A financial penalty of $500 per contest involving ineligible student-athletes
- The reduction of three men’s basketball scholarships per year for four years
- The vacation of wins in which ineligible basketball students participated in games through the 2004-07 seasons and 2010-12 seasons
- The vacation of wins where ineligible football students participated in games through 2004-07
- Syracuse must return to the NCAA all funds received from its 2011, 2012 and 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament appearances as part of the former Big East Conference revenue sharing program
- Men’s basketball recruiting restrictions for two years.
The NCAA noted in its report that, while the self-imposed postseason ban was accepted by the organization, it had no influence on the outcome.
The report gives details of the violations, including:
- From 2001 to early 2009, Syracuse failed to follow its own written policies and procedures involving student-athletes who test positive for banned substances, with Boeheim and the athletics director admitting that they followed an "unwritten policy" instead
- Relationships with a booster also violated many NCAA rules. The booster gave more than $8,000 in cash to three football and two basketball players and gave money to basketball staff members after appearing at YMCA events. No one reported this compensation
- Academic misconduct from 2005-07 when a part-time tutor certified that three football players completed the required number of internship hours and the players received academic credit for misrepresented work
- A support services mentor and support services tutor gave impermissible academic help to three basketball players by writing assignments and making revisions from 2010-12
- In January 2012, the director of basketball operations and basketball receptionist completed academic coursework for an ineligible student in order to restore his status to play. The committee specifically addressed the issue of academic integrity. "The behavior in this case, which placed the desire to achieve success on the basketball court over academic integrity, demonstrated clearly misplaced institutional priorities," the committee wrote.
The NCAA finished its investigation into Syracuse's athletic department in October.
