Alabama placed on NCAA probation

[Drew22]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news...p&type=lgns

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP)?The NCAA placed Alabama?s football program and 15 other of the school?s athletic teams on three years probation for major violations due to misuse of free textbooks.

The NCAA?s Committee on Infractions said Thursday the football team must forfeit an unspecified number of wins in which any of seven players took part during 2005-2007. The university identified the seven as ?intentional wrongdoers.?

The NCAA said that 201 student-athletes in the 16 sports, including men?s basketball, obtained ?impermissible benefits? by using their scholarships to obtain free textbooks for other students. It also found the university guilty of ?failure to monitor.?

The university was ordered to pay a $43,900 fine, close to the total value of the books.

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Alabama identified 22 of the student-athletes as ?intentional wrongdoers? who knew they were receiving improper benefits. Fifteen were members of the women?s track and field programs who acquired textbooks and materials of value greater than $100 for girlfriends, friends and other student-athletes. The four biggest offenders in dollar value were football players, who received from $2,714 to $3,947 in improper benefits.

The other sports hit with probation were softball, baseball, gymnastics, women?s basketball, soccer, volleyball and both the men?s and women?s teams in golf, swimming, tennis and track and field.

The university is a repeat violator since the program was placed on five years probation in Feb. 2002, when it was also under the five-year window for basketball violations.

?Although the committee commends the institution for self-discovering, investigating and reporting the textbook violations, it remains troubled, nonetheless, by the scope of the violations in this instance and by the institution?s recent history of infractions cases,? the NCAA said.

The NCAA said some 125 student athletes received benefits totaling less than $100 each.

The university was cited for not adequately monitoring the process or having a system for detecting the violations on a timely basis. The NCAA said the athletes weren?t restricted by purchase limits or required to show photo identification.

The university could not produce records before the 2005 fall semester, so it?s unclear if similar violations occurred earlier.

Nick Saban replaced Mike Shula as coach after the 2006 football season and suspended five players?Antoine Caldwell, Glen Coffee, Marquis Johnson, Chris Rogers and Marlon Davis?for four games when the university uncovered the violations in 2007. The Tide was 5-2 at that point and its only wins in the next six games came against Tennessee and Colorado in the Independence Bowl.

The sanctions come at a time when Alabama fans were celebrating the program?s return to national prominence. Saban led the Tide to a 12-0 regular-season record and a No. 1 ranking last season, before the team lost to Florida in the Southeastern Conference championship game and to Utah in the Sugar Bowl.

The university uncovered the violations after an Alabama Supply Store employee realized that an athlete had more than $1,600 in charges for the fall semester of 2007 and alerted university officials. Athletes get free textbooks with their scholarship, but some were accused of getting additional textbooks for other students.

Alabama has changed some of its procedures, including requiring compliance officials to be present when student-athletes pick up their books.

The university has said none of the textbooks or materials were used for profit or to get items not related to academics, and that the athletes involved who still have eligibility remaining have had to pay restitution.

Good work Alabama. Just when they were turning it around from the last one.

[buzzcut]

They didn't find anything for the rowing program, eh

[TFoA]

Didn't they just get off probation?! Damn, Alabama.

[tBBP]

I've read it...I've read it again. It seems the major (seemingly only) violation here is student-athletes receiving textbooks as per scholarship terms, then turning them around and giving them to classmates. What isn't clear is whether or not those classmates were friends who couldn't afford the books of what.

Maybe in the NCAA's "perfect world of upstanding righteousness" this is an infraction, but to them fellow college students who probably couldn't afford the books otherwise, this is a muthafunkin' hook-up!! (ok...Ima stop now.)

Seriously, though...okay, the one guy charging like $1600-something at the bookstore--yeah, that raise a flag or two. But other than that, they said the other 125 students had received less than $100 in benefits. This is my issue: SO THE HELL WHAT?! It's their scholarship, they get the books, and if this whole process works like it did when I got my books via scholarship, they are then mine and I can do whatever the hell I wish with them.

This is just my opinion, but I get so sick and damn tired of the NCAA trying to punish their so-called "student-athletes" (and make no mistake, athletes on scholarship DO BELONG TO THE NCAA) for stuff like this, chiefly because of all the $$$ the NCAA (not to mention its different conferences) make off these "student-athletes", especially in football and basketball, and especially at the "powerhouse" institutions, of which Alabama is one. So what if a few got a couple textbooks and lateral-transferred them to some of their classmates? For Pete's sake, the NCAA allows the SALE of college football/basketball/baseball/whatever jerseys with student such-and-such's number on it! (I'm not even finna comment on the BCS and the March Madness stuff.) If THAT ain't exploitation (essentially making $$ off a certain "student-athlete's" popularity or marketability in some cases), I don't know what is.

This may be an unpopular point of view, but I know I ain't the only one who thinks this way. It's time for the NCAA to really just eat the fact that it has essentially created a "minor league" with its different sports in the way they "market" its big-$$$ programs (and even it's lesser-$$$ programs, in some instances). Really.

Like I said, I'm sure Imma catch a lot of flak for (my admittedly relatively ignorant) opinion, but it's just how I feel. Having said that, feel free to flame away at me.

[footballfiji]

Didn't they just get off probation?! Damn, Alabama.

Actually, Alabama has been in the NCAA's "Repeat Offender" Window since 1995. Yes, 1995. The Crimson Tide's athletic program have been on NCAA Probation for over 13 years.

Dennis Dodd wrote about it here.

Some key parts of the NCAA decision:

Of the 201 student-athletes that received impermissible benefits, 22 were identified by the university as "intentional wrongdoers," as they were aware they received improper benefits. These student-athletes - 14 of whom were members of the men's and women's track and field programs - exploited the university's textbook distribution system for scholarship student-athletes to acquire textbooks and materials of value greater than $100 for girlfriends, friends and other student-athletes.

The value of the impermissible benefits obtained by these intentional wrongdoers ranged from a low of $32.30 by a women's track student-athlete to a high of $3,947.19 by a football student-athlete. The committee noted that the four highest amounts, ranging from $2,714.62 to $3,947.19, were obtained by football student-athletes.

-So they knew what they were doing was wrong

-The Football players made the most money...not $100, but over almost $3,000 these guys got, by cheating the system.

As a result of the violations, there was a sharp increase in the total cost of books and supplies over a two-year period. Specifically, there was a 30-percent spike in charges between the 2004-05 academic year and the 2006-07 academic year.

By creating this "racket" these players not only made money, but cost other students money. Where there is demand, there is an increase in cost. Someone had to pay for them to get these textbooks to begin with. That someone was either Boosters/Fellow Students/Athletic Department

[tBBP]

The value of the impermissible benefits obtained by these intentional wrongdoers ranged from a low of $32.30 by a women's track student-athlete to a high of $3,947.19 by a football student-athlete. The committee noted that the four highest amounts, ranging from $2,714.62 to $3,947.19, were obtained by football student-athletes.

-

As a result of the violations, there was a sharp increase in the total cost of books and supplies over a two-year period. Specifically, there was a 30-percent spike in charges between the 2004-05 academic year and the 2006-07 academic year.

Where'd you pull these figures from? I only see some in the article up above. (Unless it all comes from the source article, which unfortunately I can't get to since Yahoo's "Rivals" section is "filtered" here. Grr...)

That actually does add a bit more. Really doesn't change my stance much, but it does add more weight now.

[rams80]

As a result of the violations, there was a sharp increase in the total cost of books and supplies over a two-year period. Specifically, there was a 30-percent spike in charges between the 2004-05 academic year and the 2006-07 academic year.

By creating this "racket" these players not only made money, but cost other students money. Where there is demand, there is an increase in cost. Someone had to pay for them to get these textbooks to begin with. That someone was either Boosters/Fellow Students/Athletic Department

As a college student over the last five years, I take strong exception to this on a couple points.

1) Textbooks are the frickin' racket. Change a few words, and suddenly you have the new edition that everyone has to buy. Charge prices for them that are so beyond fair market value it borders on the ridiculous. Get them back from students for literally pennies on the dollar, then mark them up substantially to sell as used. Also, the prices go up regardless of what you do or how often you abuse and work around the system. Which brings up point 2...

2) Wouldn't it be fairer to "blame" the increased popularity of such sites as Half.com and Amazon for students (itself a reaction to the initial high cost) as to why the costs have to go up to "compensate" the official University bookstore? The write up makes it sound like the university was defrauded out of a lot of money, but really it's chump change when you consider the size of Alabama's student body.

[zmspartans]

They didn't find anything for the rowing program, eh

Hahahaha i love this comment. It sums up this story. It seems every sport alabama has was involved. I had no idea they were already on probation. Nice work.

[footballfiji]

The value of the impermissible benefits obtained by these intentional wrongdoers ranged from a low of $32.30 by a women's track student-athlete to a high of $3,947.19 by a football student-athlete. The committee noted that the four highest amounts, ranging from $2,714.62 to $3,947.19, were obtained by football student-athletes.

-

As a result of the violations, there was a sharp increase in the total cost of books and supplies over a two-year period. Specifically, there was a 30-percent spike in charges between the 2004-05 academic year and the 2006-07 academic year.

Where'd you pull these figures from? I only see some in the article up above. (Unless it all comes from the source article, which unfortunately I can't get to since Yahoo's "Rivals" section is "filtered" here. Grr...)

That actually does add a bit more. Really doesn't change my stance much, but it does add more weight now.

Those quotes and figures were from the NCAA's official press release.

Honestly, it doesn't matter. Yes, it was a rule. Yes, it was broken. However all Alabama got was the equivalent of a scolding. "Bad Dog, Alabama. Bad. That's a bad bad dog."

Yes, textbooks in general are a racket. It just doesn't help that some football players decided to either give or sell textbooks that they got for free.

[WJMorris3]

Perhaps what the NCAA should do now, given the incidents at Alabama, is use the death penalty on the school? It worked in the SMU case. If you don't use it at the highest level, then it loses its power.

[footballfiji]

Perhaps what the NCAA should do now, given the incidents at Alabama, is use the death penalty on the school? It worked in the SMU case. If you don't use it at the highest level, then it loses its power.

The death penalty will never be used by the NCAA again. Yes, it worked at SMU but honestly, after seeing the affects it did to every other SMU sport, it was the equivalent of using a Sledgehammer as a flyswatter.

[WJMorris3]

I hate to say it though... Alabama might be the program that actually deserves it!

[oddball]

I agree with Bucco, the NCAA is a joke. They are a power whore. They strut the idea of "student-athletes", and yet they make millions of dollars off of these players. It's a joke that a coach can't give a player a ride across campus without getting sanctioned, or that a player can't get money from someone to go to the movies or get a pizza without getting sanctioned. It's a joke that these so-called student-athletes are amatures and can't work, but yet they can't receive any money. You can get your tuition money etc., but tuition doesn't pay for your food all the time. The NCAA is way too nit-picky on what's right and wrong. They need to stop micro-managing everything. What someone needs to do is to go through the NCAA rules and find what are really violations and what aren't. I'm sorry, but selling books to another student who takes the class the next semester, is no violation. It's called market adjustment. College text books are way over-priced and to sell a text book to someone who needs it, is intelligence. I know when I sold mine back to school, the ones I could sell back, they were so under what I paid for them. I'd by them for $120 and sell them back for maybe $20. If a person can get more than that, go for it. I wonder if the NCAA and the text book industry haven't created a monopoly and that they hate that they are losing money by being undersold. I'm sorry, these college books are ridiculous and someone needs to start selling them at price.

[the admiral]

Textbooks are the frickin' racket.

Yes, x1000.

I kinda hate that I sold some of my textbooks because I really needed the $20 that week or whatever. I'd have been better off keeping them, just in case I ever need to revisit ethics, or international politics. I don't like to get rid of things.

[bigmike]

This sucks, I dont really understand whats going to happen though, I mean I know we have to vacate wins or whatever but is it going to be like last time were we arent allowed to go back to a bowl game for 3 years? I really hope not, since we are just starting to get good again.

[tp49]

By creating this "racket" these players not only made money, but cost other students money. Where there is demand, there is an increase in cost. Someone had to pay for them to get these textbooks to begin with. That someone was either Boosters/Fellow Students/Athletic Department

The Supe was always overpriced. The only time I ever bought a book there was if it was one that the professor had specially made for their particular class. I always went to the Alabama Bookstore which was usually cheaper and closer to my apartment.

It's not like the football players ever went to class. Sherman Williams was in my English class and he only showed up twice the entire semester.