Infractions involved 201 students, 16 teams

TUSCALOOSA | A total of 201 University of Alabama athletes on 16 teams were involved in “misuse of the university’s textbook distribution program,” receiving around $40,000 in academic supplies to which they were not entitled, the NCAA Committee on Infractions found in its report released Thursday.

The Committee on Infractions found Alabama guilty of failure to monitor and of student-athletes receiving impermissible benefits. The UA athletic program has been placed on NCAA probation for three years and will have to vacate all football wins in which seven football players identified as “intentional wrongdoers” in UA’s textbook disbursement scandal participated in during the 2005-2007 seasons. The report did not specify which games will be vacated.

Alabama was also fined $43,900, but will not lose any scholarships in any sport.

The report indicates that a postseason ban was considered due to UA’s status as a repeat offender due to previous NCAA transgressions, but that Alabama mitigated the penalty by its corrective actions, including a full-scale investigation that began immediately after five football players were suspended in the 2007 season when a University Supply Store employee reported the problem and actions to make student-athletes who had received improper benefits make restitution.

The report cites NCAA Bylaw 19.5.2.3.2, which addresses enhanced penalties for repeat violators, but Committee on Infractions Chairman Paul Dee said the NCAA’s ultimate penalty was never a possibility.

“Was the death penalty considered in this case? No,” he said.

Dee did, however, point out that one of the features of the penalty is that Alabama returns to repeat offender status that could bring harsh repercussions for any future violations.

“It also extends the five-year period in which they are subject to the death penalty,” he said.

Dee said Alabama was not subject to the more serious charge of lack of institutional control because the violations were limited to the area of textbooks.

“I think that the University of Alabama did a terrific job,” Dee said. “I think the University of Alabama in this particular case had a problem that was just magnified by the number of student-athletes involved, and they had a system in place that had a gap in it and the student-athletes took advantage of it.”

The report places blame for failure to monitor most squarely on Jon Dever, an assistant athletics director who had direct oversight on the textbook distribution system, and on Associate Athletics Director Kevin Almond, Dever’s supervisor, although neither is mentioned by name. Dever was reprimanded by UA Director of Athletics Mal Moore and was denied a merit pay raise as punishment for his part in the matter.

The report said Dever failed to check on individual charges by any student-athlete, did not compare student-athlete charges from month to month and did not check charges for compliance purposes. Almond “simply approved the report authorizing payment,” the report said.

The report noted that there was a 30 percent increase in payouts for textbooks and related material from the athletic department between the 2004-05 school year and 2006-07.

“Had the institution been carefully monitoring these numbers, it seems likely that this increase would have been investigated,” the report said. “However, the ‘spike’ was not noted and no inquiry was conducted until the matter was discovered Oct. 17, 2007.”

As part of the penalty, individual records in men’s tennis and men’s and women’s track and field will be vacated for 15 student-athletes, with team points adjusted to reflect the change in outcomes of competitions.

Of the 201 student-athletes, 22 were identified as intentional wrongdoers who were aware they received improper benefits and exploited the textbook distribution system to “acquire textbooks and materials of value greater than $100 for girlfriends, friends and other student-athletes,” with the vast majority of transgressors being given material of lesser value without intentionally exploiting the system.

The sports involved were softball, baseball, women’s gymnastics, football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s swimming, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s track and field, soccer and volleyball.

Of the 22 intentional wrongdoers, 14 were men’s and women’s track and field athletes. One football player received more than $3,900 in improper materials. Of the total value of impermissible benefits, more than half that amount ($21,950) went to those who were intentionally receiving improper benefits.

UA President Robert Witt and Moore will address the matter in a press conference later today.