It has been anxious times for Ohio State head basketball coach Thad Matta.
Bittersweet times continue to lie ahead, drudging through the worst accusations
and forecasters and prognosticators predicting Ohio State’s eventual doom.
But somewhere amidst the various media reports, accusations, assumptions, and
plenty of time to test Matta’s patience is the truth. Perhaps it’s the truth
that keeps Matta excited. Perhaps it’s the truth that shall set him free.
What really is the truth? It’s not what is being reported.
Let’s start from the top. There was a national report this past weekend
following the delay of the Ohio State NCAA hearing in Indianapolis that declared
potential disaster for Ohio State. The same report uttered the infamous ‘death
penalty’ as a possible, although unlikely penalty for the Ohio State
basketball program.
This obviously is not the truth, as Ohio State does not even meet the NCAA’s
criteria for handing down the death penalty.
Per the NCAA’s FAQ page on major infractions, the death penalty is only
applicable to an institution if within five years of an announcement of another
major rules violation, the said institution again commits another major
infraction. Ohio State has not had a violation since 1993, a secondary rules
violation, and they have not been a major rules violator since 1957.
As if the death penalty were even a real option, only once has the NCAA ever
hammered an institution with this last-resort scenario that either removes all
grant-in-aids from the program for a short period or closes down the program
from competing all together for a period of one year. SMU is the only school
ever to be given this penalty as their football program was shut down for a year
back in 1987.
The real truth is that although coaches and administrators at Ohio State
cannot comment on the case, when Ohio State self-imposed a 1-year postseason ban
last December for the 2004-2005 basketball season, never since then has the
university felt it would have to deal any further with the wrath of the NCAA as
far as postseason play is concerned.
Friday, December 9, Matta, Ohio State President Karen Holbrook and athletic
director Gene Smith all flew to Indianapolis to speak on the opening day of the
NCAA hearing for Ohio State. The NCAA infractions committee listened to opening
arguments and also was presented the case from the enforcement committee and a
couple of witnesses spoke, including former Ohio State athletic director Andy
Geiger.
Geiger was asked if he felt the Ohio State would ultimately face possible
institutional control charges when he dismissed basketball coach Jim O’Brien
for improper recruiting inducements that included giving $6,000 to Alexsander
Radojevic. He acknowledged his belief that this was a possibility, although Ohio
State entered the hearing facing a lesser ‘failure to monitor’ charge.
When the trial ended that day being delayed indefinitely and without closure,
it sent wild speculation that Ohio State was in deep trouble. This despite the
NCAA press release explaining the delay was not any indictment on the case or
the facts presented.
An NCAA official, who could not discuss the case specifically, reiterated
that statement by phone on Tuesday.
“It is what it is, as the statement indicated, this delay should not be
taken as any sort of indictment or representation of the status of the case,”
an official said anonymously.
As mentioned, no one within the program is allowed to comment on the case.
But privately, even despite the perception to the contrary, sources indicate
that Ohio State is very much satisfied with how they expect this case to turn
out.
Sources indicate that Jim O’Brien’s pending lawsuit against Ohio State
had everything in the world to do with the trial not being finished on Friday.
In fact, it has been mentioned that O’Brien himself did not want to testify
until his pending lawsuit is finished, as it could jeopardize his case if he
said something on the record that legally may hurt his chances.
It appears as though the case will resume and conclude when the infractions
committee meets again in late January or early February. Ohio State could have
opted for a shorter and quicker method called a summary disposition instead of a
trial.
In a trial, the institution might disagree with the charges against it and
the hearing discusses the charges and the legitimacy of them. A summary
disposition, on the other hand, only works if both the NCAA and the institution
agree to all of the facts of the case as well as the charges. This basically
expedites the committee’s work, as they don’t have to determine the guilt,
they simply move right on to the penalty.
However, in this case, Ohio State disputes the ‘failure to monitor’
charge levied against it. It was that charge being argued which resulted in
witnesses, including Geiger, to be called in Friday’s abbreviated hearing.
With O’Brien attempting to sue the university, they are hoping to not only
dismiss the failure to monitor charge, but also knock down O’Brien’s suit
which claims he was fired unjustly.
Despite sources indicating Matta and the rest of Ohio State feel strongly
they have already endured the worst of their punishment, that’s not to say the
frustration isn’t mounting with how long this cloud has lingered over their
heads. An obviously shaken Matta commented after the victory against Norfolk
State on Monday night about how proud he was of his team to work through the
controversy.
“It is truly amazing what they’ve been through with what the hell is
going on right now,” he told reporters after the game Monday.
Despite thoughts to the contrary, however, the words ‘institutional control’
will have no play in this process. Now it’s simply a question of whether or
not Ohio State is found to have been guilty of failing to monitor its basketball
program properly.
The case began when Ohio State self-reported these initial infractions to the
NCAA last June. At that time, Geiger turned in a total of six reported
violations for the men’s basketball program.
Shortly thereafter, the NCAA made a standard notice of inquiry, which alerts
Ohio State of its intentions to investigate the allegations. The investigation
made by the enforcement committee, which came to Columbus and interviewed all of
the pertinent parties, completed the ‘fact-finding’ phase this past spring.
Ohio State, who had already prohibited itself from the postseason last
spring, responded in August to a total of nine violations returned from the NCAA
in their official report, which included seven basketball violations (the six
that were self-reported, and also a charge of failing to monitor the basketball
program).
The initial hearing was set for September or October but was pushed back
because of the pending lawsuit, which finally got underway on Monday. So
December 9 was the date set for the hearing.
After the case was halted on Friday, some people questioned whether the NCAA
was reopening the case in light of new evidence.
“The investigation is completed and now it’s in the hands of the
infractions committee,” the NCAA source said.
The head of the infractions committee has some experience in dealing with
these issues. Gene Marsh, a law professor at the University of Alabama, has a BS
and MS degree from Ohio State.
He was around Alabama a few years ago when they faced a potential for the
death penalty as they committed a second major rules violation within a
five-year period, already being on probation for a previous infraction.
However, Alabama was handed a one-year loss of a bowl game and some other
lesser penalties considering how bad they could have been punished.
Smith, Ohio State’s current athletic director, also has experience with
this sort of thing. While serving as the director of athletics for Arizona State
University, Smith also served a couple of three-year terms on the infractions
committee. So when Ohio State returned their official reply to the charges
against them this fall, a written letter required within 90 days of receiving
the NCAA report, it should be noted that Ohio State recently added a
self-imposed loss of two athletics scholarships for this upcoming basketball
season.
Sources are adamant that Ohio State will not self-impose any further
sanctions regardless of the timing of when they may finally receive closure.
So if the hearing is not resumed until February, the expected 4 to 8-week
timeframe expected before the infractions committee returns after that hearing
with its final report would mean Ohio State might already be involved in
postseason play before the case is resolved. That means an unlikely second year
without postseason could not be served until the 2006-2007 season when Greg Oden
and the highly regarded Ohio State recruiting class arrives on campus.
So one would imagine they must be confident of where they stand to jeopardize
next season.
A second year is extremely unlikely, however. Both case history and
reputation back that up.
For starters, NCAA President Myles Brand has said many times over the past
two years that Ohio State is the leader nationally in self-policing and
maintaining a solid model for NCAA institutions to follow as far as NCAA
compliance. That reputation also follows NCAA policy.
In Article 32.2.1.2 of the 2004-2005 NCAA Division I Manual, self-disclosing
NCAA violations as well as self-imposing punishment is considered strongly in
how the infractions committee responds potentially to violations.
“Self-disclosure shall be considered in establishing penalties, and, if an
institution uncovers a violation prior to its being reported to the NCAA and/or
its conference, such disclosure shall be a mitigating factor in determining the
penalty,” the rule reads.
Then, there’s the case of innocent athletes.
Over the last several years, according to the Division I manual, the NCAA’s
mission statement is to try and lessen the penalties imposed on member
institutions with several innocent student-athletes.
In the case of Ohio State, most of the NCAA violations took place in 1999 or
2000, before any of the current Ohio State players were on the roster. Since
then, Ohio State has fired the coach. There is a new group of players, a new
athletic director and also a new President.
When Ohio State says that a one-year removal from postseason meets case
precedent with other NCAA cases in the past for their errors, they are not
kidding.
For starters, there has not been a member institution in the last 10 years to
receive more than a one-year ban from postseason as a punishment. The last one
was Alabama State in 1995, and before that, Alcorn State and Coastal Carolina in
1994. In that time, there have been 57 major infraction cases with men’s
basketball alone.
Moreover, not since 1990 has the NCAA handed down a loss in more than one of
year postseason play to a major Division I team (Maryland).
In those 57 cases, 31 of the 57 were found to have committed ‘lack of
institutional control’, which is the more egregious violation as opposed to
the failure to monitor charge facing Ohio State.
In fact, of the last 15 ‘failure to monitor’ cases over the past decade,
only two of the 15 faced a loss in postseason play. Ohio State has already faced
one season.
Even if Ohio State’s penalty were hypothetically elevated to institutional
control, the result wouldn’t be much different or much worse. Here is a list
of the last seven institutional control cases since 1998 and the penalties
handed down:
Baylor (2005)
·
Lack of Institutional Control
·
Unethical Conduct
·
Academic Fraud
Probation: Five years
Postseason: None
Scholarships: Loss of five (5) over two years
Other: Loss of non-conference competition in 2005-2005 season and off-campus
recruiting restrictions
Nicholls State (2005)
·
Academic Fraud
·
Extra Benefits
·
Unethical Conduct
·
Lack of Institutional Control
·
Failure to Monitor
Probation: Four years
Postseason: None
Scholarships: None
Other: Public Censure
Gardner-Webb (2004)
·
Extra Benefits
·
Recruiting
·
Competition
·
Improper Academic Arrangements
·
Unethical Conduct
·
Lack of Institutional Control
Probation: Three years
Postseason: One year
Scholarships: Loss of two (2) over a two-year period
St. Bonaventure (2004)
·
Lack of Institutional Control
·
Unethical Conduct
·
Extra Benefits
Probation: Three years
Postseason: One year
Scholarships: Loss of two (2) in one year
Utah (2002)
·
Extra Benefits
·
Recruiting
·
Unethical Conduct
·
Academic Fraud
·
Lack of Institutional Control
Probation: Three years
Postseason: None
Scholarships: Loss of three (3) over a three-year period
Minnesota (2000)
·
Academic Fraud
·
Unethical Conduct
·
Lack of Institutional Control
Probation: Four years
Postseason: One year (self-imposed)
Scholarships: Loss of five (5) over a three-year period (Note: Minnesota
self-imposed four and a fifth was added by the NCAA)
Other: Additional off-campus recruiting restrictions and number of official
visits limited as well as a removal of some banners, forfeiture of victories
which included ineligible players and records and stats being removed for
certain players
Texas Tech (1998)
·
Academic Fraud
·
Improper Recruiting Inducements
·
Extra Benefits
·
Unethical Conduct
·
Lack of Institutional Control
·
Failure to Monitor
Probation: None
Postseason: One year
Scholarships: Loss of seven (7) over a three-year period
The other high profile cases…
Georgia (2003)
·
Improper Recruiting Inducements
·
Academic Fraud
·
Ineligible Players
·
Unethical Conduct
·
Extra Benefits
Probation: Four years
Postseason One year (self-imposed)
Scholarships: Loss of three (3) over a three-year period, later reduced to a
loss of one
Michigan (2002)
·
Improper Recruiting Inducements
·
Extra Benefits
·
Use of Ineligible Players/ Amateurism
·
Unethical Conduct
Probation: Four years
Postseason: One year (self-imposed, a second year that was added was later
appealed away)
Scholarships: Loss of four (4) over a four-year period
So now, if you wonder why Matta has been sleeping slightly better than many
of the average fans, that’s why. The real truth is probably nothing like the
gloom-and-doom scenarios presented in mainstream media.
It’s clear the two-year postseason bans are now only being used for the
worst of the worst when it comes to NCAA violating institutions. And in case you’re
worried about 2006-2007…there has not been a three-year postseason ban since
Clemson in 1975.
Ohio State might now have to wait until February or early March for a
resolution. However, that resolution is not likely to be much more than maybe a
loss in a few more scholarships and administrative probation.
That’s also when the real truth will come out. The truth that Matta hopes
will justify his smile.