Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Report: Baylor facing possible NCAA sanctions

Time to put a little bit of a damper on the greatest season of athletic achievement at Baylor University. The men's basketball team just reached the Elite Eight, the women's team went undefeated and won the national title and the 10-3 football team boasted the Heisman Trophy winner.

Pause the celebration for a moment.

Men's basketball coach Scott Drew, women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey and their assistants were investigated by the NCAA and found to have made more than 1,200 impermissible phone calls and text messages over a 29-month period, according to a copy of the summary disposition obtained by ESPN.com.

The NCAA enforcement staff began its probe into the Baylor basketball programs in 2008 -- starting with the recruitment of Brittney Griner, who just led Baylor to a 40-0 record and the women's national championship -- and concluded in the fall. According to ESPN.com, the NCAA enforcement committee sent the summary of its findings to Baylor in October, and the NCAA's committee on infractions can levy additional penalties (and if so, could announce them as early as this week).

Combined, the men's and women's basketball programs sent 738 impermissible text messages and made 528 impermissible calls (mostly during 2007-08), the NCAA found. Because of the frequency of the calls/texts, the NCAA enforcement staff has labeled them "major violations."

More from ESPN.com's report:

The probe also determined that former men's assistant Mark Morefield committed a major violation when he attempted to influence two AAU coaches to furnish the NCAA with false and misleading information regarding a series of text messages. Morefield resigned in July 2011.

The report concluded that Drew demonstrated a "failure to monitor" the activities of two of his assistant coaches and that there was also an overall "failure to monitor" by the institution, which found 405 additional impermissible calls and text messages from nine different sports, ranging from football to the equestrian program, from January-July 2011, during its investigation.

Men's assistant basketball coaches Paul Mills and Jerome Tang were also named in the report along with women's basketball assistant coach Damion McKinney.

Baylor has already implemented self-imposed penalties, which include loss of scholarships (one for the men's team, two for the women's), restrictions on Drew, Tang and McKinney's recruiting calls and Mulkey being prohibited from recruiting off-campus during the summer recruiting period.

The committee on infractions could accept Baylor's penalties or add additional ones.

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