Excerpts from the 2015 NCAA infractions report on SMU
Excerpts from the NCAA infractions report issued Tuesday against SMU and its men's basketball program. The ''head men's basketball coach'' is Larry Brown:
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The violations in the men's basketball program centered on academic fraud and unethical conduct. A former men's basketball administrative assistant, hired by the head men's basketball coach, engaged in unethical conduct by impermissibly assisting a highly recruited prospective student-athlete to obtain fraudulent academic credit. The former men's basketball administrative assistant committed an additional act of unethical conduct when she provided false or misleading information during the investigation and failed to cooperate in later stages of the investigation. The head men's basketball coach failed to report the incident of fraudulent academic credit after it had been brought to his attention, and he initially lied about the underlying violations when interviewed by the enforcement staff.
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The head men's basketball coach was coaching in the professional ranks and was out of college basketball for a quarter-century. Although he had previously served as head coach at two other Division I member institutions, he made some choices against his better judgment when it came to compliance issues in his program.
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(The head men's basketball coach knew that the student-athlete had academic issues from his days in high school. Yet, he was not aware of the relationship between the student-athlete and the former administrative assistant going back to June 2013. Nor was he aware of the phone call involving the student-athlete and the former assistant men's basketball coach and the former administrative assistant about potential academic issues in his program because neither of them informed him about it. It was only when the student-athlete and later the former administrative assistant informed him that he became aware of academic issues with the student-athlete online course.
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When the head men's basketball coach was confronted with confessions from individuals in his program that potential violations occurred, he took no action. At some point between July 25 and August 4, 2014, both the student-athlete and the former administrative assistant reported to him that the former administrative assistant completed the online course that led to the student-athlete obtaining fraudulent academic credit. The men's basketball head coach did not report this information to his athletics compliance staff, the director of athletics, the president or the conference office. He did not report the information to the NCAA. In fact, he did not initially report the possible violations in his program to the enforcement staff when they interviewed him on September 9, 2014. In addition, he initially lied about having any information about conversations he had with the student-athlete and the former administrative assistant about possible academic improprieties in his program, though he later corrected that information in that same interview.
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''I know when you hear that I didn't report the violation when (the student-athlete) told me he didn't take the course, he never mentioned (the former administrative assistant). He never mentioned (the former administrative assistant) when we sat down and said that. But I realize, you know, in hindsight that was a terrible mistake on my part. I wish I could have changed all that. But we had that interview with the NCAA, I don't know why I lied. You know, dealing with people that I really care about, and I used terrible judgment, and I tried to acknowledge that as quickly as I could, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. I realize that.'' - Brown, as quoted in the NCAA report.
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''Now, this might sound so silly, when all these allegations are read, and when (enforcement staff) was basically taking the position I didn't do the right thing, I can't argue with that. There is no excuse for not going to (director of athletics) when (the student-athlete) told me he didn't do this online the course. That's all he said to me. There is no excuse for that, there is no excuse to go before the committee and not tell the truth when a question is directed at you. I have no excuse for that. I did not do that promptly.'' - Brown, as quoted in the NCAA report.
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The head men's basketball coach's conduct was similar to the conduct of the head football coach in The Ohio State University, Infractions Decision No. 358 (2011). In that case, the head football coach (Jim Tressel) was informed by a local attorney that some football student-athletes sold athletic awards, apparel, and equipment to a local tattoo parlor owner. The head football coach did nothing with that information and failed to report it to anyone in athletics compliance at the institution.
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