CHEYNEY Pa.
Cheyney University was placed on three years probation by the NCAA on Thursday for a series of major violations in the Division II school’s football program.
The violations include ineligible participation by football players, unethical conduct by the former head coach and failure to monitor and lack of institutional control.
The football team also must vacate its records for the 2004-06 seasons. Former coach Lee Brown also was placed under a one-year penalty that would require any school seeking to hire him to either limit his athletics duties or demonstrate why it should not be penalized for giving him a job in athletics.
The NCAA said the infractions, “involved a serious breach of ethical conduct legislation by the former head coach and the failure of a longtime Division II member institution to have in effect a viable, comprehensive compliance system administered by knowledgeable personnel.”
During the 2004 season, six ineligible players, five of whom were partial qualifiers, received extra benefits in the form of travel expenses while going to away games.
Four of the six ineligible players competed in at least one road game and another participated in practice.
The violations were committed at Brown’s direction, the NCAA found. Brown had been told two years earlier after similar violations occurred that ineligible players were not allowed to travel.
The NCAA found the university failed to monitor the conduct of its coaches and the administration of its athletics programs during the summer of 2002 through September 2006.
Cheyney did not agree that all the violations constituted major infractions. But the NCAA said while each violation alone would be considered secondary, they were all major as part of a cumulative case.
The football program will forfeit one victory in 2004, two in 2005 and one in 2006 when ineligible players participated.
–Associated Press
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