NCAA president Mark Emmert can’t control how the conference realignment drama will work out, but make no mistake: the NCAA still has power*. Emmert and VP of Enforcement Julie “You’ll know when we’re finished!” Roe Lach can still give notices of allegations and the Committee on Infractions can still levy sanctions on individual programs.
(*note: make your jokes in the comments section below)
That’s cool; I trip second graders to make myself feel better. Same difference.
The latest set of allegations from the NCAA have been handed to South Carolina, which stem from reports of impermissible benefits handed to 12 student-athletes from May 2009 through Oct. 2010. The NOA notes that “the Whitney Hotel, a representative of the institution’s athletics interests, provided extra benefits, an estimated $47,000... in the form of reduced rent that generally was not available to the regular student population for off-campus housing.
“Additionally, the Whitney Hotel made special arrangement with nine student-athletes to pay their rent at later dates, thereby providing an impermissible loan to the student-athletes.”
The first allegation goes on to break down that 10 football student-athletes allegedly received daily discounts of $14.59 on their rooms for varying lengths of time, from 19 days (a total of $260 because the room was shared) to 459 days (a total of $19,280 for one individual). Two more athletes from women’s track and field received daily discounts of $14.16 for 37 days.
The second allegations claims “from the spring of 2009 through Feb. 2011, Kevin Lahn and Steve Gordon, representatives of the institution’s athletics interests, made impermissible recruiting contacts with and provided impermissible recruiting inducements to prospective student-athletes and provided extra benefits to student-athletes through the Student-Athlete Mentoring Foundation (S.A.M) of which they are co-founders.”
Those benefits are alleged to be valued at over $8,000 and included connections to football, men’s track and men’s basketball.
Finally, the NCAA alleges that South Carolina did not sufficiently monitor the allegations of impermissible benefits involving the housing situation at the Whitney Hotel, and the allegations of impermissible activities by Lahn and Gordon.
South Carolina will have until Dec. 14 of this year to respond to the NOA, and the hearing before the Committee on Infractions has been scheduled for Feb. 17-18, 2012. University athletic director Eric Hyman, football coach Steve Spurrier and men’s and women’s track and field coach Curtis Frye are some of the university employees asked to attend.
Additionally, Gamecocks assistant coach George Mangus was requested to show up as well.
Provided he’s not, well, you know...