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Purdue to appeal NCAA sanctions

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Posted: Thursday July 15, 1999 10:16 AM

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Purdue University has taken the first step in the legal process to appeal an NCAA committee's recommendation to impose sanctions against its men's basketball program, athletic department spokesman Jim Vruggink said Thursday.

"We filed formal notification that we intend to appeal. The next step is the NCAA will notify us that they have received the notification and we then have 30 days to file the formal appeal," Vruggink said.

The appeals process is likely to take several months. Once the NCAA receives it, the governing body of intercollegiate sports has 30 days to respond and then Purdue has two weeks to file a rebuttal of the response.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions recommended several penalties, including the loss of scholarships by the men's basketball team and limitation of its recruiting.

"We, frankly, are surprised, disappointed and puzzled by some of the recommendations," athletic director Morgan Burke said when the recommendations were made last month. "...Even if the findings are upheld on appeal, we consider some of the recommended penalties to be inappropriate and excessive."

The sanctions were recommended after a lengthy probe of alleged violations of NCAA rules by the men's basketball program.

The committee found that Purdue had violated NCAA bylaws governing recruiting, extra benefits and ethical conduct in connection with a bank loan granted to a prospective student-athlete and financial help provided by an Indianapolis businessman to the mother of a student athlete.

In each case, the committee said former assistant coach Frank Kendrick arranged the contacts between the students and the outside parties. Kendrick has since been reassigned at his request to a university position outside the basketball program.

The committee recommended penalties that include two years of probation, forfeiture of 90 percent of Purdue's revenue share from the 1995-96 NCAA Tournament, and forfeiture of the 24 games in which the student athlete who received the loan appeared in 1995-96. The game forfeitures, if upheld on appeal, could cost Purdue the Big Ten championship it won in that season.

The committee also recommended a reduction in the number of official recruiting visits to campus by prospects from 12 to four each in 1999-2000 and 2000-2001, the loss of one scholarship each year in the 2000-20001 and 2001-2002 basketball seasons.

 

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