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Purdue appeals sanctions

NCAA findings didn't meet standards, school claims

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Posted: Wednesday August 18, 1999 01:56 PM

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) --Purdue is appealing NCAA sanctions that include two years of probation, forfeiture of 24 basketball games and the loss of revenue from the 1996 NCAA tournament.

Many of the NCAA's findings didn't meet the organization's minimum standard of being "credible and persuasive," and the NCAA enforcement staff failed to follow required procedures in some aspects of its inquiry, Purdue Athletic Director Morgan Burke said.

He also said some of the recommended penalties were excessive, compared with those levied against other institutions in similar or more serious cases. "We just have a disagreement," Burke said in announcing the appeal on Tuesday. "Unlike the old West when you go out with your six-shooter, these are the rules. You play it out and get the disagreement resolved.

"We don't have a chip on our shoulder. We just have strong enough convictions about our positions that we want to take it all the way to the wall," he said. The NCAA's Committee on Infractions ruled in June that Purdue had violated rules on recruiting, extra benefits and ethical conduct.

The appeal challenged the committee's conclusions concerning a $4,000 bank loan made to former Purdue player Luther Clay in August 1995 and financial assistance provided by Indianapolis businessman Gene McFadden to the mother of former Purdue player Porter Roberts.

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 to a university position outside the basketball program.

The game forfeitures, if upheld on appeal, could cost Purdue the Big Ten championship it won in 1996.

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, and the loss of one scholarship each year in the 2000-20001 and 2001-2002 seasons.

Burke said the school did not appeal the scholarship reduction because it wanted to show it was being reasonable and to acknowledge that some punishment might be warranted from the charges levied against Kendrick.

The appeals process is likely to take several months. It was sent to the NCAA last weekend, and the association has 30 days to respond. Purdue then will have two weeks to file a rebuttal of the response, and after that, the NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee will schedule a hearing. The committee could uphold all the sanctions, reduce them or set them aside completely. According to the NCAA, sanctions have been modified in about one-third of the 18 cases that have gone before the committee since 1993.

 

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