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'Bama: NCAA used 'secret' witness School claims administrator's testimony was wrongly usedPosted: Tuesday August 20, 2002 12:41 PMTUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) -- The University of Alabama claims the NCAA Infractions Committee wrongly used the testimony of a secret witness, an administrator unknown to the university, in punishing the Crimson Tide football program for recruiting violations. The university's defense team also said, in appeal documents made public Monday, that the NCAA for the first time has imposed penalties commensurate with an "institutional" violation even though it found no such wrongdoing. The NCAA Committee on Infractions placed Alabama on five years' probation Feb. 1 for illegal recruiting practices by boosters, stripping the Crimson Tide of 21 scholarships over three years and imposing a postseason ban for 2002 and 2003. Alabama had self-imposed 15 scholarship cuts, but no bowl ban. "Nowhere do the NCAA regulations provide that sanctions for the secret infractions of rogue boosters can be visited on a blameless, indeed exemplary, institution that has done everything reasonably possible, by the NCAA's own admission, to monitor and otherwise prevent such misconduct," the appeal said. The university said it wasn't given the identity of an "administrator" who told the NCAA enforcement staff in March 2000 about an Alabama booster's involvement in the recruitment of Stevenson defensive lineman Kenny Smith in 1995 and 1996. The administrator was cited by the NCAA as a confidential source during Alabama's Nov. 17 hearing before the infractions committee. According to the appeal documents, the administrator said "his coaches" also wanted to report information as confidential sources. The documents didn't say whether the administrator was employed at Alabama or another school, but details of the NCAA's case appear to indicate that he is an Alabama employee. The university said the testimony of the secret witness was permissible as background information about illegal actions of a booster in the recruitment of Memphis prep lineman Albert Means in 2000. But it was used, without the university's knowledge, in the older case involving Smith's recruitment. The university said the NCAA wrongly used the secret witness to get around a four-year time limit that barred the 1996 Smith case from even being considered. The school's appeal also said its lawyer was unable to find a single case in which the NCAA's Committee on Infractions had used information from a confidential source to support an allegation. The identities of those discussed in the appeal were not disclosed. The university removed all names "to comply with legal requirements, privacy policies and NCAA regulations," university attorney Stan Murphy said. Alabama presented its appeal to the Infractions Appeals Committee during a closed-door meeting Friday in Chicago. The school complained about the Committee on Infractions' failure to distinguish between the secret witness and a second "confidential source" whose identity was known to the school.
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