The NCAA suspended Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim for nine games, took away 12 scholarships and vacated wins for infractions in the school’s athletic programs.
The infractions include “academic misconduct,” repeated drug violations and boosters doling out cash to Syracuse players and staff members.
Boeheim, the head coach since 1976, will be suspended for the team’s first nine ACC games next season and the school will lose three scholarships per year through 2018-19 as punishment for infractions that occurred with the men’s basketball program over the past 10 years.
The university’s penalties also include a five-year probation and for the school to vacate all wins in which ineligible men’s basketball students played during the 2004-07 and 2010-12 seasons, and in which ineligible football students played in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 seasons.
The sanctions do not affect Syracuse’s 2003 national championship or that team.
“Over the course of a decade, Syracuse University did not control and monitor its athletics programs,” the NCAA said in a statement, “and its head men’s basketball coach failed to monitor his program.”
The NCAA agreed to accept the university’s decision for the men’s basketball team to not participate in any postseason games this season, including the ACC tournament.
The school must vacate 108 men’s basketball wins. Boeheim, who had only needed 34 wins to join Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski as the only coaches to reach 1,000 career wins, is now left with 858, which drops him to sixth on the all-time list.
Syracuse chancellor Kent Syverud said later Friday that the university is considering appealing portions of the decision. Syverud said the school would support Boeheim if he chose appeal his punishment.
“Although the university recognizes the seriousness of the violations it has acknowledged, it respectfully disagrees with certain findings of the committee,” Syverud said in a statement. “Specifically, the university strongly disagrees that it failed to maintain institutional control over its athletics programs, or that men’s basketball head coach Jim Boeheim has taken actions that justify a finding that he was responsible for the rules violations.”
The NCAA finished its 10-year investigation into Syracuse athletics in late October 2014. Boeheim and football coach Scott Shafer were among the school officials to appear before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions.
“Improper institutional involvement and influence in a student’s academic work in order to gain or maintain eligibility is a violation of NCAA rules and a violation of the most fundamental core values of the NCAA and higher education,” the committee wrote. “The behavior in this case, which placed the desire to achieve success on the basketball court over academic integrity, demonstrated clearly misplaced institutional priorities.”
The infractions panel announced the penalties and measures, including:
— Five years of probation from March 6, 2015 through March 5, 2020.
— Vacation of all wins in which ineligible men’s basketball students played in 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2010-11 and 2011-12 and ineligible football students played in 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07.
— Fine of $500 per contest played by ineligible students.
— The school must return to the NCAA all funds it has received to date through the former Big East Conference revenue sharing for its appearances in the 2011, 2012 and 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
— Suspension of the head basketball coach from the first nine conference games of 2015-16.
— Reduction of men’s basketball scholarships by three for the 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years. If the school has already executed scholarship offers for the 2015-16 year, the school may begin the four-year penalty with the 2016-17 year.
— Reduction in the number of permissible off-campus recruiters from four to two during June 1, 2015 through May 31, 2017.
— The panel also accepted the school’s self-imposed postseason ban for the 2014-15 season, but noted that self-imposition of penalties after the conclusion of infractions hearings does not influence the outcome.