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NCAA Basketball Investigation/Lawsuit Thread (merged)

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DDN

3/11/06

Biancardi, O'Brien take hardest hits

Former OSU coaches penalized while school avoids serious sanctions

By Kyle Nagel

Dayton Daily News

Saturday, March 11, 2006

For months, Ohio State University attempted to distance itself from former men's basketball coach Jim O'Brien and Paul Biancardi, once his assistant, as it went through the process of written responses and hearings regarding allegations of major NCAA rules violations.

That strategy succeeded Friday as OSU was dealt a relatively minor penalty when the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions released its findings and punishments from an investigation that began 21 months ago.

The committee found OSU, O'Brien and Biancardi guilty of seven allegations while painting O'Brien and Biancardi, now the Wright State basketball coach, as deceivers who kept their employers in the dark while knowingly breaking numerous rules.

Among the major violations is that O'Brien — with Biancardi as carrier — provided a cash payment to a recruit, that Biancardi had knowledge and involvement in extra benefits and improper housing for another player and that both acted unethically.

The committee also ruled that OSU failed to monitor its men's basketball program, for which the school will be stripped of NCAA tournament accomplishments from 1999-2002 — including a 1999 Final Four appearance — and forced to give back 90 percent of the money earned from participation in those tournaments. OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith estimated that would cost the school $800,000.

"Of particular concern to the committee was the pattern by both former coaches of failing to provide critical information in a timely fashion to the institution as well as providing such information only when clear that it otherwise would become known," the report says.

Although WSU remained cautiously supportive of Biancardi on Friday, the charming coach was banned from any recruiting until Oct. 1, 2007.

Biancardi was OSU's recruiting coordinator for several seasons and is considered skillful at dealing with prospects.

At the Big Ten Conference tournament in Indianapolis, a sense of relief swept over OSU personnel, who expected these penalties but held worries that their self-imposed disciplines — firing O'Brien on June 8, 2004, after he admitted a $6,000 cash payment to 7-foot-3 Serbian Aleksandar Radojevic; holding itself out of the 2005 postseason; and reducing by two its scholarship number for this season — wouldn't be enough to save them from further sanctions.

The Buckeyes do face three years of probation — OSU became the 41st program nationally under NCAA probation, a list that includes Big Ten members Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin — but won't be held out of the NCAA tournament, which was one of the biggest fears.

With a highly regarded recruiting class incoming and a current No. 7 national ranking, the Buckeyes lost some of their past but held on to strong hopes for the future.

"This is exactly what we told the kids would happen," OSU men's basketball coach Thad Matta said. "We knew that kids who were in third grade when this happened probably weren't going to be punished. It would have been a devastating blow if it had gone the other way."

For some, it was a devastating blow. O'Brien's penalty is a five-year "show cause" order, which means if any NCAA school wants to hire him before March 2011, it must appear before the Committee on Infractions to discuss it.

"Needless to say, I'm extremely disappointed by this NCAA decision," O'Brien said from Boston during a teleconference. "Really, in no way does it reflect at all what occurred or how I ran my program. If they think that what I did personally was so bad, well, I got fired. And it seems like the NCAA is intent on keeping me out of it."

One of the most highly contested violations was the payment to Radojevic. O'Brien and Biancardi claimed it didn't violate NCAA rules because they already knew he was ineligible due to professional experience in Europe and the payment fell outside the four-year statute of limitations on punishment.

They had received support from David Swank, a former chair of the Committee on Infractions.

"The easy answer is the committee felt the former chair is wrong — dead wrong — on the application of the statute of limitations," said committee vice chair Josephine Potuto, who is a professor of law and faculty athletics representative at the University of Nebraska.

Potuto said the pattern of violations and their blatant nature forced the committee to consider them outside the statute of limitations.

"In this case, the violations went well beyond making phone calls, the typical kinds of recruiting violations," she said.

Contact Kyle Nagel at (937) 225-7389.
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The future of OSU basketball

By Dave Long, Dayton Daily News

Saturday, March 11, 2006

No major infractions and the Thad Five.

Those are two key phrases to consider in Ohio State's athletic future following NCAA sanctions announced Friday.

The Buckeyes got three years' probation, which means they have to keep a spotless athletic house during that period.

No major rules infractions can occur or the NCAA will come knocking again with a real big hammer.

Now take a look at the high-profile basketball recruiting class coming next season. They've been dubbed the Thad Five for OSU coach Thad Matta's ability to land the best group of recruits to enter college since Michigan's Fan Five in the early '90s.

The class includes national prep player of the year Greg Oden and teammate Mike Conley from Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis and Dunbar's Daequan Cook.

With those recruits will come the assorted entourage of special AAU coaches, counselors, hangers on, shoe company pimpsand hustlers looking to turn a buck.

Depending on your perspective, they are just doing business or are part of the ugly underbelly of today's college athletic scene.

That element is already in place on every major college campus, including OSU.

The prospect of probation already had the athletic department on red alert for anything that even remotely looked like a violation. Think about how hyper they'll be with high-profile recruits around next year and everyone wanting to be their "special friend" or to do them a "favor."

There is the potential of greatness with the incoming class, and with it comes the potential of putting OSU on the NCAA blacklist for a long time.
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DDN

3/11/06

The OSU games wiped away

By Cox News Service

Saturday, March 11, 2006

From 1999-2002, the Ohio State University men's basketball team played 10 NCAA tournament games.

As of Friday, those games no longer exist.

As part of the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions' ruling of nine major violations by the school, the committee ordered that OSU's tournament participation in those four seasons be wiped from the record because the Buckeyes used an ineligible player, guard Slobodan "Boban" Savovic.

That includes the 1999 Final Four appearance.

The banners will soon be gone.

Round Opponent Result
1999 (No. 4 seed)
First Murray State W, 72-58
Second Detroit W, 75-44
Sweet 16 Auburn W, 71-64
Elite 8 St. John's W, 77-74
Final 4 Connecticut L, 64-58
2000 (No. 3 seed)
First Appalachian St. W, 87-61
Second Miami, Fla. L, 75-62
2001 (No. 5 seed)
First Utah State L, 77-68
2002 (No. 4 seed)
First Davidson W, 69-64
Second Missouri L, 83-67
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DDN

3/11/06

Tom Archdeacon: Biancardi can't talk his way out

By Tom Archdeacon

Dayton Daily News

Saturday, March 11, 2006

It seemed inconceivable that by mid-afternoon Friday — a day that put his future at Wright State in extreme jeopardy — basketball coach Paul Biancardi still had not talked to his bosses at the school.

"We haven't talked to Paul," athletics director Mike Cusack said as he sat next to Dan Abrahamowicz, WSU's vice president of student affairs, at a hastily called press conference. "I understand he's out of town recruiting somewhere, but I haven't heard a word."

It was already four hours since the NCAA had dropped the hammer on former Ohio State head coach Jim O'Brien and Biancardi — who had been O'Brien's top assistant — for what it decided were major violations involving recruiting, extra benefits for athletes, academic fraud and ethical conduct while the pair was at OSU.

Biancardi — who the NCAA said admitted delivering money from O'Brien to an intermediary for an OSU prospect and was caught in discrepancies on tape — was banned from all facets of recruiting for the next 19 months.

That means no visiting schools or players' homes, bringing prospects to the WSU campus, talking to them or their coaches by phone — anything until October 2007.

That's not only an untenable situation for doing his job, it could be a public relations nightmare for the school. And yet that's not why I think Biancardi — unless he should successfully appeal, which is unlikely since the NCAA handles that, too — will end up losing his job.

Although the coach finally did contact Cusack late Friday afternoon, his tardiness didn't matter as much as a conversation he did have two years ago. That's the one I think will do him in at Wright State.

Biancardi's contract states that he can be terminated if he committed NCAA violations. Cusack said he asked the coach about his culpability in the OSU matter and was told there was no problem.

"I forget his exact words but essentially he told me he wasn't involved," Cusack said Friday. "I said I'd take the same approach I'd take with my own children if they were accused of something and I asked, 'Did you do it or did you not do it?' I'd believe them until I was proved wrong. I did the same with (Paul)."

Abrahamowicz shook his head and said in a half-whisper: "He's insisted all along he committed no violations."

And violations are a sticking point with WSU, which prides itself, Cusack said, in never having faced such NCAA scrutiny: "It's the worst thing I think can happen to any program or institution — to break the rules and be cheating in any fashion."

Time and again, Cusack — who insisted he and the school will wait until the appeals process plays out — brought up integrity. And Abrahamowicz — who has said the school would not have an NCAA rules violator on staff — took it farther: "One of the prides of this program is that we follow the rules. Mike's values are such that he will not tolerate violations of NCAA regulations."

Although Biancardi's lawyer, Jim Zeszutek, advised his client not to speak to the press, he spoke for the coach: "Paul is very frustrated, very disappointed. We feel the committee failed to consider evidence that would have exonerated him."

In the meantime, Zeszutek said he told Biancardi to abandon the recruiting trip and return home:

"I told him, 'You don't want to give them anything more. It's better to be safe, than sorry.' "

Good advice.

Too bad it didn't come two years ago.
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Dispatch

3/11/06

OSU singed, O’Brien scorched

NCAA gives school 3 years’ probation; postseason play OK in basketball

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Rob Oller and Kathy Lynn Gray

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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Jim O’Brien said the NCAA’s penalty against him is excessive. He plans to appeal, and maybe sue.


Ohio State took some hits but avoided the NCAA sledgehammer that fell yesterday on former men’s basketball coach Jim O’Brien.

The men’s basketball team, at the center of an investigation involving player benefits that led to probation and other penalties, escaped the most serious of sanctions that could have been handed down by the NCAA Committee on Infractions.

The Buckeyes were placed on three years’ probation but will be allowed to play in the NCAA Tournament this year and will not be banned from the postseason in 2007. That means they can expect to hold on to a recruiting class considered among the best in the nation.

Ohio State also avoided the loss of scholarships. The school already had penalized itself by removing two scholarships this season and banning the program from postseason play in 2005.

"While there are some positives . . . I want it to be clear that we do consider the sanctions and what we’re dealing with to be very serious," OSU Athletics Director Gene Smith said before the Buckeyes’ Big Ten Conference tournament win against Penn State in Indianapolis.

Smith said the main positive from the university’s perspective is "closure."

Positives eluded O’Brien and former OSU assistant Paul Biancardi, now head coach at Wright State University near Dayton.

Both coaches took the brunt of the punishment. The committee imposed a five-year "show cause" penalty against O’Brien for instructing Biancardi to give $6,000 in cash to the family of Yugoslavian recruit Aleksandar Radojevic in late 1998.

O’Brien was fired by Ohio State on June 8, 2004. Should he seek employment with another NCAA school before March 10, 2011, he and that school would have to appear before the infractions committee to discuss what stipulations might be placed on that program by hiring O’Brien. The NCAA could determine whether his duties should be limited, as allowed by the "show cause" penalty. Limitations could include, for example, stringent restrictions on recruiting.

O’Brien said yesterday he will appeal the decision.

"In no way does this reflect what occurred at all and how I ran my program," he said during a teleconference from Boston. "We’ve never cheated. I’ve never paid a kid a nickel to come to any place I’ve ever worked."

O’Brien’s attorney, Joe Murray, indicated in a letter to the NCAA that the coach may sue the association.

Schools typically hesitate to hire a coach who is under the "show cause" penalty because of the uncertainty of potential restrictions.

O’Brien said he thought the penalty against him was excessive. Under current circumstances, he added, he would not attempt to coach again at an NCAA school.

"I wouldn’t even think about asking another school to go through that for me," he said. "I wouldn’t dream of asking any other program to jump through those hoops to give me an opportunity to get back in."

Biancardi, who joined O’Brien at OSU in 1997 and left for Wright State in 2003 — before the violations came to light — received a "show cause" penalty that he must refrain from recruiting until Oct. 1, 2007.

Biancardi and Wright State each released statements — Biancardi denying the allegations and WSU Athletics Director Mike Cusack supporting his coach.

The NCAA pointed to O’Brien and Biancardi as the specific source of OSU’s trouble.

"The $6,000 was a blatant violation," said committee Vice Chairwoman Josephine Potuto, a law professor at the University of Nebraska. "The circumstances surrounding the violation are especially troubling because the former coaches concealed the cash payment from (OSU administrators) for over five years."

The committee also penalized the coaches for their part in providing recruiting inducements and extra benefits to former OSU player Slobodan "Boban" Savovic, who played four seasons for the Buckeyes (1998-99 to 2001-2002).

O’Brien’s attorneys had argued that the NCAA ignored its own four-year statute-of-limitations rule by punishing the coach for a violation — the $6,000 payment — that happened in 1998 but wasn’t discovered until 2004.

But the NCAA noted that its bylaws contain exceptions for cases involving a pattern of willful violations or blatant disregard of NCAA rules.

As part of its punishment, the university must vacate all regular-season and NCAA Tournament team and coaching records during the four seasons
Savovic played. Ohio State’s record for those seasons will be 0-0, as if no games were played. Championship banners hanging in Value City Arena will have the years 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 removed.

The only individual records to be wiped away would be those involving Savovic.

The university also must reimburse the NCAA for income received for participation in the 1999 through 2002 tournaments; the total is slightly less than $800,000, of which $530,000 must be paid immediately. Over the next three seasons the Big Ten will reduce OSU’s share of the conference’s NCAA Tournament revenue by the remaining amount.

The NCAA also found that the university and O’Brien failed to monitor the program, which Potuto described as the matter that likely led to the probation. Ohio State’s entire athletics department must not have another major violation in the next three years, until March 9, 2009, or the NCAA will more heavily punish the university for any infraction occurring before then.

"We just have to continue to operate as we have operated and we’ll be fine," Smith said. "As (men’s basketball coach) Thad Matta says, he’s been on probation since he’s been here, and I think we’ll have to continue to behave that way."

Matta, who replaced O’Brien on July 8, 2004, was relieved that the waiting is over. He was working out in an Indianapolis hotel when Smith called with the news.

"It was the first time an elliptical has ever gone forward," he said. "Those things are usually stationary."

Matta became convinced the NCAA would not penalize the program with a postseason ban.

"We knew kids that were in the third grade when this happened probably weren’t going to be punished," he said. "It would have been a devastating blow had it gone the other way."

O’Brien sued Ohio State for wrongful termination and won a breach-of-contract judgment on Feb. 15. The damages portion of the lawsuit will be heard next month. Murray said little about yesterday’s penalties.

But in a strongly worded letter to the NCAA in February, Murray accused the association of manipulating its investigation to protect Ohio State and vilifying O’Brien with its conclusions.

"Coach O’Brien can only conclude that the NCAA has chartered this win-at-all-costs course for the sole purpose of benefiting the university in its litigation with Coach O’Brien," the letter says. "The entire process has been corrupted by a zealous, unchecked and out-ofcontrol investigation."

In the letter, Murray asks NCAA President Myles Brand to hire an outside investigator to examine the enforcement staff’s conduct in the investigation.

Murray refused to comment on the letter yesterday.

NCAA spokesman Kent Barrett said the Committee on Infractions reviewed the accusations in the letter and "found nothing substantative."


[email protected]

[email protected]
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Dispatch

3/11/06

NCAA sanctions

Saturday, March 11, 2006

20060311-Pc-A1-1500.jpg
</IMG> Slobodan "Boban" Savovic received improper benefits.

Among the penalties imposed yesterday by
the NCAA:


• The entire Ohio State athletics program is on probation for three years, through March 9, 2009.
• OSU basketball recruits are limited to three expenses-paid campus visits during the 2006-07 school year, instead of the usual four.
• OSU has to repay the NCAA almost $800,000 it received for playing in the men’s basketball tournament in 1999-2002.
• OSU’s results from those tournaments are erased.
• If fired OSU coach Jim O’Brien tries to get a coach ing job at an NCAA school in the next five years, he and the school hiring him are subject to stipulations. • Ex-OSU assistant coach Paul Biancardi, now head coach at Wright State, is prohibited from recruiting until Oct. 1, 2007. The NCAA also accepted several penalties that OSU imposed on itself, including the firing of O’Brien, a reduction in men’s basketball scholarships for this season, the barring of the team from 2005 postseason tournaments and the two-game suspension of football quarterback Troy Smith.
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Dispatch

3/11/06

Saturday, March 11, 2006
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Dispatch

3/11/06


OSU may need to lend itself money

University could owe more than $7 million to NCAA, O’Brien

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Barnet D . Wolf
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH




Ohio State University’s athletics department might not have the money to cover both the NCAA penalties for rules violations and the millions of dollars it could owe former basketball coach Jim O’Brien.

The NCAA yesterday ordered Ohio State to pay back $800,000 in men’s basketballtournament revenue from 1999 to 2002 as one penalty for using an ineligible player during that period.

Ohio State must pay $530,000 right away. During the next three seasons, the Big Ten Conference will reduce OSU’s share of the conference’s NCAA Tournament revenue by the remaining amount.

The athletics department also faces a payout that could be in excess of $6 million in damages to O’Brien, whom a judge said was wrongfully fired.

The department already has paid $500,000 in legal fees related to the NCAA and O’Brien case. Only $150,000 was budgeted to cover all legal costs this academic year.

Athletics Director Gene Smith said recently that the department has $7 million in reserves. But that could be at least $1 million less than the potential payments.

"At this point, (the money has) got to come out of (the reserves)," Smith said.

And if there’s not enough?

"Pray," he said, looking upward.

"No, seriously, we haven’t had that discussion," Smith added. "It would be premature."

The department likely would borrow the money from the university. OSU spokeswoman Shelly Hoffman said it was premature to discuss that.

As with any financial concern, it’s important that the athletics department be forthright with everyone who has a stake in the sports program, said David M. Carter, assistant professor of sports business at the University of Southern California.

"The university is lucky it has one of the deepest and best athletic programs in the country," he said. Still, if officials don’t control any fiscal woes that may occur, "they put at risk the juggernaut they they are."

Although the athletics department might need to watch its pennies a little more carefully if it has to take an internal loan, there probably would not be any reductions in funding for individual sports.

"I don’t think (day-to-day operations) would change much," said Susan Henderson, senior associate athletics director for finance and operations.

Officials said they have not discussed the possibility that ticket prices for sports events could rise to cover any shortfall.

Tim Otteman, a professor of recreation, parks and leisure services administration at Central Michigan University, said Ohio State shouldn’t have much trouble recovering if it has to pay out big bucks.

"In big-time (sports) programs, those dollars get rejuvenated every year," he said. "It just means the money is not there right now in case of a rainy day."

The damages owed to O’Brien could be determined next month. Ohio State might appeal the coach’s case. Its attorneys have said they won’t decide that until after any damages are awarded.

Ohio State would have had to pay O’Brien $3.5 million to fire him with five years left on his contract. The $6 million-plus figure is the buyout, plus damages, according to his contract.

One financial point in the athletics department’s favor is that the Buckeyes football team had seven home games in 2005, one more than 2004. That added about $4.6 million more in revenue than a year ago.

The department had established reserve accounts to cover operating losses in the sports program, particularly during seasons when there are only six home football games, and to pay for any emergency costs.

The NCAA’s decision to allow colleges to schedule 12 football games, one more than the previous maximum, will give OSU the opportunity to schedule at least seven home football games, which will help the department rebuild its reserves.

[email protected]
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Now that the whole school is on probation, the scUM fans around me should(yet probably wont) shut up. In case you dont know, scUM fans, after EVERY osu win, especially in football, say that OSU/Tressel paid the refs, they paid their players, their players are ex-cons, etc. etc. etc. Hopefully this tight inspection should limit their "arguments" for three peaceful years.

But again, they never do stop complaining(did you know that Troy Smith has never been to a single class in college? Neither did I...), so I doubt anything can stop them.
 
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O’Brien said he thought the penalty against him was excessive. Under current circumstances, he added, he would not attempt to coach again at an NCAA school.

"I wouldn’t even think about asking another school to go through that for me," he said. "I wouldn’t dream of asking any other program to jump through those hoops to give me an opportunity to get back in."
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Don't worry buddy, they probably won't be lining up anyway.
 
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It seemed inconceivable that by mid-afternoon Friday — a day that put his future at Wright State in extreme jeopardy — basketball coach Paul Biancardi still had not talked to his bosses at the school.

"We haven't talked to Paul," athletics director Mike Cusack said as he sat next to Dan Abrahamowicz, WSU's vice president of student affairs, at a hastily called press conference. "I understand he's out of town recruiting somewhere, but I haven't heard a word."
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Since he's not allowed to be doing that, doesn't that seem odd? Shouldn't the AD be able to contact a head coach at a moment's notice?
 
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