Ozone
8/26
OSU Athletics
OSU Points the Finger at O'Brien and Biancardi in NCAA Response
By John Porentas
Ohio State has responded to the allegations made by the NCAA of violations in the men's basketball program, women's basketball program and football program.
In a document of over 250 pages that was supported by over 1,500 pages of exhibits, Ohio State basically agrees with all NCAA findings except the one which alleges that Ohio State did not appropriately monitor its men's basketball program.
According to the document sent to the NCAA yesterday, Ohio State claims that it consistently pursued reasonable measures to monitor the program, but that its efforts to do so were subverted by by former Head Coach Jim O'Brien and former assistant coach Paul Biancardi.
According to the document "O'Brien and Biancardi intentionally misled institutional officials so that the relationships and the arrangements between the parties that constituted violations of NCAA legislation would not be known to those officials.
"University officials were repeatedly misled by O'Brien and Biancardi," the document declares.
"The (OSU and NCAA) investigation also revealed that neither O'Brien nor Biancardi disclosed this relationship to University officials, despite numerous opportunities to assist the University in its efforts to monitor this situation."
The University argues that "Compliance is a shared responsibility. Without the full cooperation and complete disclosure of all information, the University cannot expect to comply fully with the letter and spirit of the NCAA rules."
The University also argues that NCAA legislation regarding the monitoring of programs is not specific enough to allow a determination of failure to monitor in this case.
"NCAA legislation does not specify how an institution is to monitor for rules compliance, nor does it specify the expected level of monitoring," OSU's document contends.
"Even though Bylaw 2.8.1 states that an institution should 'monitor its program to assure compliance,' institutions are not expected to monitor at a level that guarantees compliance. We know from infractions case precedent that is not expected that monitoring be so comprehensive as to prevent any violation. If that were the standard, there would be a lack of adequate or appropriate monitoring finding in each infractions case. This does not happen. Therefore, the standard must be one of reasonable monitoring under the circumstances as presented to the institution."
"Ohio State firmly believes that it monitored its men's basketball program in a manner where it was reasonable to expect rules compliance."
In response to the revelation of the violations, Ohio State fired Head Basketball Coach Jim O'Brien, voluntarily declared its basketball team ineligible for postseason play last season, and has voluntarily reduced the number of scholarship for its basketball team for this season from the NCAA maximum of 13 to 11.
8/26
OSU Athletics
OSU Points the Finger at O'Brien and Biancardi in NCAA Response
By John Porentas
Ohio State has responded to the allegations made by the NCAA of violations in the men's basketball program, women's basketball program and football program.
In a document of over 250 pages that was supported by over 1,500 pages of exhibits, Ohio State basically agrees with all NCAA findings except the one which alleges that Ohio State did not appropriately monitor its men's basketball program.
According to the document sent to the NCAA yesterday, Ohio State claims that it consistently pursued reasonable measures to monitor the program, but that its efforts to do so were subverted by by former Head Coach Jim O'Brien and former assistant coach Paul Biancardi.
According to the document "O'Brien and Biancardi intentionally misled institutional officials so that the relationships and the arrangements between the parties that constituted violations of NCAA legislation would not be known to those officials.
"University officials were repeatedly misled by O'Brien and Biancardi," the document declares.
"The (OSU and NCAA) investigation also revealed that neither O'Brien nor Biancardi disclosed this relationship to University officials, despite numerous opportunities to assist the University in its efforts to monitor this situation."
The University argues that "Compliance is a shared responsibility. Without the full cooperation and complete disclosure of all information, the University cannot expect to comply fully with the letter and spirit of the NCAA rules."
The University also argues that NCAA legislation regarding the monitoring of programs is not specific enough to allow a determination of failure to monitor in this case.
"NCAA legislation does not specify how an institution is to monitor for rules compliance, nor does it specify the expected level of monitoring," OSU's document contends.
"Even though Bylaw 2.8.1 states that an institution should 'monitor its program to assure compliance,' institutions are not expected to monitor at a level that guarantees compliance. We know from infractions case precedent that is not expected that monitoring be so comprehensive as to prevent any violation. If that were the standard, there would be a lack of adequate or appropriate monitoring finding in each infractions case. This does not happen. Therefore, the standard must be one of reasonable monitoring under the circumstances as presented to the institution."
"Ohio State firmly believes that it monitored its men's basketball program in a manner where it was reasonable to expect rules compliance."
In response to the revelation of the violations, Ohio State fired Head Basketball Coach Jim O'Brien, voluntarily declared its basketball team ineligible for postseason play last season, and has voluntarily reduced the number of scholarship for its basketball team for this season from the NCAA maximum of 13 to 11.
