Texas Southern Receives Serious Penalties From NCAA
Both the Texas Southern football and men’s basketball team received postseasons bans for a host of violations which occurred over the last eight years. The violations included:
- Allowing 129 student-athletes to compete, practice, and/or receive athletics aid while ineligible.
- Exceeding the limits on initial counters in FCS, in one case by more than 50% of the limit.
- Failure to serve penalties imposed as a result of poor APR.
- Improperly counting basketball scholarship with the football team.
- Failing to implement processes the institution was reporting as part of its probation from previous violations.
The result was a finding of lack of institutional control by the university, a failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance by the former head football coach, and unethical conduct by the basketball coach. The headline penalties include postseason bans of two years for the football team and one year for the basketball, plus scholarship reductions for both teams.
Despite that, it seems Texas Southern got off light. A multi-year postseason ban in basketball would not have been unwarranted, given the steps taken to evade the APR penalties. And under the NCAA’s new penalty matrix, which come into effect next year, the Texas Southern football team could have been looking at a 25-50% scholarship reduction, rather than the 5% reduction they received.
Find opportunities for athletic scholarships and get connected to college coaches.