Clemson University football recruiting scandal
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On November 21, 1982, the football program at Clemson University was placed on probation for a 2-year period to include the 1983 and 1984 seasons. This sanction was enforced on the program by the NCAA Committee on Infractions due to a lengthy history of recruiting violations to gain an athletic advantage that had taken place from 1977 through the Tigers' 1981 National Championship season and into 1982, under the administration of two head coaches, Charlie Pell and Danny Ford.
The NCAA issued a second probation on Clemson's football program in 1990.
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[edit] 1982 probation
[edit] Violations
70 documented violations were found to have been committed under NCAA bylaws in the categories of improper recruiting inducements, extra benefits to student-athletes, ethical conduct, improper financial aid, improper campus visits, improper transportation and entertainment, improper use of funds, improper employment, and improper recruiting contact.[1] A partial list of some of the major violations follows.
[edit] 1977
Violations included assistant coaches paying for the food, hotel and entertainment of a recruit's friend during the recruit's visit, transporting a recruit's mother to and from her home during the recruit's visit, providing a recruit with round-trip airfare from his junior college to his home for Christmas vacation, and allowing a recruit to make long-distance calls on a coach's credit card.[1]
[edit] 1978
Violations included the granting of a scholarship to a recruit's friend, assistant coaches offering a recruit substantial amounts of cash to sign a letter of intent, giving a recruit's fiancee cash, providing a recruit with airfare to visit the university, arranging employment for a recruit with a booster while the recruit was still in high school, providing three paid visits for one recruit and two paid visits for another, and a booster offering to pay the university tuition of a recruit's two sisters.[1]
[edit] 1979
Violations included assistant coaches arranging free medical exams and treatment for a recruit, providing round-trip car transportation to the friend of a recruit during the recruit's visit, loaning a car to a student hostess to drive a recruit during his visit, offering a recruit a car, clothes and cash, and boosters giving players cash on three occasions as a reward for performance.[1]
[edit] 1980
Violations included the head football coach, athletic director and the dean of student affairs arranging payment of a player's dental bill, assistant coaches providing car transportation and meals for ten recruits during football camp, giving cash to a high school coach to cover expenses for bringing two recruits to football camp, boosters arranging employment for two recruits to help them pay for football camp, paying for hotels, meals and rental cars for recruits during their visits, paying four phone bills for the family of a recruit, and offering cash and gifts on numerous occasions to recruits and the mother of a recruit to gain signed letters of intent.[1]
[edit] 1981
Violations included the head football coach offering to help find a job for a recruit's mother, assistant coaches calling a recruit's father and asking him to lie to NCAA investigators, and allowing players to use a coach's car to drive recruits during visits.[1]
[edit] 1982
Violations included a booster cosigning a loan so that a player could buy a car.[1]
[edit] Punishment
As a result of these violations, Clemson was publicly reprimanded and censured by the NCAA. The football team was barred from participating in bowl games following the 1982 and 1983 seasons, and barred from appearing on live television in the 1983 and 1984 seasons. Also, the number of scholarships that the university could allocate to football players was restricted to 20 (from the normal limit of 30) for the 1983-84 and 1984-85 academic years.
Charles Alan Wright, chair, NCAA Committee on Infractions said at the time, "Due to the large number and serious nature of the violations in this case, the committee believed that institutional sanctions related to appearances on television and in postseason football bowl games were appropriate. In addition, because the violations indicated a pattern of improper recruiting activities, the committee determined that a two-year limitation on financial aid to new recruits should be imposed to offset any recruiting advantage that was gained improperly by the university."[2][3]
[edit] 1990 probation
Just five years after their probation ended, Clemson once again found their football program accused of multiple recruiting violations in January 1990.[4] The NCAA accused Clemson of giving cash to players and having illegal contact with recruits over a period from 1984 to 1988. In June of 1990, the Tigers found themselves on probation once again, for the second time in less than a decade.[5] This chain of events led directly to the forced resignation of popular head coach Danny Ford.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g NCAA Public Infraction Report
- ^ "Clemson placed on probation" (PDF) (1982-11-29). The NCAA News 19 (28): 10. National Collegiate Athletic Association. Partial quote of the NCAA press release
- ^ For Release After 11 p.m. (EST)
- ^ Associated Press (1990-01-10). Clemson Reveals It Is Under Inquiry by N.C.A.A.. New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
- ^ Associated Press (1990-06-01). Clemson on Probation. New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
- ^ Associated Press (1990-01-19). Clemson Drops Ford With $1 Million Deal. New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
