The NCAA released a 94-page report on Friday detailing a list of athletic rules violations at Syracuse University dating back to 2001. As a result, head basketball coach Jim Boeheim has been suspended for nine games, the team will forfeit 12 scholarships over the course of the next four years, and various undisclosed wins will be vacated.
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“During the 10-year period of violations, the head basketball coach did not promote an atmosphere of compliance within his program and did not monitor the activities of those who reported to him as they related to academics and booster involvement,” the NCAA release said.
Through its investigation, the NCAA found that in an eight-year period between 2001 and 2009, Boeheim and Syracuse AD Daryl Gross did not follow its own procedures for students who had tested positive for banned substances.
Kent Syverund, Syracuse’s chancellor, released an open letter following the NCAA’s announcement.
We believe the NCAA’s investigation of Syracuse University has taken longer than any other investigation in NCAA history. The entire process has taken close to eight years and involved a review of conduct dating back to 2001. By comparison, the investigation into the fixing of the 1919 World Series took two months and the 2007 investigation of steroid use in baseball took 21 months.
The University and the NCAA devoted massive resources to this process. Hundreds of thousands of documents were reviewed, hundreds of interviews were conducted, and thousands of hours of human capital were expended.
Syracuse University cooperated throughout the investigation, and its length is a product of decisions we made separately and together. Nevertheless, when I became Chancellor in 2014, I concluded that the process had gone on long enough, and it needed to reach a prompt conclusion. We have worked hard with the NCAA during the last year to complete this matter, and we have done so.
Syracuse University did not and does not agree with all the conclusions reached by the NCAA, including some of the findings and penalties included in today’s report. However, we take the report and the issues it identifies very seriously, particularly those that involve academic integrity and the overall well-being of student-athletes.
Syracuse had already self-imposed its own ban on postseason play for this season, which the NCAA accepted. No future postseason ban will be enforced, and the penalties do not include the 2003 NCAA Championship. Syracuse is still considering whether or not to appeal the ruling.
