The NCAA Committee on Infractions (“Committee”) recently issued its findings and found that Southern Methodist University (“SMU”) committed major violations of NCAA legislation.  The case pertains to approximately one hundred (100) impermissible text messages sent to the parents of seven (7) prospective student-athletes between August 2007 and September 30, 2009.  After the investigation concluded the case was submitted to the Committee through the summary disposition process, which is an alternative to a formal hearing before the Committee that may be utilized when the NCAA enforcement staff, the member institution, and involved individuals agree to the facts of an infractions case and that those facts constitute major violations of NCAA legislation.

The violations at issue were detected by SMU’s head men’s basketball coach when he reviewed a “Daily Compliance Item” (a form of compliance education) created by the SMU compliance staff.  Apparently, in 2007, when the text message legislation was adopted the men’s basketball coaching staff received an interpretation of the legislation in which the former director of compliance indicated that the men’s basketball coaching staff could not text message prospective student-athletes, but could text message their parents.  In November 2009, the head men’s basketball coach alerted the compliance staff of the error and an investigation was conducted.  Accordingly, SMU submitted a letter to the Committee in favor of summary disposition on November 15, 2010 and the Committee reviewed the same in December 2010. 

The Committee found that SMU committed the following violations of NCAA legislation:

1.                  Impermissible Text Messages in violation of NCAA Bylaw 13.4.1.2

                     A.  Beginning in August 2007 and continuing through September 30, 2009, the head men’s basketball coach and a former assistant men’s basketball coach sent approximately one hundred (100) text messages to the parents of seven (7) prospective student-athletes.  The men’s basketball coaching staff relied on an erroneous interpretation of the NCAA text messaging legislation provided by the former director of compliance in which it was explained that the men’s basketball coaching staff could send text messages to parents of prospective student-athlete as long as they refrained from sending text messages to prospective student-athletes. 

                    B.  In November 2009, the head men’s basketball coach reviewed a “Daily Compliance Item” that discussed the University of Richmond infractions case relating to text messages.  At that time, the head men’s basketball coach discovered the inconsistency of the prior interpretation provided by the former director of compliance and immediately reported the violations to the compliance staff.  The head men’s basketball coach was commended by the Committee for staying on top of NCAA compliance and the Committee found that the men’s basketball coaching staff did not knowingly act contrary to NCAA legislation.  As such, the Committee concluded that neither the head men’s basketball coach or the former assistant basketball coach would have individual infractions record file entries with the NCAA.

                   C.  The Committee distinguished the present case from the other fourteen (14) text messaging and telephone call violation cases it has adjudicated in the last three (3) years.  The Committee stated that there were no knowing violations of NCAA legislation, because the men’s basketball coaching staff sought interpretation from the compliance office and were given erroneous information.  Additionally, the coaching staff text messaged parents of seven (7) prospective student-athletes and all seven (7) prospective student-athletes attended other institutions. 

2.                  Failure to Fully Implement Correction Actions in violation of NCAA Bylaw 32.4.2

                     A.  On August 28, 2007, September 13, 2007, October 25, 2007, and April 17, 2008, SMU self-reported secondary violations relating to impermissible text messaging; however, SMU failed to fully implement the self-imposed measures by conducting agreed-upon rules education.

                    B.  On the dates provided above, SMU submitted text messaging violations committed by the men’s basketball coaching staff and SMU agreed to conduct certain corrective measures as submitted by the former director of compliance.  Specifically, SMU indicated it would perform the following corrective action (in order of the respective dates above): 1) rules education provided to the men’s basketball coaching staff and the men’s basketball coaching staff would not send recruiting correspondence for two (2) weeks (8/28/07); 2) rules education provided to the men’s basketball coaching staff and the men’s basketball coaching staff would not send recruiting correspondence for two (2) weeks (9/13/07); 3) rules education provided to the men’s basketball coaching staff, corrective measures announced in the compliance newsletter, and the men’s basketball coaching staff would not send recruiting correspondence for two (2) weeks (10/25/07); and 4) rules education provided to the men’s basketball coaching staff, corrective measures announced in the compliance newsletter, and the men’s basketball coaching staff would not send recruiting correspondence for one (1) week (4/17/08).  The rules education component of each of the above-referenced corrective actions was not performed according to the men’s basketball coaching staff; however, the former director of compliance indicated that “informal” and undocumented education was performed.

As a result of the aforementioned violations, the Committee penalized SMU as follows:

1. Public reprimand and censure.
2. Two years of probation from March 10, 2011 through March 9, 2013.
3. The men’s basketball coaching staff was prohibited from initiating any type of communication with prospective student-athletes for a two (2) week period beginning April 28, 2010 and concluding on May 11, 2010.
4. For the 2010-11 and 2011-12 academic years, the number of recruiting person days available to the men’s basketball coaching staff will be reduced by fifteen (15) such that the total for each year would not exceed one hundred fifteen (115).
5. For the 2010-11 and 2011-12 academic years, the number of official paid visits available to the men’s basketball coaching staff will be reduced by two (2) such that their total for each academic year would not exceed ten (10).
6. All coaches of all sports at SMU were required to attend the NCAA Regional Rules Seminar that was held in Dallas the week of June 14, 2010.

For any questions, feel free to contact Christian Dennie at cdennie@bgsfirm.com.