Q&A: Texas Southern off probation and headed in right direction

HOUSTON, Texas -- Five years after being placed on five years' probation by the NCAA in the wake of the most widespread case of eligibility violations in college sports history, Texas Southern is free and clear of NCAA sanctions.

Charles McClelland, TSU's athletic director, and Glenn Lewis, chairman of the TSU board of regents, discussed the department's turnaround and its future plans in separate conversations with Chronicle sports reporter David Barron. Comments have been edited for length.

Q: Texas Southern has completed its NCAA probation. Is the heat off the athletic department in terms of focusing on rules compliance?

McClelland: Now that things are going well, the spotlight, the burden, is even greater. We can't afford to slip up. The last thing I want is for somebody to say, 'Uh, oh, there goes Texas Southern again.' We have a history of saying that we are going to do something, working to do it and then having a slip-up and having it be perceived is that we haven't done what we were supposed to do.

If you are a (NCAA) repeat violator coming off probation, you're still technically on probation because you need to get out of that repeat violator time window. Just because it's October doesn't mean we can relax. We're still in the same thought process. If we slip up next year, the NCAA will come back and bring up that they just let us off probation, you messed up and now we will use that to close the door on you. We have to maintain vigilant.

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