NCAA: Morgan State Athletics lacked institutional control

Download the Dec. 2017 Morgan State Public Infractions Decision

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana -- Morgan State lacked institutional control due its failure to manage the eligibility certification and financial aid processes, according to a Division I Committee on Infractions panel. For four years, the university improperly certified the eligibility of 94 student-athletes in 10 sports. Over the same period, the university improperly provided financial aid to student-athletes in nine sports.

This case was resolved through the summary disposition process, a cooperative effort in which the involved parties collectively submit the case to the Committee on Infractions in written form. The NCAA enforcement staff, university and involved parties must agree to the facts and overall level of the case to use this process instead of a formal in-person hearing.

Due to the university’s lack of monitoring and control, student-athletes practiced and competed while ineligible. This included those who had not yet received their eligibility certification or met the eligibility standards. Other student-athletes competed while enrolled less than full-time, without meeting their progress-toward-degree requirements or after their eligibility was exhausted.

The panel noted the substantial advantage the university and student-athlete received when ineligible student-athletes were able to compete and receive tens of thousands of dollars in financial aid and expenses.

Penalties in the case include:

• Four years of probation through Dec. 18, 2021.
• One-year postseason ban for softball, tennis and football.
• A $5,000 financial penalty plus one percent of the 2017-18 budgets of football, softball and women’s tennis programs.
• During the 2018-19 academic year, scholarship reductions of five percent in the ten sports where violations occurred.
• Recruiting restrictions in the ten sports, including a seven-week ban on unofficial visits and off-campus recruiting, official visit reductions, communications restrictions.

Members of the Committee on Infractions are drawn from NCAA membership and members of the public. The members of the panel who reviewed this case are Bobby Cremins, former head basketball coach at Georgia Tech; Thomas Hill, senior vice president for student affairs at Iowa State University; Stephen A. Madva, retired attorney; Gary L. Miller, chancellor at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay; David M. Roberts, chief hearing officer for the panel and special advisor to the president at Southern California; and Sankar Suryanarayan, university counsel, Princeton.

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