NCAA Suspends Jim Boeheim, Vacates Wins over Academic Scandal

The NCAA has punished Syracuse University after a multiyear investigation into the school’s athletic programs found violations of eligibility standards.

In a statement the NCAA said, “Over the course of a decade, Syracuse University did not control and monitor its athletics programs and its head men’s basketball coach failed to monitor his program.”

The NCAA ruled that 108 wins will be vacated, that coach Jim Boeheim will be suspended for nine ACC games, and 12 scholarships will be taken away from the program. A five-year probationary period will also be imposed on the school.

Syracuse is accused of allowing players who were ineligible under academic standards to play during the 2004 to 2007 seasons as well as the 2010 to 2012 seasons.

The university reportedly informed the NCAA of the violations on their own after an internal investigation revealed the violations.

The school and the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions found that teachers and school officials helped students pass classes and offered other illicit services to help them get around eligibility rules.

“Improper institutional involvement and influence in a student’s academic work in order to gain or maintain eligibility is a violation of NCAA rules and a violation of the most fundamental core values of the NCAA and higher education,” the NCAA said. “The behavior in this case, which placed the desire to achieve success on the basketball court over academic integrity, demonstrated clearly misplaced institutional priorities.”

The university has said it may try to appeal some of the NCAA’s penalties.

“Although the university recognizes the seriousness of the violations it has acknowledged, it respectfully disagrees with certain findings of the Committee,” Syracuse chancellor Kent Syverud said in a statement. “Specifically, the university strongly disagrees that it failed to maintain institutional control over its athletics programs, or that men’s basketball head coach Jim Boeheim has taken actions that justify a finding that he was responsible for the rules violations.”

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