NCAA Hits Texas Southern With Postseason Ban, Dreaded Lack of Institutional Control

If Mike Davis thought he was walking into a good situation at Texas Southern, he has now learned otherwise. The former Indiana and UAB coach will be taking over a program that Tuesday was hit with a Lack of Institutional Control ruling by the NCAA.

The ruling is based on incidents that occurred under former head coach Tony Harvey, and the blatant disregard for penalties that had previously been handed to the school.

According to the NCAA release:

The committee noted that as a double repeat violator, Texas Southern either has been on probation or had violations occurring on campus, or both, for 16 of the past 20 years. At various times during the earlier probation periods the university reported to the committee it was taking certain remedial actions when it actually was not, which was of particular concern to the committee.

Many of the more severe violations were committed by the football team, including having an active booster knowingly recruiting for the school. But the basketball doesn't get a pass here.

In the report, Harvey and former football coach Johnnie Cole are accused of knowingly placing two men's basketball players on football scholarships to get around restrictions against the Tigers. The players were then asked to lie about their involvement with the football team when investigators came calling.

The former head basketball coach was cited for unethical conduct for knowingly providing false or misleading information concerning improperly awarded scholarships to two men's basketball student-athletes. In its findings, the committee noted that the coach's sole purpose in asking the head football coach to put the two student-athletes on a football scholarship was to procure athletically related scholarships beyond what the men's basketball program was able to provide.

The following is a list of penalties that the Texas Southern basketball will live under starting this year:

• Public reprimand and censure.
• Five years probation from October 9, 2012, through October 8, 2017.
• Postseason ban for the 2012-13 season.
• Three-year show-cause orders for Harvey
• A limit of 11 men's basketball scholarships (from 13 maximum) for three academic years.
• Vacation of all team records for the 2006-07 through 2009-10 academic years in all sports
• Reduction in the available number of recruiting person days by 10 for men's basketball during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years (self-imposed by the university).
• A limit of nine total paid visits per year for men's basketball during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years.
• An in-person review of the university's athletics policies and practices must be conducted annually, at the university's expense, through the term of probation. The review must generate a report of his/her findings, to be submitted with the annual compliance reports and submitted to the committee.