Violations Per ProgramFootball (16)Women’s basketball (8)Gymnastics (6)Rowing (2)Women’s soccer (2)Alumni association (2)Men’s basketball (2)Women’s tennis (1)Men’s track (1)Sports information (1)Volleyball (1)Men’s golf (1)Baseball (1)
Ranging from improper recruiting text messages to selling complementary game tickets, the Alabama athletic department committed 44 minor NCAA rules violations the past two years.
The school released the list of secondary NCAA violations committed from July 1, 2009, through Thursday on its website Friday. Sixteen involved the football program and two were for men’s basketball.
The women’s basketball program had the second-most violations with eight. Seven involved recruiting and the other was for leaving more than 48 hours before a road game.
The national champion gymnastics program committed six infractions related to recruiting.
The NCAA defines a secondary violation as isolated or accidental in nature.
“Secondary violations do not include extra benefits or any significant recruiting benefits,” the NCAA website states. “If a school commits several secondary violations, they may collectively be considered a major infraction. Secondary violations occur frequently and are usually resolved administratively.”
The information released is in response to regular open-record requests made by media organizations every few months. Messages left for school officials Saturday afternoon were not returned.
For the Crimson Tide football program, most of the 16 involved communication with recruits deemed impermissible. Six were for text messages or phone calls, two for publicizing recruiting visits and another for visiting a recruit on the day of competition.
The most serious infraction made headlines last summer. Marcell Dareus’ trips to a party thrown by an agent in Miami last summer accounted for one of the two offenses leading to a game suspension. Dareus was held out of the first two games of the 2010 season.
An unnamed player was held out of competition after selling free tickets to games. That player also was required to repay the profits to charity, and the entire team was re-educated on the specific rule.
Most “corrective actions” for the violations included rules education, while others included a letter of admonishment. Bans on communicating with recruits ranged from 14 to 30 days.
One of the men’s basketball infractions brought stiffer penalties. After sending impermissible texts to recruits, the entire staff was banned from sending any recruiting material to any recruit for two weeks. The assistant coach who committed the violation was not allowed to initiate any contact with recruits for 14 days, and the entire staff was prohibited from contacting a specific unnamed recruit. Also, the number of official visits was reduced.
Dates of violations were not included on the list released by the school.
The other basketball issue resulted from a walk-on playing in two games before being officially moved to the eligible list during the December vacation. The player was eligible for competition.
Nine other team programs were cited for secondary violations, as well as the sports information department and the alumni association.