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NCAA hits Eastern, Wulff

Posted by Vince Grippi

Feb. 11, 2009 12:30 p.m. • 59 comments

UPDATED: 4:10 P.M.

The NCAA has slapped Eastern Washington University with a postseason ban this fall and other sanctions for violations that occurred during now-Washington State coach Paul Wulff’s tenure. Wulff was also punished by the NCAA and will have to miss the first three days of WSU’s fall practice this year along with attending rules seminars for the next three years. You can read our story here.

UPDATE: Eastern Washington has issued a statement concerning the violations and the NCAA’s actions, with comments from acting president John Mason. You can read WSU’s release here. It contain comments from athletic director Jim Sterk and Wulff.

59 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

gslbball on February 11 at 12:45 p.m.
What the *$#@&****!!!! Where was this hiding???
tonyallenkern on February 11 at 12:54 p.m.
This sucks! This year we missed our chance at a championship and it looks like next year is gone too; bye bye Nichols and company.

It will be a long time before our program recovers. I am outraged!
diggler on February 11 at 1:25 p.m.
Why does it seem like most of these “infractions” are a little “ticky-tacky”.

Giving a kid cafeteria food is a benefit? Really? Letting them bunk in a dorm rom prior to the school year starting?

I’m not getting it. Why is this bad?
dgibbons on February 11 at 1:32 p.m.
Do we know anything about when the NCAA investigation began or when EWU self-reported, or anything else regarding the timeline on when this was known to EWU?
coreyb on February 11 at 1:33 p.m.
No excuses for Wulff on this one. This pretty much kills eastern and Wulff only misses 3 practices? Granted some blame goes on the school, but it looks to me that Wulff should be out of a job. That would seriously hurt WSU as well, but I think this news has already done that by destroying Wulff’s reputation.
MikeSequim on February 11 at 1:41 p.m.
Makes sense why he was ready to leave EWU so quickly! Did our Administration know about his infractions? Did they even ask? Did he even bring it up? Well, what say you Coug faithful? I can’t wait to read the blogs to see who is putting forward the talking points on his excuses. How sad! I really had hopes for this pick as Coach. Oh well, it doesn’t matter does it? After all, this is where our Society has headed for years……..NO ACCOUNTABLITY. I wanna just puke!

Mike, Sequim
Leo_Z on February 11 at 2:02 p.m.
It is sad, but why should the “Cougar faithful” have to defend Wulff or his excuses?

The violations don’t seem to be blatant. It really is too bad for EWU, but WSU shouldn’t suffer.

We can only hope the mistakes were honest mistakes. Hopefully the training sessions can help prevent this from happening again.
SeeRed on February 11 at 2:11 p.m.
The lack of instituational control has been something the NCAA has mentioned in the past with EWU and it is an outrage that something like this has to happen when fair warning was given. It was brought up during the basketball incident but there weren’t any infractions stemming from it. This goes well beyond Wulff and the football program and needed to be addressed years ago by the school. We are not just losing scholarships, we are losing recruits, fans, donors and our pride. Not a great day to be an Eagle.
BrandonHansen on February 11 at 2:40 p.m.
(Puts head in sand)

Well um, hey we retired Stuckey’s number! Woo Hoo!

(Locks bedroom door. Sobs.)

Brandon Hansen
Just South of North
www.justsouthofnorth.com
rufus on February 11 at 2:51 p.m.
must be way we the paul w on the cheap?
lets hope he wins next year.
mjbcoug on February 11 at 3:51 p.m.
On the surface this makes Wulff look bad. Digging deeper we can see that EWU as an institution was a mess for the years in question. Running through 3 presidents and 5 ADs in that time certainly speaks volumes. The fact that the compliance officer wasn’t only primarily responsible for compliance certainly adds to the problems. The violations are pretty minor when it comes to what schools can and have done in the past. And they are also the sort of violations that don’t happen when there is proper institutional control. Finally, does any really think Wulff will forget about any of these rules that were broken and break them again? Especially at a place like WSU that doesn’t have any history of non-compliance. Things that happened aren’t the things that one sweeps under the carpet. You can’t hide coaches. Players are on the field so you can’t hide them. Basically it’s a case of Wulff not knowing, and the school not doing a better job of overseeing things. I feel bad for Baldwin and the kids at EWU. I have no worries about Wulff and WSU.
coreyb on February 11 at 3:57 p.m.
Good points See Red and Mark. Makes me feel better about Wulff. Sounds like Eastern has had problems and the turnover probably is the biggest reason this happened. The headlines and short story into this make it seem much worse than it probably is. It is sad that the NCAA has no problem picking on Eastern, but USC doesn’t seem to ever get anything handed down.
Eagle1 on February 11 at 4:44 p.m.
From what I’ve heard through the grape-vine, Hamilton self-reported these infractions when he first came and found out about them, and then look what happened to him; he was falsely accused of sexual harrasement (which he was aquitted of) by someone on the football staff….
Hmm, is it just me or are things starting to add up here-
-Wulff commits infractions
-Hamilton finds out about them and self-reports them
-Hamilton (by exclusive aid of the Football dept.) gets fired
-Now all of the infractions have come to light and Wulff is scene for what he really is…
All I can say is that all this aside, I am so glad that we finally have a coach of integrity and ethics!
coug79 on February 11 at 5:10 p.m.
No post-season for EWU in 2009? Say it ain’t so. There goes my trip to Boise for the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl.
Brad on February 11 at 7:42 p.m.
79, are you really that ignorant about post season play for FCS teams? And your talking about post season play at all is a joke?
FrankP on February 11 at 8:55 p.m.
D-Ham, err I mean Eagle1, welcome back! Boy we’ve missed you. Let’s talk patterns….

Chicago State: Rumored Narcissistic Bravado, Rumored Department Alienation, Rumored Fired/Separation, Estimated Time on Job: 1 year.

EWU: Rumored Narcissistic Bravado, Rumored Department Alienation, Fired, Estimated Time on Job: 6 Months

Alcorn State: Rumored Narcissistic Bravado, Rumored Department Alienation, ???

What is most interesting about Alcorn State is that, like EWU, the AD there allegedly went in with an agenda seeking to fire the Football Coach who was in his FIRST season as coach coming from a BCS school. The AD took the long way of course. Fired all the assistants without telling the head coach, had the president step in and hire them back, fired the head football coach… but not really, then fired the football coach for real naming one of the assistant coaches you fired/prez rehired as the interim head coach. Now the university is a party to a multi-million dollar lawsuit. Nice work in such a short amount of time…. another pattern. The place must be a mess. The poor Alcorn State president is in the news more than the AD speaking to athletics thanks to the legal muzzle placed on the AD. Alcorn State can’t even put the AD’s bio on their athletic page site.

All I can say is that all this aside, I am so glad that we finally have an athletic director of integrity and ethics! His spelling of success is far different from the previous AD.

(Also, Eagle1, please save us the “I am not D-Ham”. You haven’t posted on this blog since the name that shall not be spoken was here. Coincidence? We think not.)
BrandonHansen on February 11 at 11:01 p.m.
I’m actually Jerry Glanville.
Leo_Z on February 12 at 1:42 a.m.
Wow. Lots of English majors on here. My head hurts trying to understand the arguments and statements. Especially Frank and Rufus. And Eagle1? Where’s the logic?
coug79 on February 12 at 7:54 a.m.
Yes Brad—it was a joke. Lighten up.
Tom_R on February 12 at 9:56 a.m.
When you add WSU’s football team’s performance last season to Wulff’s violations, it would seem to me to be a good time to dump the guy. Isn’t there a good college football coach out there who would be happy to take the WSU job?
avid_sportsfan99 on February 12 at 12:38 p.m.
Shame on EWU administration and shame on Coach Paul Wulff! As an avid colligate sports fan I am very disappointed in the actions of Eastern Washington. One of the NCAA infractions towards the university was due to the fact that the university failed to monitor the football program. The fact of the matter is that the university did in fact hire an Athletic Director by the name of Dr. Darren Hamilton to assist in “cleaning” the program. Dr. Hamilton has the reputation of going into a university and doing what has to be done in order to make sure that no violations are being committed including firing staff. Once Dr. Hamilton found there were NCAA violations being committed he was falsely accused of sexual harassment. Does the timing seem odd to anybody? A new Athletic Director is hired, he then finds major violations within the football program, he brings them to the attention of his staff, and then BANG allegations of sexual harassment are made. Normally when an allegation of this magnitude is made other victims come forward, Dr. Hamilton had 11 years of experience before being hired as the AD for Eastern and in those 11 years not one allegation was made towards this man and no other victims ever came forward regarding this matter. The accuser later recanted her story, kept her job, and a man’s reputation was tarnished all because he was trying to do the right thing. He was doing what he was hired to do, but because the findings we made regarding the head football coach, small town politics came into play. Did I fail to mention that the accuser was a close friend and colleague of Coach Wulff? Dr. Arevalo did not find the violations, Dr. Hamilton did but he was stopped from exposing the truth. In my opinion Coach Wulff received a slap on the hands, he’s on probation for 3 years in which he must attend 3 compliance seminars and cannot have any contact with the football players for the first 3 days of practice. By allowing Coach Wulff to continue coaching this up coming year makes a great statement towards coaching staff around the nation. Commit any violations at the university you are currently coaching at…but get out before it’s too late, the infractions will not have a great impact on you if you are no longer coaching at the university where the violations where committed …
FrankP on February 12 at 1:05 p.m.
D-Ham, you are getting clever. Two aliases. That will fool us! The main reason we know it is you is that there isn’t a person in the 509 that would support you or bring “Dr. Hamilton” into this conversation. You view this as vindication. It isn’t. I would keep your focus on screwing up Alcorn State, which is going good by the way.

Peace.
Brad on February 12 at 1:13 p.m.
79, sorry about that..I take full responsibility.
Eagle1 on February 12 at 1:45 p.m.
FrankP, you are a fool.
Is it too much to think that possibly *gasp* there are some of us that disagree with how Hamilton was treated, and as such reserve our comments for when we truly feel the need to express as much. I don’t know why a) you are so concerned with who is posting what (whether Hamilton or others), b) why you are so vicious in all of your postings and attacks, c) why you don’t just stick to the topics at hand, that is, that Wulff messed up big time, was caught, and as sad as it is EWU (and its’ staff/athletes) are the ones being punished in his stead. Frank, we are not talking about -nor does anyone else on this blog probably care about- Alcorn St.
I am not accusing you of being P. Wulff or anyone else simply because you seemingly are so adimate in your hatred of Hamilton. Simularly, please kindly enough to refrain from accusing me of being D-Ham based on the mere fact that I at some levels have supported him.
Sportsfan99, nice to see that I’m not the only one that’s able to take a step back and see the bigger picture, and Frank, again, please stick to the topic at hand and stop being so vindictive, we all thank you in advance.
avid_sportsfan99 on February 12 at 3:38 p.m.
FrankP you are so off track regarding my identity but also on the number of Hamilton supporters in the 509. The only reason why I mentioned Dr. Hamilton in my blog was to state the fact that Coach Wulff is somewhat of a bully. His message was clear to the athletic department, “Go along with what I am doing or become prepared to loose your job” Coach Wulff knew that he had the power to manipulate most of the athletic department, the moment Coach Wulff felt threatened he created an alliance with other department staff who were resisting the changes that Darren was bringing to EWU.
FrankP did you watch the interview that Coach Wulff gave late last night?? He stated that he did not know the rules of the NCAA. HA!!! Anytime a person becomes employed at a university and has contact with athletes they are required to sign an acknowledgement stating that in fact they have both read and understand the rules and regulations of the NCAA. His excuse of not knowing the rules is a simple cop out, you can read x’s and o’s but you can’t read a manual?
Eagle1 on February 12 at 4:03 p.m.
Right on Sportsfan99; you hit it right on the nose!
Oh wait, Frank might now start accussing Hamilton of having multiple personality disorder since we are both him, and you know, there’s no possible way that two whole people agree with Hamilton, and not Wulff. Lol!
FrankP on February 12 at 4:23 p.m.
Mr. and Mrs. D-Ham,

I didn’t bring the former AD into this conversation. You folks did. Wulffe can be accused of many things, but being a bad guy is not one of them. I doubt that anyone in the 509 knows how many years experience the former AD had, particularly given that his bio isn’t even on the ASU website. Then your point that a coach is required to sign a statement every year is something that someone in the field would know. Nice game, but people aren’t dumb.
Eagle1 on February 12 at 4:36 p.m.
Sorry, no. Sportsfan99 just does his/her research and isn’t ignorant. Sure you’re not dumb?
And you know what, the fact that you would make such a ridiculous statement like Wulff “not being a bad guy,” just drives home the fact that you are indeed ignorant and dumb. In fact, if I’m Hamilton, I am starting to think that you are Wulff. In any event, this is getting dumb and I don’t have the time or interest to even adknowledge your silly comments anymore, “Frank.” Say what you like, I am bored and done with you now.
FrankP on February 12 at 4:53 p.m.
Too bad. Good luck down there.
tonyallenkern on February 12 at 6:34 p.m.
If you take Wulff at his word, I find his explanation to very credible.

He came up through the EWU ranks and therefore would have learned how things were done by his predecessors. His screw-ups were honest and not cheating to gain a competitive advantage, they were oversights that only became major because they were repeated over a series of years. He should have been more aware of NCAA rules, but I do not believe he was being grossly negligent with the mistakes he made and that EWU is equally to blame. The reason universities have compliance officers is because knowing NCAA rules is truly a full time job.

If you believe Wulff is lying, then you believe that he is truly a man without integrity and has pulled the wool over everyone’s about his entire persona.

One thing that I am sure of is that Hamlin was angry about his dismissal and went out of his way to get back at his former employer.