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February 11, 2009 in News, Sports
NCAA puts EWU football on probation
Eagles can’t participate in playoffs in 2009
Among the NCAA violations announced Feb. 11, 2009, regarding Eastern Washington University’s football program, former head coach Paul Wulff — now coach at Washington State University — will not be allowed to have contact with his Cougars football squad during the first three days of practice prior to the 2009 season.
(Full-size photo)
The Eastern Washington University football program has been put on three years probation and is banned from postseason due to what the NCAA calls “major violations.”
The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions released the report on Wednesday.
The violations include impermissible participation by ineligible student-athletes in practice activities, the use of too many countable coaches, failure to monitor by former head coach Paul Wulff, now the head coach at Washington State, and a lack of institutional control and failure to monitor by the university.
Additional penalties include financial aid reductions, coaching limitations and recruiting restrictions.
According to the NCAA, during the 2003-04 through the 2006-07 academic years, 13 football student-athletes were allowed to participate in practice activities even though they were non-qualifiers, they did not have their eligibility certified by the university or the NCAA, or did not meet transfer requirements.
Additionally, two of the student-athletes were provided housing and meals during preseason practice prior to the first day of classes even though they were not eligible to receive such benefits. Further, the university failed to withhold one of the student-athletes from competition after discovering the his involvement in the NCAA violations.
The football program also exceeded the maximum number of 11 countable coaches during the 2003-04 through 2006-07 academic years. During this time, anywhere from 13 to 15 individuals per year were allowed to perform coaching duties in the football program.
The committee found that the violations in this case were the result of Wulff’s inattention to certain aspects of his program. The committee stated it was most concerned that Wulff did not report various violations to the compliance office once he learned of them.
It was also found that the violations in this case were a result of the university’s failure to have in place an effective system of athletics compliance. Specifically, the athletic department failed to have a system in place for monitoring preseason housing and meals; did not establish a proper system for monitoring the activities of those involved in the football program; and did not provide adequate rules education.
The penalties, some of which were self-imposed by the institution and adopted by the committee, are as follows:
• Public reprimand and censure.
• Three years of probation (Feb. 11, 2009 to Feb. 10, 2012).
• Reduction of two overall equivalencies awarded in football from 63 to 61 for the 2008-09 through 2010-11 academic years. (Self-imposed by the university).
• Reduction of the number of full-time coaches by one from 11 to 10 for the 2008-09 through 2010-11 academic years. (Self-imposed by the university).
• Limitation of the number of incoming freshman who are non-qualifiers to no more than three per year for all three years of probation. The university previously averaged seven incoming freshman non-qualifiers per year over a four year period.
• Prohibition of the recruitment of non-qualifiers from two-year institutions for three years. (Self-imposed by the university).
• Prohibition of incoming student-athletes who have not been certified by the NCAA Eligibility Center from attending preseason football camp for a period of two years to include 2009-10 and concluding in the 2010-11 academic year. (Self-imposed by the university).
• The football team shall end its 2009 season with the playing of its last regularly scheduled, in-season contest and is not be eligible to participate in any postseason competition.
• Wulff shall attend, at his own cost, an NCAA Regional Rules Seminar during each of the three years of probation.
• Wulff will not be allowed to have any contact with the Washington State football squad during the first three days of practice prior to the 2009 season.
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dcmyers1 on February 11 at 12:41 p.m.
Eastern gets 3 years Wulff gets 3 days- pretty amazing - now I know why I’m not a Coug fan
bartm on February 11 at 1:13 p.m.
Well said Doug.
Maybe Wulff can take his 3 days off to come back to Cheney and personally apologize to each and every player, coach and fan he screwed over.
Today is certainly not a great day to be an Eagle…
eagleproducer on February 11 at 5:23 p.m.
I don’t think Eastern had to worry about making the playoffs for the next three years anyway.
Now it will be much longer.
The clock is ticking in Pullman.
DawgFanMike on February 11 at 9:40 p.m.
Just a shame, really. I can’t understand why players who weren’t part of the problem are part of the punishment. Unfair.
WSU did the Eagles a favor when they took PW.
MommyOfTwoTees on February 20 at 7:45 p.m.
Eastern was working with the NCAA - I would say that since Eastern was doing the best they could to change things…3 years is pretty unfair. Now, Wulff on the other hand gets 3 days and was not the one working with the NCAA to get things fixed. I’d say give Eastern a break and look at who really broke the rules. Punish the people who really took advantage of rules and not the people who had nothing to do with any violations.