NCAA places LSU on probation

BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU committed major violations while recruiting a junior college football player, but won’t be hit with any postseason bans or future scholarship reductions, the NCAA ruled Tuesday. The governing body decided to place the school on probation for a year and cited a former assistant coach for unethical conduct.

The investigation found that ex-assistant coach D.J. McCarthy improperly arranged for transportation and housing for former defensive lineman Akiem Hicks in 2009, then later tried to cover up those actions.

The NCAA accepted LSU’s self-imposed reduction of two scholarships during the 2010-11 academic year, as well as a 10 percent reduction in official visits and reductions in recruiting calls. LSU already had begun reducing official visits during 2010-11, but the NCAA expanded the punishment to include 2011-12.

McCarthy resigned in December 2009. Hicks never played for the Tigers before he left LSU.

NCAA Committee on Infractions chairman Dennis Thomas said LSU’s violations all were considered “major.” Yet he stressed that punishment could have been more severe if not for the efforts of LSU’s compliance department to discover and report the violations, and to cooperate with NCAA inquiries.

“The committee really felt that the LSU compliance staff and institution did an excellent job, and that they assisted the (NCAA) enforcement staff in the investigation regarding these violations,” Thomas said.

He pointed specifically to Senior Associate Athletic Director Miriam Segar, who became suspicious of Hicks’ living arrangements from the time he arrived in Baton Rouge. According to an earlier LSU report on the matter, Segar spent weeks pressing for answers and made the decision to bar Hicks from traveling to LSU’s 2009 season-opening game at Washington because she was unsatisfied with the information she had received.

“That was critical,” said Thomas, who is also the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. “If that had not been done, the institution could have really been under more severe and serious penalties as well.”

LSU chancellor Michael Martin said the university does not plan to appeal.