The University of Alabama will appeal sanctions handed down last week by the NCAA Committee on Infractions for major violations stemming from the school's textbook investigation.
UA President Robert Witt ((pictured, thanks Birmingham News)) confirmed today that the school is in the process of preparing a notice of appeal and will file it prior to June 26, the NCAA's 15-day deadline.
Witt did not detail specifics regarding which portions of the sanctions UA might not appeal.
"The University of Alabama will appeal the sanctions announced on June 11 by the NCAA Committee on Infractions regarding violations of the NCAA's policies on textbooks for student-athletes," Witt said in a statement. "We appreciate that the Committee recognized the isolated nature of this violation as well as UA's immediate and aggressive actions to correct the situation as soon as we discovered the problem.
"However, we are disappointed with the excessiveness of the sanctions in view of the facts of this case and the penalties in other textbook infractions cases. There is no evidence or allegations of other NCAA violations; no coaches or administrators were involved; no players obtained books and sold them for cash, and all the books were returned or charged to the student's account as required by the UA textbook policy in effect at that time."
Regarding appeals, Bylaw 32.10.4.1 of the NCAA rulebook states that, "A penalty determined by the Committee on Infractions shall not be set aside on appeal except on a showing by the appealing party that the penalty is excessive such that it constitutes an abuse of discretion."
In recent instances, Oklahoma successfully appealed to have 2005 wins restored for an infractions case.
The University of Alabama said Thursday it is disappointed in the NCAA's Department of Infractions committee's ruling, but is happy the decision will not affect the future of the athletic program.
University of Alabama President Robert Witt and Athletic Director Mal Moore spoke with reporters a couple of hours after the NCAA released its ruling and sanctions against the school in the textbook case. Witt said the penalities imposed affected the past, but "do not impact the future of the athletic program."
"We regret that a number of coaches and player are being affected by something by which they were not involved," Witt said.
Moore said they will carefully consider their options for an appeal and the ruling would not affect the future of the athletic program.
The NCAA on Thursday put the University of Alabama on three years probation, vacated wins, and fined the school for allowing student athletes to get free textbooks for other students and for failing to adequately monitor distribution of those textbooks.
The NCAA said it penalized the University of Alabama for major violations involving 16 sports in its athletic program, including football, basketball, baseball, and gymnastics.
The NCAA said the violations included a failure to monitor by the university and impermissible benefits obtained by 201 student-athletes through misuse of the university's textbook distribution program, valued at approximately $40,000. The NCAA said $21,950 of that $40,000 was obtained by student-athletes who were aware they were receiving impermissible benefits.
The violations occurred from the 2005-06 school year through the fall of 2007. The violations were uncovered during the 2007 football season after an Alabama Supply Store employee noticed that one athlete had more than $1,600 in charges for the fall semester of 2007.
Five players were then suspended.
The NCAA also noted the University of Alabama is a repeat violator, having appeared before the NCAA Committee on Infractions in 2002 for violations in its football program. At the time of the 2002 case, the university was also a repeat violator due to a 1999 case involving its men's basketball program.
"Although the committee commends the institution for self-discovering, investigating and reporting the textbook violations, it remains troubled, nonetheless, by the scope of the violations in this instance and by the institution's recent history of infractions cases," the NCAA stated in its report.
The university admitted in its 67-page response to the NCAA's notice of allegations earlier this year that infractions occurred in several sports and that it didn't adequately monitor its distribution of textbooks to athletes.
The NCAA said of the 201 student-athletes that received impermissible benefits, 22 were identified by the university as "intentional wrongdoers," as they were aware they received improper benefits. These student-athletes - 14 of whom were members of the men's and women's track and field programs - exploited the university's textbook distribution system for scholarship student-athletes to acquire textbooks and materials of value greater than $100 for girlfriends, friends and other student-athletes.
"These intentional wrongdoers knew that they were taking advantage of the university and its Supply Store," the university said in its response to the NCAA. "However, these student-athletes believed that because the textbooks were either returned to the Supply Store or charged to them if not returned, no NCAA rules were implicated by their conduct."
The value of the impermissible benefits obtained by the "intentional wrongdoers" ranged from a low of $32.30 by a women's track student-athlete to a high of $3,947.19 by a football student-athlete. The committee noted that the four highest amounts, ranging from $2,714.62 to $3,947.19, were obtained by football student-athletes.
Alabama said it has since required NCAA compliance officials to be present during all periods for student-athletes to pick up textbooks.
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