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Georgia Tech Receives Ruling from NCAA

Nov. 17, 2005

ATLANTA–The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions announced its decision Thursday to place the Georgia Institute of Technology on two years probation, vacate records in several sports and adopt scholarship reductions self-imposed by the Institute.

Georgia Tech is considering an appeal and must notify the NCAA of its intent to do so within 15 days.

The violations and penalties involve 17 student-athletes in four sports over a six-year period who were improperly certified as eligible to compete due to an inadvertent misapplication of NCAA eligibility certification rules by Athletic Association and Institute staff members.

In April of 2005, the Institute and enforcement staff submitted to the Committee a summary disposition report, a four-month collaborative effort between Georgia Tech and the NCAA enforcement staff which detailed the findings of a year-long investigation.

On June 1, 2005, the Committee requested a hearing with Georgia Tech officials to clarify questions it had regarding the case. In their letter to Institute President Dr. Wayne Clough at that time, they stated that they believed an in-person hearing would provide the best means to resolve the case.

As dictated by NCAA process, the NCAA enforcement staff thereafter issued a notice of allegations outlining the specific violations discovered. The Institute provided a response to the notice on Aug. 9, 2005, which included the imposition of several penalties and corrective measures. The Institute’s hearing with the Committee took place in Indianapolis, Ind., on Sept.16.

In addition to the two-year probation, details of the vacated records, scholarship reductions and other penalities include:

• Public reprimand and censure

• Self-imposed reduction of six initial football grants-in-aid for each of the 2005-06 and 2006-07 academic years. The Committee added a limit of 79 total grants-in-aid for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years, after determining that the limit on initial grants-in-aid did not affect total grants-in-aid for 2005-06

• Self-imposed grant-in-aid reduction of 3.90 grants-in-aid for men’s track and field for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 academic years.

• Self-imposed grant-in-aid reduction of 2.0 grants-in-aid for women’s track and field for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 academic years.

• The Institute shall vacate the performance of its football team for all contests in which the ineligible student-athletes competed

• The points contributed to team totals by ineligible student-athletes in men’s and women’s track and field and women’s swimming shall be vacated. Teams scores shall be reconfigured accordingly

• Self-imposed fine of $5,000

STATEMENT FROM GEORGIA TECH PRESIDENT DR. WAYNE CLOUGH

“We are disappointed with the severity of the ruling of the NCAA Infractions Committee. We fully believe that our shortcoming was due to a failure to monitor a handful of student athletes from a period of 1998 to 2004. We have owned that responsibility as evidenced by a rigorous self-imposed study of every athlete that played a collegiate sport for Georgia Tech during that time period and our subsequent self-imposed scholarship cuts. We have examined our personnel, processes, and reporting structures and made changes to assure that such violations are never revisited.

“We do not believe the level of penalties proposed are consistent with the precedents that exist, all of which involved larger numbers of cases than ours. These conclusions are reinforced by our extensive deliberations with NCAA staff before the hearings. We have 15 days to decide if we want to appeal this ruling. We will be giving that option careful consideration in the days to come. Georgia Tech has a proud and glorious history of athletic competition. We must consider what the history books will reflect and the fairness of the ruling to the majority of student-athletes who worked and played hard to bring a spirit of competitive drive to our collegiate sports programs.”

STATEMENT FROM DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS Dave Braine

“We are disappointed by the ruling of the NCAA Committee on Infractions. Yes, mistakes were made, but they were inadvertent and confined to a small number of cases when you consider that we reviewed more than 800 transcripts. Throughout this process, we have done everything possible to cooperate with the NCAA enforcement staff and the Infractions Committee. We conducted an exhaustive review, we have fully revamped our certification process and we self-imposed substantial scholarship reductions. All of these things clearly demonstrate our commitment to doing things the right way.

“As Dr. Clough says, we will carefully consider our options as far as an appeal. We owe that to our student-athletes, past and present, and to our alumni and fans.”

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