Auburn self-reports seven minor violations

[quietfan 233]

http://www.al.com/auburnfootball/mobilereg....xml&coll=3

Auburn self-reports seven minor violations this year

Cases involving secondary NCAA violations have all been settled

Sunday, August 27, 2006

By EVAN WOOBERY

Sports Reporter

AUBURN -- Auburn's football program dropped its recruitment of a junior-college prospect after determining that his official visit to campus was an NCAA violation, according to documents released by Auburn to the Press-Register.

The secondary NCAA violation was one of seven minor infractions reported by Auburn this year.

Most universities routinely report minor violations of NCAA bylaws to their conference offices and the NCAA. The Press-Register periodically files requests to view the documents under Alabama's open records law.

The football violation appears to have stemmed from errors made by the coaching staff in the recruitment of Hayward Howard, a New Orleans native who was enrolled at Eastern Arizona Community College.

Auburn's policy is not to release the names of players or coaches involved in NCAA violations, but the Press-Register was able to determine Howard's identity by reviewing Internet recruiting databases.

After reviewing his grades, coaches believed that Howard was academically qualified. In fact, the NCAA Clearinghouse had not yet approved his academic status.

NCAA rules state that a student-athlete who fails to qualify academically out of high school and enrolls in a two-year college is not allowed to take an official visit to an NCAA school until he has completed one academic year. Coaches are also prohibited from visiting the student-athlete at his school or making in-person contact.

Auburn coaches violated that rule when they twice visited Howard at his junior college in Arizona and then allowed him to take an official visit to campus on Dec. 16, 2005, according to the released documents.

Alerted by the SEC compliance staff, Auburn launched an investigation days after Howard's visit.

Coaches immediately ceased recruiting Howard, who eventually signed with Ole Miss and is now listed as a potential starter at defensive tackle.

As a self-imposed penalty, Auburn cut two official visits from its allowable total of 56 during the academic year that ended July 31. Also, athletics director Jay Jacobs sent a "letter of admonishment" to football recruiting coordinator and receivers coach Greg Knox.

The case was resolved in May when the SEC and NCAA accepted Auburn's self-imposed sanctions.

Of Auburn's other self-reported violations, four cases involved the eligibility of a current student-athlete:

-- Auburn's men's basketball team used an ineligible player for one game in February because of confusion about his academic progress.

In January, walk-on guard Kerry Harvis removed two summer courses from his transcript -- a process called "gapping" at Auburn -- in order to improve his grade-point average. But the loss of the credit hours meant that he was no longer making satisfactory progress toward a degree, and was therefore ineligible.

A university support specialist failed to catch the problem, and Harvis was able to travel with the basketball team on five road trips and play briefly in one game at Arkansas.

The university's documents did not identify Harvis by name, but a review of box scores identified him as the player in question.

When Auburn officials discovered the error, Harvis was immediately declared ineligible. Although Auburn requested that the NCAA reinstate his eligibility, Harvis is not listed on the team's 2006-2007 roster.

-- In a similar case involving the track and field team, Auburn declared an athlete ineligible after determining he had not made satisfactory progress toward a degree. By that time, the athlete had competed in two events in January.

Auburn forfeited any points earned by the athlete and paid an institutional fine to the NCAA.

-- In a campus meet held on Sept. 30, 2005, the swimming team used a student-athlete who had not been certified. Auburn reported the violation to the NCAA in December. The swimmer was reinstated, but will have to sit out one event.

-- Auburn declared a men's tennis player ineligible in April after the NCAA alleged that he received excessive compensation while playing for a German tennis club in 2002. The student-athlete was reinstated after agreeing to donate $280 to charity.

Glad to hear we corrected these ASAP and are in the clear with the NCAA.

I guess all teams have the occasional accidental secondary violation. Seven in one year seems like a lot, though, and most of these had to do with academic progress and eligibility. Hope we've tightened up our academic monitoring so similar things won't happen in the future.

[Ranger12 46]

I can see how minor things like this get lost in all the piles of paperwork associated with all the crap athletes have to go through these days just to play college sports. It has gotten ridiculous on how much stuff has to be done to make a player eligible. Gone are the days that simply being enrolled and having good grades is proof enough. Heck, it sounds like that football player we were recruting was actually eligible after all since he went on to sign at with Ole Miss. Most all of the others were found to be eventually eligbile also in their respective sports.

In January, walk-on guard Kerry Harvis removed two summer courses from his transcript -- a process called "gapping" at Auburn -- in order to improve his grade-point average.

You can just remove classes from your transcript to improve your GPA? I am not sure if I am understanding that correctly.

[AUChizad 0]

I can see how minor things like this get lost in all the piles of paperwork associated with all the crap athletes have to go through these days just to play college sports. It has gotten ridiculous on how much stuff has to be done to make a player eligible. Gone are the days that simply being enrolled and having good grades is proof enough. Heck, it sounds like that football player we were recruting was actually eligible after all since he went on to sign at with Ole Miss. Most all of the others were found to be eventually eligbile also in their respective sports.

In January, walk-on guard Kerry Harvis removed two summer courses from his transcript -- a process called "gapping" at Auburn -- in order to improve his grade-point average.

You can just remove classes from your transcript to improve your GPA? I am not sure if I am understanding that correctly.

Yeah. It's a forgiveness policy. You don't get credit for the class and if you need the class to graduate (i.e. it's not an elective) you have to take it again. You only can do it with two total classes, and only if you made a D or F. Most people gap classes. When I started at Auburn I was in Pre-Med. I then switched to MIS in the business school. Because of this, there was no reason for me to keep Chemistry II on my transcript since I got a D in it and it didn't apply to my new major at all.

[abrnfanatc 6]

How many days before this becomes another smear piece in the NYT?

[quietfan 233]

I can see how minor things like this get lost in all the piles of paperwork associated with all the crap athletes have to go through these days just to play college sports.

Certainly a valid point!

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

You can Gap three classes at Auburn, but I was told that no matter what class it was you had to repeat it before graduation (elective or not) and if you didn't it then turned back into a F and went back on your overall GPA.

[tarheeltiger 0]

Is gapping something that is done routinely at other universities?

Seven minor violations in all sports -- how does that compare to other comparable universities?

Now I know a jouralism major would never even have to "gap" - especially a sports journalist - because they are the cream of American intelligence and are incapble of considering such but if the above represent "normals" in the American university system maybe we wont receive too much %^&*

[Ranger12 46]

Thanks for explaining the transcript thing. Where I am attending school right now, you can declare "academic bankruptcy" for a whole semester, but I don't think you can take particular classes of your transcript. You can only do the bankruptcy thing once and I think it has to be for the previous semester. You can't wait a year to do it.

Reason I asked was because I am having to bring my GPA way up. Back in the winter and spring quarters of 1992 (when I was originally a freshman ) my daughter was born and I went through a divorce durning those two semesters. Needless to say, those were major changes in an 18 year old's life and my grades pretty much went south during those quarters. South as in I failed just about every class those two quarters. That is when I joined the Army to "get away" from everything. Well, 14 years later, they still count those classes with me, which I think is ridiculous, so I am having to work harder to bring my GPA up. They will not let me take those off regardless of my sob story and the fact that it was 14 years old and since then I have served in the Army and have been a business professional for almost 10 years. So far, I have taken 6 classes since this past spring semester and have made an A in every class, but still, my GPA was so low that even six As have only brought it up a little. It is still much better, approaching a 2.0 now. The good thing is that when I transfer to UAH's engineering program, they will not take anything more then seven years old, so all of those old classes will go away and all that will show is all my classes I will have taken for my associates in math degree that I am working on now.

[Aubie16 1]

Thanks for explaining the transcript thing. Where I am attending school right now, you can declare "academic bankruptcy" for a whole semester, but I don't think you can take particular classes of your transcript. You can only do the bankruptcy thing once and I think it has to be for the previous semester. You can't wait a year to do it.

Reason I asked was because I am having to bring my GPA way up. Back in the winter and spring quarters of 1992 (when I was originally a freshman ) my daughter was born and I went through a divorce durning those two semesters. Needless to say, those were major changes in an 18 year old's life and my grades pretty much went south during those quarters. South as in I failed just about every class those two quarters. That is when I joined the Army to "get away" from everything. Well, 14 years later, they still count those classes with me, which I think is ridiculous, so I am having to work harder to bring my GPA up. They will not let me take those off regardless of my sob story and the fact that it was 14 years old and since then I have served in the Army and have been a business professional for almost 10 years. So far, I have taken 6 classes since this past spring semester and have made an A in every class, but still, my GPA was so low that even six As have only brought it up a little. It is still much better, approaching a 2.0 now. The good thing is that when I transfer to UAH's engineering program, they will not take anything more then seven years old, so all of those old classes will go away and all that will show is all my classes I will have taken for my associates in math degree that I am working on now.

Did you go back to the same college?

I know Auburn won't accept any grades from another institution, just the credit hours. I took 2 classes at the community college near my parents house during the summer after my freshman year at Auburn and they took the 6 credit hours, but do not count the grades towards my GPA. As far as I know, Auburn only counts grades given at Auburn.

Not sure if this is the norm everywhere else or not.

[AUChizad 0]

You can Gap three classes at Auburn, but I was told that no matter what class it was you had to repeat it before graduation (elective or not) and if you didn't it then turned back into a F and went back on your overall GPA.

Nope. You have to repeat it if you want the credit for it. It's basically like saying you never took the class at all.