IU releases response to NCAA charge

In a letter to the NCAA released Monday, the IU Athletics Department denied it failed to monitor the IU men’s basketball program’s recruiting practices under former coach Kelvin Sampson.

For several reasons listed in the letter, the University asserts the allegation is “not an appropriate finding.”

“We have submitted our response as instructed by the NCAA,” Director of Athletics Rick Greenspan said in a statement released Monday. “(IU) President (Michael) McRobbie has consistently stated his strong belief that the IU athletic department met or exceeded standards in the area of monitoring, and we hope for a successful adjudication of this allegation.”

The letter suggests that if the NCAA enforcement staff – a professional investigative staff – did not include a failure to monitor charge, the Committee on Infractions should not have either.

It also asserts that the “vast majority” of impermissible calls could not have been detected because of false information reported by the coaching staff.

Additionally, the University claims its “two-tiered” compliance monitoring system – which includes each coach’s phone log and the end-of-year audit comparing those logs with actual phone records – is more in-depth and effective than most others among surveyed FBS schools. According to the letter, less than half of all “Division I FBS schools” collected office phone and cell phone records, which IU did.

Former assistant Jeff Meyer included a letter in the response which stated, among other things, that the compliance staff worked “diligently” to monitor the IU men’s basketball program.

“I did not question the commitment to compliance oversight in the face of these sanctions by the IU athletics administration or the seriousness of the matter at hand,” Meyer said in the letter.

The response also says IU met its “obligation” to monitor Sampson and his assistants, given the coach’s history of infractions, as evidenced by their self-reporting of Sampson’s infractions and subsequent self-imposed disciplinary action.

“The University, in short, did the right thing,” the report reads.

In alleging IU failed to monitor its men’s basketball program, the NCAA presented as evidence logs from 117 impressible phone calls that occurred between May 2, 2006, and July 17, 2007, as well as a list of 37 NCAA violations that occurred as a result of those calls.

The charge itself blankets the period between May 25, 2007, and July 31, 2007.

The allegation exhibits reveal when and to whom all calls were made, which coach made them, what phone was used to make the calls and how long each call lasted. There are also explanations as to why each call was impermissible.

IU’s response argues the University did everything within its power to enforce the rules, but Sampson and his coaching staff’s blatant deception made it difficult for IU to detect any violations sooner than they did.

“The vast majority of improper calls were not detectable, because the former coaches provided false information and data,” according to the report.

An example of such deception within the report was the use of the coaching staffs’ home telephones, something IU did not monitor. According to the report, the coaches were responsible for telling the University if they used their home phones to make recruiting calls, and when the coaches were asked by the compliance staff if they ever had, all claimed they did not.

The report states the compliance staff did, however, check the monthly cell phone bills of the coaching staff, as well as office phones for all of the men’s basketball coaches, regardless of whether or not they declared usage of said phones.

The report claims one of the reasons the University did not demand to see those home phone records was because they couldn’t have foreseen that step being a necessary one.

The report cites the coaching staff’s dishonesty as the reason it took as long as it did for the University to discover and report the infractions.

Still, the letter claims that the compliance staff was prompt when called into action. According to the report, IU launched “an immediate and comprehensive inquiry at the first indication of the potential violation.”

The failure to monitor allegation was the sixth violation against the men’s basketball team stemming from Sampson’s impermissible phone calls. IU originally had until Sept. 17 to respond to the allegation, but the day before the response was due the NCAA committee on infractions changed the deadline to respond to Sept. 26.

Initially, the NCAA charged IU with five violations. But after a hearing in June, the Committee on Infractions levied the sixth.