Texas Southern University has received its NCAA sanctions today regarding its athletic program. Although the sanctions are significant, the university is in full agreement.
The university has worked over the past four years to assure that the issues contained in the report no longer exist.
Dr. Charles McClelland, TSU’s Director of Athletics, had these comments about the report’s finding. First, he admits, he is glad this is over and that he appreciates the NCAA because, he says “It has taken the NCAA process to learn the things that we were doing wrong. If we had not gone through this process, we possibly could have made the same mistakes again. We concentrated on taking the breath out of these issues and now we’re exhibiting excellence in the process.”
Progress made by the university is evident by virtue of what the university has done in turning around its Academic Progress Report (APR). For the first time since the inception of the APR all of TSU’s athletic teams boast scores that either meet or exceed current National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) APR standards. The NCAA will release APR scores for the 2011-12 academic year in May of 2013. An in depth look into the departments’ projected APR scores reveals that 14 of the 16 athletic teams at the University will have scores that exceed 930 highlighted by 13 teams that will have scores in excess of 950.
Since the 2008-09 academic year Texas Southern University has gradually seen scores for all 16 sponsored sports improve significantly. Overall the program has a combined score of 958 which is over a 120 point increase from the departments’ score of 834 in 2008-09.
The fact that TSU is on the right track was noted by comments made by Greg Sankey, with the NCAA committee, who presented the report during a phone conference with TSU officials and media earlier today. He stated, “The current administration has been cooperative and helpful…There has been a different level of involvement and activity in this current administration.”
That activity included hiring an experienced staff with NCAA expertise to handle compliance and academic concerns. The university went from one compliance officer to a team of seven professionals committed to compliance and academics.
The compliance team discovered internal compliance issues and self-reported and fully cooperated throughout this process.
University officials are confident that they have taken appropriate corrective measures which led to the discovery of the infractions and the self-imposed sanctions, including the following:
- vacated wins in 2006-07 through 2009-10 academic years in all sports
- vacated soccer and football wins in 2010-2011 academic year, which includes the 2010 football SWAC Championship.
- reduction in recruiting days in men’s basketball in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years
- reduction of scholarships in its football program
Dr. John Rudley, TSU’s current president states, “We appreciate the fact that the NCAA committee has confidence in the university’s current leadership and we are committed to make that confidence warranted.”
Dr. Charles McClelland, TSU’s Director of Athletics, states, “If you take a look at where we are now, it’s a new era in TSU athletics. I can assure that these concerns have been addressed and corrected.”
