Baylor University Basketball Scandal - Penalties

Penalties

Baylor continued to investigate the basketball program over the next seven months and released their final report on February 26, 2004. The full list of major program violations included:

• Bliss paying for tuition for two players, Dennehy and Herring and attempting to conceal it.
• Coaching staff providing meals, transportation, lodging and clothing to athletes.
• Coaching staff paying for tuition and fees for a recruit at another school.
• Bliss's encouragement of school boosters to donate to a foundation tied to a basketball team that included prospective Baylor recruits.
• Failure to report positive drug test results by athletes.
• Failure by the entire coaching staff to "exercise institutional control over the basketball program."

Other improprieties of a lesser nature were also discovered.

As a result, the school imposed further penalties on the basketball program. The program's probation was extended for an additional year, scholarships were reduced for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons, expense-paid recruiting visits were also reduced for the next two seasons and other recruiting abilities were also inhibited and one exhibition game was eliminated for the 2004-05 season. Baylor announced that it would re-certify its entire athletic department conformed to NCAA rules.

Baylor forwarded its findings to the NCAA, who imposed further penalties on the school on June 23, 2005:

• The university's probation was extended until June 22, 2010.
• Baylor was barred from playing any nonconference games for the 2005-06 season, the first time such a "half-season" penalty had been imposed.

• The NCAA further reduced Baylor's paid recruiting visits from twelve to nine for the 2006-07 season. (Baylor had already imposed restrictions on recruiting visits for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.)
• In addition, other smaller penalties were also imposed on Baylor.

The NCAA also imposed a 10-year "show-cause penalty" on Bliss for "despicable behavior" and "unethical conduct." This means that until 2015, any NCAA member school that wants to hire Bliss must report to the NCAA every six months stating that he is in compliance with any restrictions the NCAA imposes on him, unless that school can demonstrate that Bliss has served his punishment. It is the most severe penalty the NCAA can hand a coach. As most schools will not even consider hiring someone with a show-cause order outstanding, the order will likely have the effect of blackballing Bliss from the coaching ranks for the duration of the penalty. The NCAA found that Bliss and his staff had demonstrated "a blatant and sweeping disregard" for NCAA rules. Besides paying parts of Dennehy and Herring's tuition, Bliss admitted that he'd concealed under-the-table payments to Herring and lied to both the NCAA and Baylor investigators. He also admitted to telling assistant coaches to file false expense reports and lie to Baylor investigators.

Doug Ash, who had been Bliss' top assistant throughout Bliss' coaching career at Oklahoma, SMU, New Mexico and Baylor; was hit with a five-year "show-cause" order. Another former assistant, Rodney Belcher, was hit with a seven-year "show-cause" order for committing recruiting violations in bringing Dennehy to Baylor and lying about them to the infractions committee.

In its final report, the NCAA called the violations at Baylor as serious as those which occurred at SMU almost 20 years earlier. Indeed, Baylor was eligible for the "death penalty" since its men's tennis program was on probation for major violations; the NCAA can hand down the death penalty for a second major violation within five years, even if it occurs in a different sport. However, it praised Baylor for taking prompt action once the violations came to light (in marked contrast to SMU, where there was evidence that administrators knew about the violations and did nothing).

Still, the scandal initially left Baylor's basketball program in ruin. Under new coach Scott Drew, the Bears only won a total of 36 games (and only 13 conference games) from 2003 to 2007. However, Drew quickly turned the program around after his recruits arrived; the Bears made the NCAA Tournament in 2008, finished second in the 2009 NIT, and lost in the Elite Eight of the 2010 and 2012 NCAA Tournaments.