Arizona Men’s Basketball Faces Violations From NCAA

By Brooke Brottman

The University of Arizona has been charged with nine rule violations by the NCAA, including five Level One allegations, the most serious under NCAA rules, following a multiyear investigation of its men's basketball program. This could lead to massive sanctions against the school’s athletic department, especially the men’s basketball program. Arizona is the eighth university to publicly acknowledge receiving an NCAA notice of allegations related to information obtained from a federal investigation into bribes and other misconduct in college basketball, joining Kansas, Louisville, NC State, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, TCU, and USC. 

Among the Level One allegation was Sean Miller, for violating head coaching control responsibility and a lack of institutional control charge against the athletic department as a whole. Penalties could include multi-year postseason bans and a full-season suspension for Miller. 

In 2017, Former Arizona assistant coach Emanuel Richardson was one of four former assistant coaches who pleaded guilty for their roles in the federal bribery case. He pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit bribery in a plea deal after prosecutors accused him of accepting $20,000 to steer Arizona players to certain managers and financial advisers once they turned pro. A judge sentenced him to three months in prison and two years of probation. During one of the federal criminal trials, prosecutors played a wiretap recording to the jury in which Richardson told aspiring manager Christian Dawkins that Miller was paying Wildcats star center Deandre Ayton $10,000 per month while he was enrolled at the school. During the same recording, Dawkins indicated that Wildcats guard Rawle Alkins was also receiving improper benefits while playing at Arizona.

Paul Kelly, who is the outside counsel for Arizona, wrote a letter to the NCAA Committee on Infractions. The letter from Kelly was a request to move the Arizona infractions case to the newly created Independent Accountability Review Process (IARP). The IARP is a way for infractions cases to be vetted outside of the NCAA’s traditional peer-review process, involving people associated with member schools. The Arizona case is believed to be the first time a university has formally requested to be routed through the IARP, which is in its part of the NCAA crime-and-punishment structure. Cases currently being handled by the IARP include three others that resulted from the federal investigation of college basketball: North Carolina State, Kansas, and LSU.

The nine allegations against Arizona are the most to be publicly known for any of the ten schools that have been charged with NCAA violations in the wake of the scandal. The five Level One allegations equal the number Kansas was charged with earlier this year. Kansas Head Coach Bill Self was also charged with a head coach control violation.

According to the NCAA penalty matrix, a Level One violation with aggravating circumstances can lead to a postseason ban of two to four years. A standard Level One violation can produce a postseason ban of one to two years. It appears that the NCAA is going after Arizona for violations of aggravating circumstances. A head coach found to have committed a Level One violation could be suspended for 50-100% of a season with aggravated circumstances, according to the penalty matrix. A standard violation would result in a suspension of 30-50% of a season. Arizona could also choose to part ways with Miller which most likely will be the case.

Arizona head coach Sean Miller holds a 404-147 record as the teams coach since 2009 (Getty Images)

Academic fraud and payments to a player’s family are potential Level One infractions, the most serious on the NCAA’s scale of violations. They could result in a postseason ban of one or more seasons, plus a host of other potential penalties. Arizona isn’t going to go down lightly, but it makes you wonder: How many more schools are doing this that we have yet to hear about?

You can follow Brooke on Twitter @Brottman_10.