Close Call

When the NCAA's final report on the infractions in the men's basketball program under former head coach Dave Bliss was released June 23, many people at Baylor understood for the first time how close the school had come to losing its program.
"We considered this to be a death penalty case," said Gene Marsh, chair of the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions, who delivered the report via telephone conference. "We were there [ready to give the death penalty], and then we stepped back and looked at what the school had done, which was extraordinary. You have to give some credit to a school that cooperates that completely." 
Marsh, also a professor of law at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, said Baylor was "absolutely blunt in the assessment of their program," and that the school responded to its violations with "decisive and meaningful action to punish itself."
Nevertheless, the NCAA imposed additional penalties on Baylor including putting the University on probation for five years and barring its men's basketball team from nonconference basketball competition for one year.
"Baylor fully concurs with the conclusions reached by the Committee on Infractions regarding the egregious nature of the violations uncovered during the University's own internal investigation," said Interim President William D. Underwood, who served as chair of that investigation team. "Baylor supports the committee's conclusion that additional sanctions are an appropriate message that this kind of behavior cannot and will not be tolerated."
Baylor was subject to the NCAA's harshest penalty because the University is classified as a "repeat offender" by the NCAA. It is the third time in two decades that Baylor's men's basketball program has violated NCAA rules. 
Underwood imposed the nonconference play penalty this year, saying he wanted to bring this ordeal to a close.
"This [the report] was the final step in bringing this two-year period to a close for the University," Underwood said. "It will never be brought to a close, though, for the Dennehy and Dotson families."
Discovery of the basketball team's violations occurred as Baylor's own investigative committee looked into the death of junior player Patrick Dennehy in summer 2003. His roommate and former teammate, Carlton Dotson, later was charged with the murder of Dennehy. Dotson pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to 35 years in jail by a Waco judge June 15.
Underwood said a university president should be "intimately involved" in compliance oversight and that the University will strengthen its system, adding as many compliance officers as needed. "We intend to have the finest compliance system in the nation," he said. "We want to do everything in our power to never have anything like this happen again."
To see the full NCAA report, visit http://www.ncaa.org. To view a video stream of the press conference, visit baylortv.com.