The LBSU Inquisition

Wiktionary defines inquisition as:

2. an investigation or inquiry into the truth of some matter
3. an inquest
4. a questioning

The NCAA launched an inquisition of their own today. Long Beach State athletic director Vic Cegles, university president Dr. F. King Alexander, and a company of other big shots were in Indianapolis to answer a list of questions regarding the eligibility of the graduating seniors on the men’s basketball team last year.

From the Long Beach Press-Telegram:

LONG BEACH - Long Beach State administrators, including president Dr. F. King Alexander and athletic director Vic Cegles, are scheduled to be in Indianapolis Friday morning for a hearing with the NCAA's Committee on Infractions concerning allegations of NCAA rules violations by members of the school's former men's basketball coaching staff.

According to multiple sources, the NCAA's Enforcement Office gave the school a list of seven allegations of violations - the majority of which are alleged to have transpired in the summer of 2005 and concern academic issues surrounding members of a large group of community college transfers who enrolled at Long Beach State two years ago.

Those players are Sterling Byrd, Mark Dawson, Jazz Henderson, Kejuan Johnson, Aaron Nixon and Dominique Ricks.

Byrd, Dawson, Johnson, Nixon and Ricks played two seasons for then-coach Larry Reynolds' 49ers and were major components of last season's team that went 24-8 and made the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1995. Henderson left the program after the 2005-06 season and attended Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, this past school year but didn't play intercollegiate basketball there.

Reynolds and his full-time staff members - Reggie Howard, Scott Waterman and John Masi (Masi wasn't a part of the program in the period covered by the allegations) - were not retained after the season.

School administrators launched a co-investigation with the NCAA last October after the organization's enforcement office requested interviews with players and coaches about possible rules violations. They already have given their written response to the allegations.

"We've spent a lot of time on this," Cegles said. "Obviously, the president and I will not tolerate any coach or program violating NCAA rules.

"We told the NCAA we would do whatever we could do to help them in this investigation, so we provided them with as much information as we possibly could, and with what they asked for in terms of records and our knowledge of what happened."

Cegles and Alexander were not employed by the school during the period covered in the investigation.

The Long Beach administrators expected to represent the school at the hearing at an Indianapolis hotel will be Alexander, Cegles, new coach Dan Monson, vice president for student affairs Doug Robinson, associate AD for compliance MaryAnn Tripodi and former faculty athletic representative Dixie Grimmett. They will have their opportunity to respond to the charges, orally, and respond to questions that members of the Committee on Infractions may have for them.

Also expected to be in the hearing are representatives of the NCAA's enforcement staff, which conducted the investigation on the NCAA's end and turned over its findings to the Committee on Infractions.

Steve Morgan, an attorney for the Overland, Kan., law firm of Bond, Shoeneck and King that specializes in representing universities and athletes with eligibility or other NCAA issues, was hired by LBSU almost immediately after the school was informed that the NCAA was launching its inquiry.

He spearheaded the school's portion of the investigation, including interviewing athletes, coaches and others involved. He also will sit with Long Beach administrators in the hearing Friday.

Reynolds and members of his staff at the time who are alleged to have violated (to varying degrees) NCAA rules are Brent Bargen (the head coach at Chadron State in Nebraska for the past year), Howard (who was suspended from his coaching duties by the school on Feb. 1 during the course of its investigation) and Waterman. They are expected to attend the hearing.

They also will be given the opportunity to respond, individually, to allegations and ask or answer questions of infractions by committee members. They are permitted to bring legal counsel.

When contacted by the Press-Telegram, Reynolds, Howard and Waterman declined to discuss either the allegations or any other details concerning the matter.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Bargen hadn't responded to Press-Telegram voice mail and e-mail messages.

After a typical hearing of this sort, the Committee on Infractions members - most of which are administrators at NCAA member institutions and/or are attorneys - will begin their deliberations, usually individually, with discussion usually coming in conference calls. No fewer than five can hear a case and the number usually is in the seven to 10 range.

They will then make their findings, determine what penalties are merited, if any, and assign one of the members to write an infractions report, which will then be OK'd by the individual members before it is forwarded to the institution and then released to the public.

The usual time frame from hearing to public release of findings and sanctions, if any, is six to eight weeks.

It is believed that in its written response to the charges, the LBSU administration offered a set of "self-imposed sanctions."

Some of those might include:

Reduce the number of coaches the basketball staff could have on the road from three to two during the NCAA's evaluation period. The most recent evaluation period was July and the school complied.

Reduce the scholarship limitation from 13 to 12 for consecutive academic years.

Reduce the number of expenses-paid-by-school recruiting visits from a maximum-allowed 12 to nine during an academic year.

Not recruit community college prospects for an academic year.

Neither Alexander nor Cegles would comment on any possible "preemptive" self-sanctions they may have offered the Committee on Infractions.

Ouch.