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The University of Northern Colorado men’s basketball team will see its 2011 conference title stripped after the former head coach and other staffers were found to have done classwork for players, with the head coach reporting that he cheated to continue the athletic success of his predecessor.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced punishments against Northern Colorado Friday, commending the university for “exemplary cooperation” but still slapping it with fairly severe penalties, including vacating the 2011 win in the NCAA Division I Big Sky Conference and returning all money from the team’s appearance in the championship, which is about $167,000.
Former head coach B. J. Hill, a longtime coach at Northern Colorado, was fired in 2016 after allegations emerged he had helped players with their course work. The NCAA found that Hill, along with five assistant coaches and one graduate assistant, had either completed classes for prospective athletes or paid for the online courses.
Depending on whether they cooperated with the investigation or not, the staffers received show-cause orders ranging from three to five years -- this will severely limit their ability to secure an athletics job at any NCAA member institution. Hill received a six-year show-cause order.
For its part, Northern Colorado completely accepted the NCAA sanctions and will not appeal any of them.
“We respect the NCAA’s decision and are disappointed that actions by members of a former coaching staff have led to consequences that have affected the entire program, past and present,” Darren Dunn, Northern Colorado athletics director said in a statement. “We remain committed to providing a great student-athlete experience while building champions for life. I’m excited about the future of our men’s basketball program.”
Northern Colorado also reduced scholarships and didn’t participate in postseason play in the 2016-17 year.
Hill was elevated to the head coach position in 2010 after the previous coach took another job. Per the NCAA report, Hill “placed tremendous pressure on himself and his staff to build on his predecessor’s strong record.” In the summer of 2010, Hill finished classwork for a prospective player enrolled in an online algebra class at Brigham Young University and ordered an athletics trainer to do the same for a biology course. Later, in 2012, Hill told his staff that not securing one particular prospect was “not an option,” leading them to complete work for that player in three online classes.
Another assistant coach arranged for a friend to pay for and complete an online class in another player’s name in 2014, according to the NCAA.
“The head coach took shortcuts to success, putting his own self-interest and ambitions ahead of student-athlete welfare,” the NCAA report states.
President Kay Norton released a statement to the campus Friday.
“When we started this process, I pledged that regardless of what emerged from the investigation that we would take responsibility, do our best to make amends and move forward. With the leadership of head coach Jeff Linder, that’s what we’ve been doing and what we will continue to do,” Norton said in the statement.
Linder took over for Hill for the last two seasons. Hill was credited with guiding the Bears to the championship win and earned a 21-11 record in his first season as head coach.
Jokes abounded on social media Friday because Northern Colorado shares its initials with University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which recently escaped all NCAA punishment despite many athletics experts saying the institution had committed one of the worst cases of academic fraud in memory.
Chapel Hill for nearly two decades set up fake courses in the African and Afro-American Studies Department that primarily benefited athletes, though because nonathletes also enrolled in the classes, the NCAA concluded that the university had not definitively violated any rules.
The University of Mississippi was also recently punished by the NCAA for its football staffers and boosters paying off prospects and their families -- a total of $37,000 -- and arranging for perks such as free cars and lodging, the third such incident for Mississippi since 1986. It was hit with a 2018 bowl ban. Its general counsel, who led the legal charge against the NCAA, will also depart from the university, it was announced.
