The Rule Breakers

More than a quarter of all Division I colleges, 43 percent of all universities that play in the high-profile Football Bowl Subdivision and more than half the members of the Power Five conferences committed major violations of National Collegiate Athletic Association rules in the last decade, an Inside Higher Ed analysis shows.

The NCAA's Division I Committee on Infractions issued findings of major violations in 114 cases during the 10-year period from January 2006 through December 2015, according to a review of the association's major infractions database.

Of the 351 colleges and universities in Division I, 96 were found guilty of such infractions. Sixteen institutions (see box at right) were censured more than once, and two -- the University of Oklahoma and West Virginia University -- were punished three times each.

The proportion of violators was significantly higher among the NCAA's most-visible members, those who play in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and even higher among the universities in the highest-octane conferences, known as the Power Five.

The association punished 56 of the current 128 FBS institutions during the 10-year span, including eight of the 10 members of the Big 12 Conference (yes, there are only 10 universities in the Big 12, and 14 in the Big Ten Conference, after the latest conference realignment) and at least half of the members of the American Athletic, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conferences.

The number of institutions found to have committed wrongdoing appears to be holding steady. Previous Inside Higher Ed reviews of NCAA data found that 54 institutions in the FBS (or Division I-A, as it used to be called) were guilty of major violations in the 2000s, and 53 in the 1990s, but the total number of colleges at that competitive level was lower at the time, so the proportions of rule breakers were comparable.

In the 1980s, 57 of the 106 institutions in Division I-A -- well over half -- were punished by the association for rule breaking, according to a survey by this reporter in 1990 (at another higher education publication).

One important note: Pennsylvania State University does not appear on the list because the NCAA's punishment against it -- in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal -- was meted out not by the association's Committee on Infractions but in an unprecedented move by the association's leaders themselves. The penalties were hotly debated by those who said the NCAA was sliding down a slippery slope in punishing members for no direct violations of the association's rules, and they were later softened. (Note: This article has been updated to add this paragraph.)

The nature of the violations and of the penalties imposed by the NCAA in response does seem to be shifting. The association continued to make less use of one of its most serious findings of wrongdoing, lack of institutional control, asserting it in only nine cases against Football Bowl Subdivision institutions from 2006 to 2015, compared to 14 times from 2001-2010 and 31 from 1991-2000. In contrast, the NCAA chose to use the less serious "failure to monitor" more frequently.

There was a slight uptick, however, in the number of institutions whose teams were barred from competition for a least a year, with that serious penalty being imposed in a total of 20 of the 114 cases, including 11 involving FBS universities. From 2001-2010, just six Football Bowl Subdivision programs had teams barred from the playoffs in their sports.

The NCAA also has continued to shy away from the penalty with the most severe financial consequences, a ban on television. No programs faced that sanction in the last decade, while three did from 1991-2000.

But the association did impose fines in 34 cases, significantly more than in the past. There were only three such fines from 2000-2005, and none in the 1990s.