More Sanctions At Minnesota

April 10, 2000 / 8:21 PM EDT / CBS/AP

University of Minnesota President Mark Yudof imposed more sanctions Monday on its men's basketball program for the academic cheating scandal uncovered last year.

The university already had banned the team from postseason play for one year and put itself on NCAA probation for an unspecified period of time.

The school will eliminate six scholarships over four academic years; reduce official visits from 12 to eight for the next three academic years; reduce the number of days recruiters can watch a prospective player practice or play from five to four; and cut the number of coaches allowed to evaluate off-campus during the summer.

The school also will return to the NCAA 90 percent of the estimated $350,000 it received from the Big Ten Conference from participating in the 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1996-97 NCAA tournaments with ineligible players, Yudof said. The money will come from the athletic department, according to vice president for administration Tonya Moten Brown.

"While no one likes imposing penalties on people who were in no way involved in academic misconduct, it is with their best interest foremost in our minds that we take this action today," Yudof said.

"Imposing these sanctions gets the clock ticking, allowing the program to emerge from the penalty phase as quickly as possible, and gives our players and recruits clear information about the future of the program.

"These sanctions are meaningful and appropriate, further demonstrating to the NCAA that the University of Minnesota is serious about responding to the findings of our investigation," Yudof said.

The sanctions come before Wednesday's letter of intent signing deadline.

Yudof said he imposed the sanctions at the recommendations of Moten Brown, interim men's athletics director Tom Moe and basketball coach Dan Monson.

"We have been very, very harsh on ourselves. This was an appropriate response," Moe said Monday.

"This actually does help (recruiting), as odd as it sounds," Monson said. "The worst punishment our basketball program could have is the unknown, because other schools can take the unknown and use it to great advantage."

The sanctions were announced just as Saint Paul Pioneer Press reporter George Dohrmann was named a Pulitzer Prize winner for his work reporting on the scandal.

Dohrmann and his team reported that a tutor did work for student athletes, athletes earned credits from classes they never knew about, faculty were bullied by the basketball program staff and head coach Clem Haskins told players to lie about the scope of the cheating. The school later bought out Haskins' contract for $1.5 million. Haskins denied any wrongdoing.

The NCAA is still considering what sanctions to levy against the university, which spent nearly $1.9 millin on the basketball probe.

"This should encourage the NCAA to look away from additional penalties," Moten Brown said.