Last week the National Collegiate Athletic Association made its final decision about the fate of Texas Southern University and the sanctions the university will face for the next five years.
The NCAA cited Texas Southern for “a lack of institutional control” over its athletic program, providing a list of violations that included 129 student athletes and 13 sports competing while ineligible for over seven academic years.
When announcing the penalties, which included five years probation and postseason bans of two years for the football teams and one for the men’s basketball team, the NCAA’s Division I Committee on Infractions released a 34-page report detailing the violations.
The university was cited for several academic failures including the use of ineligible athletes, booster being involved in recruiting, and exceeding scholarship limits.
For example, the football and men’s basketball coaches, who are no longer in those positions, arranged to have two basketball players receive football scholarships to bypass scholarship limits imposed on the basketball team.Texas Southern officials said in a statement that although the penalties were significant “the university is in full agreement.”
The NCAA has required Texas Southern to vacate team records in each sport from the 2006-7 seasons through 2009-10, as well as putting scholarship limits and recruiting on the football team and the men’s basketball team. The university is considered to be a “double repeat offender” of NCAA rules, as they have been on probation or had violations for 16 of the past 20 years.
In this case specifically, one of the major concerns of the NCAA committee was many of the 129 student athletes that “had not met toward degree or transfer requirements.”
The NCAA mentioned that the university falsely told the infractions committee that it had taken actions to address its compliance issues from previous cases.
In April of 2011, Texas Southern fired their head football coach, Johnnie Cole. This past July the men’s basketball coach, Tony Harvey, resigned, saying it was in his best interest to pursue other personal and professional goals, according to the university.
Neither of the former coaches were mentioned by name in the report.
Both coaches face a show-cause penalty of for the next three years, meaning any university that wants to hire them during that time will have to show why the ban should be lifted.
The NCAA will continue to monitor the activity of Texas Southern to ensure their compliance is up to par with NCAA standards.
Prarie View A&M
Wednesday, June 25, 2025