NCAA decision prolonged

The punishment for the Michigan men's basketball team's three minor National Collegiate Athletic Association violations will not be decided until at least April - allowing the team to finish the season without further distractions.

The eight-person NCAA Committee on Infractions - the group that will decide the fate of the program - cannot discuss the penalty until it meets in April. Athletic Department and NCAA officials originally said a final judgment would be made by February.

"Nothing is going to happen from our point of view, regardless, because we don't meet again until April," said the committee member, who asked to not be named. "Our committee will take no action with anything before April."

That means the Michigan basketball team, after a year in which a seven-month investigation into the program concluded with the firing of former head coach Steve Fisher, can finally concentrate solely on the seven remaining regular season games, the Big Ten Tournament and - if Michigan qualifies - the NCAA Tournament.

Following numerous allegations against the program of impropriety, the University hired a Kansas-based law firm to investigate the claims. The firm submitted a 280-page report to the University and the NCAA that detailed the investigation.

After reviewing the report submitted by the University, the NCAA announced in December that the basketball program violated three minor NCAA regulations through contact with Detroit booster Ed Martin.

The University responded to the NCAA in mid- December, offering its suggestion for appropriate sanctions.

The committee will assess the University's requested punishment and the results of the University's seven-month investigation and then decide how the program should be penalized.

Sanctions for minor violations can include a reduction in the number of recruitment visits and scholarship money.

Michigan basketball coach Brian Ellerbe would not comment on the time frame in which possible sanctions may be levied on the basketball program.

The committee member also said he has not yet received any information about the University's investigation and there was no mention of the University in the infractions committee's meeting last week.

"If it's a major case, which it sounds like it may be, we only do things at the meetings," the committee member said. "Last meeting, Michigan was not on our agenda."

Senior Associate Athletic Director Keith Molin said the University proposed to punish itself by reducing its recruiting visits.

"Our position as an institution is to get over with this process as soon as possible," Molin said.

Ellerbe said this type of penalty would hurt the University's basketball program.

"Any time something is taken away from you, you're at a disadvantage to your competitors," Ellerbe said.

David Berst, chief of the NCAA enforcement staff, said he has received the letter submitted by the University that details the University's sanction recommendations.

Berst said assignment of the penalty is "pending," and the next step is for the committee members to review the University's report.

"We are ensuring them that the report is being reviewed by the NCAA Committee on Infractions," Berst said.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions is composed of professors, legal experts and other professionals from across the nation, meets as a group every two months.

Berst also said he could not speculate on the time frame of the investigation, but said the decision will not be known "in the next couple of days" and is "more likely" to be made within the month.

But the committee member said the NCAA committee's decision may not be announced until a month after its next meeting in April.

Besides submitting a letter of recommendations for the sanctions, the University has the right to a hearing with the committee, which would mean anyone charged of impropriety could speak directly to committee members, prolonging the decision further.

"If Michigan comes to a meeting in month X, the hearing takes all day," the committee member said. "There's an awful lot of material. The committee then writes a report, something around 50 pages. Once we agree on the report and make a decision, it could be as long as a month until the whole thing is public."

The committee member detailed a case the NCAA committee had on its agenda at its meeting last week.

"A school we just heard, we were dealing with events that happened in 1996 and the school submitted its report in late fall of 1997 and it was on our agenda at the meeting in January," said the committee member. "That was fairly a quick one in terms of a school getting in its investigation and report with the enforcement stuff done."

02-05-98