By DAN GARTLAND
EXECUTIVE SPORTS EDITOR
Fordham’s athletic department was placed on two years probation, the NCAA announced Tuesday.
The punishment stems from an apparent misunderstanding of the NCAA’s rules regulating athletic scholarships. From the summer of 2008 to the summer of 2011, Fordham awarded athletic scholarships to 87 scholar-athletes enrolled in fewer than the NCAA minimum six credit-hours during the summer term.
“A breakdown in communication resulted in a mistaken belief that NCAA rules allowed incoming student-athletes to receive scholarships when only enrolled in three credit hours during summer sessions,” a statement from the NCAA said.
There was a proposal to drop the minimum number of credit-hours to three, but it did not pass, and Fordham “did not verify the minimum hour requirement after the proposal was defeated,” the NCAA said. A release from Fordham said that the NCAA “considers the violation inadvertent.”
“We are disappointed that a violation was committed but have cooperated with the NCAA in every step of the process,” David Roach, Fordham’s director of athletics, said in a statement. “We vow to learn from this mistake and believe that this will make us a stronger department moving forward. We will work to ensure that we are 100 percent compliant with all NCAA rules and regulations in the future.”
