The NCAA has stripped California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) of wins over three-plus seasons and put the school on two years of probation over violations involving stipends for textbooks given to student-athletes.
The case appeared in the NCAA violations database as of April 18. The NCAA reports that Cal Poly “did not monitor its book scholarship program to ensure the administration of stipends followed NCAA rules.” The NCAA report says that the university provided scholarship stipends to student-athletes to cover the cost of books, but that the $800 stipend ultimately exceeded the actual cost of books by a significant amount, and that the stipends put 30 student-athletes over their financial aid limits.
The report says the school gave the $800 stipends to 265 athletes across 18 spots. The report says that among 72 student athletes, the stipends exceeded the actual cost of books by $16,180. That’s more than $220 extra per student-athlete.
The violations occurred from the 2012-2013 academic year through the 2015 fall quarter, according to the NCAA’s report, which you can read here.
The NCAA lists 19 “involved sports,” including both men’s and women’s swimming & diving. That means any swimming & diving wins between fall 2012 and fall 2015 involving a student-athlete who was given the excessive scholarship stipend will be vacated, including conference and NCAA finishes.
Did you know Cal Poly turned their selves in for the violations?
Wow $ 220 per athlete. The NCAA should have hit them much harder. I mean this is a triple WOW offense.
They probably spent at least $ 40, 000 investigating this outlandish NCAA violation.
What about the “abuses” that take place during Bowl Games: each football player is given a daily
allowance in spite of the fact all expenses including food is covered by the University. Sounds like payment
under the table to everyone but the NCAA.
Wait a minute… after re-reading the article, this does not make sense. It says it put 30 athletes over their aid limit. Then the $800 stipend was given to 265 athletes in 18 sports, then it says among 72 students the amount was over by $16k…. Then it says 19 sports were involved. So was it 19 or 18 sports involved? Which part of this was the violation or what caused the major sanctions?
I still stand by saying the sanctions are overkill and ridiculous, but a little clarification would be appreciated. Did one student get $10k extra and then a few others got $20 extra? or was it evenly spread out? Was it because some of them dropped… Read more »
Per the NCAA report: 265 athletes in 18 sports received the $800 stipends. 72 of those athletes didn’t need to spend the full $800 on books. Of those 72, 30 were apparently put over their “individual financial aid limits” by the overages.
As far as the specific money goes, the report says that the overages (the portion of the $800 left over after buying books) ranged from $5 to $734.
As for the specific sports, the NCAA report says 18 sports, but the entry in the NCAA Major Infractions database lists 19 involved sports, specifically listing both men’s & women’s swimming & diving.
Thank you for the clarification. I think the NCAA infractions database just lists every sport the school offers. I heard from a reliable source that no swimmers were even on full scholarships so no one went over the limit due to this.
But the several hundred dollar daily stipend for “food” given to basketball and football players is okay…
Oh no! Not textbooks!! The horror!!!!
Meanwhile Zion chuckles somewhere
Make em walk the gangplank! I am of course referring to the NCAA enforcement office. After months of playing tick tac toe the NCAA finally got down to hard work and decided to punish…what a bunch of clowns
Pretty sad that the NCAA is punishing a school that self-reported the violation when Cal Poly audited their books. Pick on a program that violates the rules intentionally! I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to find a few big name schools.
Here’s another great example of self-reporting: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/sports/caltech-ncaa-case-gives-new-meaning-to-academically-ineligible.html
Similar sanctions applied, DIII, historically non-athletic minded school, in a case where students may not have been full-time on paper even though they were actually attending full-time. The registration records didn’t match reality, so it was a violation.
There is no doubt Cal Poly messed up…it sounds like they basically just sent a check over for $800 to each student, and didn’t really do final verification of exactly where the money went. From the sound of it, most students probably put that extra small bit to other expenses beyond books. However, I also agree the punishment does not fit the crime. Cal Poly is not an athletic powerhouse, but they have plenty of hardworking athletes. Former students how are now well into their “post college” life with have their names stripped from records, etc? Plenty of top marks on the Cal Poly swim team come from the era, certainly a lot of conference wins and good finishes by… Read more »