Despite the Fairfield Men’s Basketball team’s impressive start to the 2003-2004 season, there remains unfinished business from last year.
The allegation of numerous improprieties committed by some staff members in violation of National Collegiate Athletic Association rules is still under investigation and will continue into the regular season with no ruling in sight.
Martha Milcarek, the assistant vice president for Public Relations at Fairfield, recently held a meeting with Connecticut Post reporters and editors to clarify and update the situation for them.
The University hired the firm of Bond, Schoeneck ‘ King in August to investigate the claims made by former players, led by Oscar Garcia ’05. Lead investigator Attorney Stephen Morgan, who has served on the NCAA staff for more than 20 years, declined telling the Post whether his current probe has concluded.
Morgan and his team are examining whether claims made by Garcia, as well as other players, to the Post that head coach Tim O’Toole ignored the NCAA’s “20-hour rule” which limits time spent on athletics by players each week, as well as members of his staff helping to falsify drug tests, write papers, and give unauthorized monetary handouts to athletes.
Although University President Aloysius P. Kelley, S. J. will not comment on the case to the media, he has released a statement through the Public Relations department.
“As we said to the investigative team in the very beginning, and to the public, we were not looking for a quick investigation, but a thorough one,” he said. “This is the only way Attorney Steve Morgan and his team operate. They share our primary mission of finding out what did or did not happen. We can’t put a timetable on that process.”
There are two results of the investigation by the NCAA board. If they find the allegations to be “secondary” offenses, the school will take control of the case and impose any sanctions they wish. Normally secondary infractions are not made public, but Milcarek told the Post that an exception would be made in this case due to the attention this case has already received.
If any violations are deemed “major”, the NCAA enforcement staff will issue an official Notice of Allegations to the University, which outlines specific rules infractions and asks the school to respond formally. If the NCAA and the school agree on the findings, the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions will publicly announce its findings and any resulting penalties.
Morgan told the Post that any rules broken are classified as secondary or major by a “level of culpability” and that while some of those against Fairfield would be deemed secondary, there are others which would probably be major if determined to be factual.
Kelley urges people not to rush to judgment about the case simply because nothing official has come yet of the probe
“In order not to compromise the integrity of the process, Fairfield will allow the case to proceed to is proper conclusion by the NCAA before releasing details. While we are all eager to learn of the findings of this investigation, it is important to remember two things,” he said. “We do not seek simply a thorough and complete evaluation of what did or did not occur; we must also be careful not to come to any premature conclusions until the NCAA completes its work and there is a final disposition of the matter.”
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