Three years probation for Indiana, Indiana

[Pakuni]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=ap-ncaa-indiana&prov=ap&type=lgns

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)—The NCAA placed Indiana University on three years’ probation Tuesday for a telephone recruiting scandal that decimated the once-storied basketball program.

The governing body also imposed stiff penalties on former coach Kelvin Sampson and an assistant.

Sampson made more than 100 impermissible phone calls to recruits made while still on probation for a similar phone-call scandal at Oklahoma. The former assistant is Rob Senderoff, now an assistant at Kent State.

The penalties cap a 20-month saga that began with Sampson’s hiring in March 2006 while under the cloud of a telephone recruiting scandal at Oklahoma. The NCAA faulted the university for inadequate monitoring when Sampson was hired but acknowledged the former coach’s conduct was “unprecedented.”

“He ignored signed compliance agreements with the institution in which he agreed to comply with the penalties imposed on him and his program due to his commission of violations in the Oklahoma case,” the NCAA report said. “He ignored telephone penalties imposed on him in that case and committed the same type violations for which he had already been penalized during the same time that those penalties were in effect.

Sampson repeatedly has denied the violations.

The Associated Press left messages for Indiana officials seeking comment. Calls to Sampson, now an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks, and Senderoff were not immediately returned.

“It’s bittersweet,” said Indiana coach Tom Crean from Maui, Hawaii. “We didn’t want to lose postseason, scholarships or television. Thank God we didn’t lose any of those so we can continue to move the program without the what-ifs.”

[ChicosBailBonds]

Not surprising, many of us said this long ago.  I thought they would get 1 year total ban which would amount to nothing because they are going to suck so bad.  They didn't even get that.  Considering what the violation was, I'd agree with the NCAA's position on this.  The entity that should get hit hardest is the coach, and Sampson was hit pretty hard.

[MUsoxfan]

I'm for whatever screws Crean the hardest.  A post-season ban would mean nothing to him

[StillAWarrior]

I'm for whatever screws Crean the hardest.  A post-season ban would mean nothing to him

And the self-imposed scholarship reduction means nothing to him either because a team rebuilding like they are needs to bank some scholarships for future classes.  There was no way that Crean was going to offer 11-12 scholarships this year anyway.  Why not bank a couple of scholarships and then tell the NCAA that you've penalized yourself.

[Pakuni]

The entity that should get hit hardest is the coach, and Sampson was hit pretty hard.

Not really. The five-year ban sounds tough, but it's essentially a meaningless punishment. No university in its right mind is going to even think about hiring Sampson ever, let alone in the next five years. The guy is poison, and probably would not have coached in the college ranks ever again, ban or no ban.