According to the Daily Illini, Bellamy made arrangements for an Illini football recruit to “obtain a junior college degree he had not completed” on Jan. 22, 2014.
The student-athlete enrolled at Illinois and attended a single day of classes in January 2014 before it was discovered that “he had not completed his associate degree at his junior college.” The student-athlete then withdrew from Illinois.
According to the NCAA violation report from the incident, Bellamy “made an in-person visit to the junior college” and met with academic officials. In that meeting, officials from the junior college “agreed to give the student-athlete the remaining credit hours required for his associate degree by taking an online placement test.”
The student-athlete took the test in a computer lab at Illinois’ football stadium and “no University of Illinois staff member was present while the exam was taken or submitted,” according to the Daily Illini.
Upon completion of the test, the junior college “awarded an associate degree with a December 2013 graduation date to the student-athlete.”
After all of this took place, Illinois reached out to the NCAA to see if a violation had occurred and the NCAA decided that Bellamy committed a “Level III Breach of Conduct” extra benefits violation.
In a letter to Bellamy and head coach Tim Beckman, school athletic director Mike Thomas said that the two coaches “demonstrated poor judgment.”
“I understand it may be helpful for coaches to visit schools to obtain academic information in the recruiting process, but there is a line that must not be crossed when working with school officials,” Thomas wrote in an April 22 letter. “I want to be very clear that no member of the University of Illinois football staff may be involved with arranging academic credits, questioning or influencing grades, or otherwise intervening in the academic affairs of prospective student-athletes.”
The school confirmed the one-game suspension to the Daily Illini and said that an appeal will not be made.
“It was disappointing to learn the NCAA chose to classify this as a violation,” Beckman said. “We’ll accept the NCAA’s decision of a one-game suspension for Coach Bellamy to be taken during the season opener against Kent State.”
The name of the junior college involved is not listed in the report and the player’s name is redacted.
For more Illinois news, visit OrangeandBlueNews.com.
- - - - - - -
Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/16maSze
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire