Thursday’s ruling by the NCAA in its case against Abilene Christian University left fans with several questions regarding the 2007 football season, as well as other issues. In order to clear up some of the confusion, here is a list of questions and answers that might help clear up some of the confusion:
Q: If ACU is on probation, can the Wildcats still compete in post-season games?
A: The probation does not include any ban on post-season competition in any sport. The probation simply means that between the dates of Feb. 12, 2009, and Feb. 11, 2011, the Wildcats’ track and football programs can’t have another NCAA violation. If they do, there will be more serious penalties from the NCAA in regards to those two programs.
Q: Are the Wildcats forfeiting any football games in 2007?
A: No, the Wildcats are not forfeiting any games, rather they are being forced to “vacate” those wins. A forfeit means the Wildcats – who were 10-3 in 2007 with an appearance in the NCAA Division II playoffs – would be 0-13. The NCAA ruling instead states the Wildcats must instead vacate the wins, which means that the Wildcats’ official record for 2007 is 0-3. It’s almost as if the games were never played. Head coach Chris Thomsen’s record will now reflect 10 less wins, and the school’s all-time record will reflect 10 fewer wins.
Q: Do the NCAA sanctions extend to the 2008 season? Will the Wildcats have to vacate any wins in 2008 or give up their Lone Star Conference championship?
A: The Wildcats’ 2008 season is totally unaffected by Thursday’s ruling. The Wildcats’ 11-1 record still stands, as do all records attained and championships won. ACU will still enter the 2009 season as the defending LSC champion in football.
Q: What about statistics from the 2007 season?
A: The ACU sports information office has been in discussions with the NCAA Statistics office since Thursday morning in regards to what the vacation of the games means to the statistics of both the Wildcats and their 2007 opponents. No official word on those statistics will be known until after the school explores its options for an appeal.
Q: Do the NCAA sanctions affect any other sport’s wins or losses in the 2007-08 athletics year?
A: No, the only sport currently affected is football.
Q: What is the timeline on the appeal process?
A: According to the NCAA, the NCAA staff liaison to the Management Council Subcommittee must receive written notice of a pending appeal within 15 calendar days of the date of the public release of the infractions report (which was Thursday). After the liaison receives a timely notice of appeal and ACU has received a letter from the NCAA acknowledging receipt of the notice of appeal, the university will have approximately 30 days to submit its written appeal. The Management Council Subcommittee may accept the Committee on Infractions’ findings and penalties, or it may alter or overturn those penalties. If there is no appeal by the institution, the committee’s findings and penalties are effective when the 15-day appeal period has expired, in this case Feb. 26, 2009.
Q: How will ACU go about getting down to the self-imposed limit of five international student-athletes on the roster of any athletics team during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years?
A: To be clear, ACU will not cut any current student-athletes to get down to the limit of five international student-athletes on any athletics teams. Getting down to the number of five athletes on each team will occur through natural attrition (graduation, transfer, etc.). ACU coaches will also recruit fewer international students over the course of the next two years in order to comply with the self-imposed penalty.
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Randy Hill (rwhill.com)Launches New Blog Series Critical of the NCAA
Will cite specific details showing how the NCAA mishandled the ACU athletic department allegations
ABILENE, TEXAS—Calling it “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished,” Randy Hill, President of APT Advanced Trailer & Equipment, today launched a new week-long blog series about the NCAA sanctions handed down against Abilene Christian University’s athletic department earlier this year. The blog series will provide details about how harmless the ACU infractions were and how devastating the NCAA punishment was.
“This blog series will show that the NCAA treated ACU’s jaywalking like it were first-degree murder,” Hill said in announcing the new series. “ACU should get a medal for what it was doing. It was basic kindness and decency and they got punished for it. But this series will not let ACU off the hook entirely. The school should have and could have done more to fight back. I’ll talk about that at the end of the week.”
ABOUT RANDY W. HILL: Randy W. Hill is a Texas entrepreneur who is best known for his endeavors in real estate and transportation. He now serves as president and chief executive officer of APT Advanced Trailer and Equipment LP, as well as president and chief executive of a number of privately held real estate holding companies. His real estate holdings have included commercial, residential developments and ranch real estate in Brewster, Callahan, Culberson, Fisher, Hudspeth, Jones, Llano, Taylor, Tarrant and Pecos counties in Texas. Hill is credited with the discovery of using semi trailers to procure and dry various agricultural products. Currently, his trailers are used to procure almonds in California, grass seed in Kansas and peanuts in all U.S. peanut producing states. In April 2009, Hill announced plans to provide research funding along with equipment to the University of Idaho to explore the use of the Advanced Drying Trailer to remove moisture from wood chips that are used to fuel the university’s biomass steam boiler plant in Moscow, Idaho.
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