09/08/2008 - Richmond, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of Richmond revealed violations within its men's and women's basketball programs on Monday, indicating there were illegal text messages and phone calls to prospective student-athletes.
NCAA rules permit coaches to contact prospective student-athletes in person, by telephone, by e-mail and through correspondence, but a new NCAA rule prohibits contact with prospective student-athletes by text messaging. This new rule went into effect August 1, 2007. However, according to Richmond, certain members of the schools' men's and women's basketball coaching staffs continued to text message with prospective student-athletes after August 1.
In a statement, the university said the individual staff members who are responsible for the majority of the improper text messages and telephone calls are no longer employees at the school. Those coaches were not identified.
"The University is committed to conducting an athletic program characterized by honesty, integrity and compliance with all NCAA rules," said Richmond athletic director Jim Miller. "Clearly mistakes were made by some of our coaches. Athletic department personnel discovered the violations that initiated this review and immediately reported the violations to the NCAA and appropriate university administrators. This athletic program makes every attempt to do things the right way."
The investigation revealed that men's basketball assistant coaches had approximately 38 text message conversations with prospective student-athletes that contained more than 100 text messages. Over 90 percent of those text messages were from one assistant basketball coach. Investigators also found that women's basketball coaches had more than 90 text message conversations with prospective student-athletes that contained more than 300 text messages.
Additionally, NCAA regulations permit coaches to make only two phone calls a week to an individual prospective student-athlete. However, during a four- month period it was found men's basketball coaches made between 50 and 90 improper telephone calls to prospective student-athletes. The majority of those calls (75 percent) were made by the same assistant coach.
"As head men's basketball coach, I take full responsibility for these violations of NCAA rules," said coach Chris Mooney. "I want to apologize to all members of the university community. We are committed to complying with all NCAA rules and I want to assure the university community that we will take extraordinary efforts to operate this program in full compliance of NCAA rules."
Head women's basketball coach Michael Shafer echoed that statement, also apologizing.
The text message violations were discovered when the school's assistant athletic director for compliance reviewed call logs and records.
Richmond is working closely with the NCAA to review the matter and expects to receive a notice of formal violations within the next 30 days. Because of this, it's likely the school will receive a two-year probationary period, but likely won't lose scholarships or face a ban on postseason play. Additionally, there likely won't be an impact on the eligibility of the prospective student- athletes who received these improper text messages or telephone calls.
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