NCAA Presents Texas With a List of Alleged Violations Over 7 Years

The NCAA has sent a letter to the University of Texas alleging football rules violations in 19 categories over a seven-year period, some involving David McWilliams, a former assistant and now head coach.

McWilliams, hired in December from Texas Tech to succeed fired Coach Fred Akers, admitted Monday he made mistakes as an assistant and “was wrong in doing it.”

The NCAA has been investigating the Longhorns’ football program since September of 1985, according to Texas President William Cunningham and Knox Nunnally, a Houston lawyer hired by the university to conduct an internal investigation.

Each category listed in the NCAA’s Letter of Official Inquiry, which covers a period from 1980 to 1986, contains one or more allegations of rules violations, Nunnally said.

The allegations include loans and gifts of small amounts of cash to athletes, the loan of automobiles, the employment of a prospective recruit by a Texas alumnus while the athlete was still in high school, free auto transportation between an athlete’s home and his future employer’s business, and entertainment cash in excess of that allowed by NCAA rules for athletes who play host to recruits during visits to the campus, Nunnally said.

The NCAA also contends that extra benefits were provided to athletes in the form of free meals, free dental and legal services, and the sale of complimentary football tickets in violation of NCAA rules.

Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds characterized the listed violations as minor.

McWilliams, 44, is mentioned with others as providing cash for athletes or arranging for athletes to receive money, some of which was repaid.

The NCAA also said McWilliams and others arranged for athletes to receive the free use of automobiles and that McWilliams loaned his car to athletes on two occasions--once to drive another athlete to class and another time to conduct personal business.