Clemson Gets NCAA Recap on Violations

Clemson officials have received the case summary of the NCAA investigation into the school’s football program and are preparing for their hearing before the Committee on Infractions in Kansas City on Friday.

A case summary is a compilation of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s allegations, the university’s response and the NCAA enforcement staff’s response to the Clemson response. It provides all the parties an indication of the issues to be discussed in the hearing.

“We’re ready to get on with it,” said Nick Lomax, university vice president for student affairs. “To say I’m glad the day is here, no; we wish it had never happened. But we’re ready to deal with it and get it behind us.”

The 10-man Clemson entourage going to the hearing will include former head football coach Danny Ford and his attorney, Thomas McCutchen Sr. of Columbia. Ford resigned as the head coach Jan. 18.

New head football coach Ken Hatfield is also scheduled to attend, as are university President Max Lennon, athletic director Bobby Robinson, senior associate athletic director Dwight Rainey, faculty athletics representative B. J. Skelton and two university counsels, Ben Anderson and Paul Aaron.

D. Alan Williams, chairman of the Committee on Infractions and the faculty athletics representative at the University of Virginia, has resigned from hearing the case to avoid a potential conflict of interest.

Virginia and Clemson are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. If the ACC decides to impose other penalties on Clemson after the NCAA’s action, Williams would have a vote in that.

His decision to step aside leaves five members to rule on the Clemson case, with Milton R. Schroeder, a professor of law at Arizona State University and the next senior member of the committee, serving as chairman.

The committee is expected to announce a decision on the Clemson case within three weeks.

In a letter dated Jan. 4, the NCAA charged the Clemson football program with 14 rules violations ranging from cash payments to players of between $50 and $150 to improper recruiting techniques.

Since then, one charge has been dropped and two others have been amended.

Neither Robinson nor Lomax would say whether any other charges were dropped or amended in the case summary, but Lomax said the summary “clarified” the allegations.

“We have done our best to this point, not only in what we have provided in written form, but also our oral presentation,” Lomax said. “We will have done all we can do by the time we leave Kansas City.”

Clemson officials would not speculate on the outcome of Friday’s hearing.

“After seeing some of the other reports (of committee decisions), I couldn’t speculate,” Lomax said.

The University of Maryland basketball program received severe penalties despite university officials being confident that they had cooperated with investigators.