UNLV Can’t Defend NCAA Title : College basketball: Champion is barred from 1990-91 postseason because of 1977 case concerning infractions. Kansas faced similar ban in ‘88-89.

In a move that left University of Nevada Las Vegas officials expressing shock and outrage, the NCAA Friday barred UNLV from defending its NCAA basketball title as a final penalty stemming from infractions that caused Coach Jerry Tarkanian to take the organization to court 13 years ago.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions ruled that UNLV will be ineligible for postseason competition during the 1990-91 season, making UNLV only the second school kept from defending its title in basketball because of NCAA sanctions. Kansas also was barred from postseason play because of NCAA sanctions after its national championship in 1988.

The ruling is a result of the committee’s recent review of the 1977 case in which the NCAA placed UNLV on probation--with sanctions that included no postseason or television appearances for two years--and sought to have Tarkanian suspended. Tarkanian obtained injunctions in District Court in Las Vegas preventing any action against him and fought the NCAA all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in the NCAA’s favor.

Legal maneuvering in the last six months left the committee free to penalize the school in lieu of again seeking Tarkanian’s suspension, and school officials, who appeared before the committee June 23 in Kansas City, had anticipated sanctions. But they were stunned by the severity of the committee’s ruling.

It comes at a time when UNLV is awaiting the outcome of an NCAA preliminary inquiry into the school’s basketball program that was initiated in October, 1987. The Times reported last week that the inquiry, which stems from UNLV’s recruitment of former New York high school star Lloyd Daniels, has been completed, and that the NCAA is expected to lodge charges of major rules violations against UNLV in a matter of weeks.

When UNLV receives the charges, it will have 60 to 90 days to prepare a response for the Committee on Infractions.

Immediately after the committee’s ruling on the 1977 case was announced Friday, UNLV President Robert Maxson said the school planned to appeal to the NCAA Council.

“I’m very upset,” Maxson said. “In the first place, we don’t think there should be any penalties against the university. In 1977, the university lived up to every penalty assessed it. I’m just shocked that we are receiving the same penalty 13 years later. I can’t wait to appeal it.”

The earliest an appeal--the school’s final option in the matter--could be heard, according to NCAA officials, is at the council’s next scheduled meeting, in October.

The timing introduces a problem for two high-profile former high school players from the Los Angeles area, Ed O’Bannon of Artesia High in Lakewood and Shon Tarver of Santa Clara High in Oxnard. Both players have announced plans to attend UNLV this year but have not signed letters of intent binding them to do so, because of concern over the outcome of the Daniels inquiry.

The Big West postseason basketball tournament is in a holding pattern. Big West Commissioner Jim Haney said he would wait until after the appeal process is completed before addressing whether UNLV should be eligible to participate in the tournament.

Should the penalty stand, UNLV, which returned four starters from its national championship team, and the Big West could suffer severe damage financially.

The Rebels’ run to the Final Four this year brought the Big West approximately $1.4 million, about $945,000 of which went to UNLV.

Tarkanian, reached by the Associated Press at his vacation home in San Diego, said of the committee’s ruling: “It’s absolutely incredible. It just makes you wonder if I’ll ever be treated fairly by that organization.”

When it placed UNLV on probation in 1977, the NCAA ordered UNLV to “show cause” why it shouldn’t suspend Tarkanian for two years--the length of the probationary period--or be penalized further. Of 38 violations documented by the NCAA, 10 involved Tarkanian directly, including one in which he was cited for trying to encourage a former UNLV player to lie to NCAA investigators.

Tarkanian, believing his constitutional right of due process had been violated, obtained the injunctions that allowed him to continue coaching while the school served the penalties that had been assessed against it.

The case--hinging on the question of whether the NCAA should be considered a governmental body whose actions must meet constitutional due process requirements--was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled, 5-4, in favor of the NCAA, in December, 1988.

In March, the two sides reached an agreement in which Tarkanian’s injunction against UNLV was allowed to stand; but his injunction against the NCAA was lifted, allowing the Committee on Infractions to rule on the 1977 “show cause” order.

In the report outlining its ruling, the committee noted that UNLV officials had asked the committee to take no further action against the university, their reason being the “hardship” the school had experienced because of Tarkanian’s legal battle with the NCAA. According to the report, UNLV officials suggested that the committee develop a plan to monitor the school’s basketball program for a period of time or, if disciplinary action was absolutely necessary, limit Tarkanian’s off-campus recruiting.

However, the committee rejected those ideas in favor of the one-year ban on postseason competition primarily because, according to the report, the 1977 case put such a heavy emphasis on the “show cause” order to suspend Tarkanian.

Noting that NCAA guidelines call for cooperation from schools in the enforcement process, the committee’s report said: “State laws and state court actions prohibiting an institution from complying with those responsibilities cannot shield a member institution from the consequences of noncompliance with the association’s rules, consequences which may include . . . exclusion from NCAA tournaments.”

In discussing his opposition to the ruling, Maxson said: “About six months ago, the NCAA signed an agreement with Coach Tarkanian that left a permanent injunction against the university. Well, if I’m the president, what do I ‘show cause’ for? Fair or unfair, it’s a legal injunction.”

D. Alan Williams, the University of Virginia history professor who chairs the six-member committee, was out of the country and could not be reached for comment.

Committee member Roy Kramer, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, would not comment on the criticism directed toward the ruling except to say: “I’m sure there will be differences of opinion. We expect that. Basically, all the committee can do is make a decision based on the facts in front of us.”

Said NCAA legal counsel Jack Kitchin: “It must have been the committee’s feeling that an important concept in the original sanction couldn’t be carried out. I guess what the committee is saying is, just because an institution can’t carry something out, it doesn’t mean the institution can’t be sanctioned.”

Asked if he was surprised by the severity of the penalty, Kitchin said: “It’s certainly provided for within the enforcement process. All I can say is I guess the committee thought it needed to impose a meaningful sanction. That certainly is a meaningful sanction.”

Tarkanian said he felt particularly bad for Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon, the two UNLV stars who decided to remain at UNLV for their senior seasons rather than enter this year’s NBA draft. Both players probably would have been first-round picks, with Johnson possibly the first player chosen, had they made themselves eligible for the draft.

Infractions cases are rarely changed upon appeal, however.

Rulings by the Committee on Infractions on cases involving SMU and Florida football were upheld by the NCAA Council when they were appealed in the mid-’80s. In the last five years, the council has upheld three of the infractions cases it has heard on appeal and slightly modified the penalties in the only other case (Cleveland State basketball) it has dealt with.