U. of Florida Admits 6 Rule Violations

The University of Florida acknowledged six major rules violations during an NCAA investigation but disputed an allegation that the infractions demonstrated a lack of institutional control of the school’s football and basketball programs.

The university’s response to an official letter of inquiry detailing 10 alleged violations concluded that five infractions were the result of conduct by coaches that could not be detected by the school’s monitoring system “or any other compliance program.”

One other violation occurred because of a clerical error, the school said.

A seventh infraction, one not included in the NCAA allegations, was self-reported and was linked to an apparent misunderstanding of NCAA legislation.

Officials submitted the response to the NCAA last week but delayed making it public until today to give attorneys time to delete the names of students mentioned in 1,100 pages of documents.

The NCAA began investigating alleged wrongdoing in the football and basketball programs last year. The Southeastern Conference school received an official letter of inquiry detailing 10 alleged violations--six of them considered major--in May.

Florida acknowledged allegations that former football Coach Galen Hall provided improper salary supplements to two assistant coaches and arranged the payment of child support for a former player.

The school also acknowledged that former basketball Coach Norm Sloan arranged for an airline ticket for ex-Gator star Vernon Maxwell to attend a summer camp in Boston and that Maxwell hired an agent during his junior season and should have been ineligible to compete in the NCAA Tournament in 1987 and 1988.

The response focused on reforms instituted in the athletic department in the last six years and emphasized the swift corrective action taken when violations were discovered.

Hall and Sloan were forced to resign last fall within a few weeks of one another. University President John V. Lombardi believes that hiring Steve Spurrier to head the football program and luring Lon Kruger from Kansas State to coach basketball also were moves that demonstrate Florida is headed in the right direction.

Lombardi said earlier this month that the university’s defense would address the most serious of the charges--one alleging a lack of institutional control--by demonstrating the safeguards built into the athletic department’s monitoring system since 1984, when the NCAA placed Florida on probation for football infractions.

Although Lombardi has acknowledged that the Gators could be candidates for the NCAA’s so-called death penalty--the temporary suspension of either or both sports--he said he doesn’t expect such punishment.