NCAA Puts Florida Teams on Two Years’ Probation

The University of Florida was placed on NCAA probation for the second time in six years Thursday, and school officials were upset that the punishment included a postseason ban for this year’s football team.

The NCAA chose to impose less than the minimum proscribed penalties in a case of major violations. The bowl ban for this season was the only punishment of the football program, and there was no ban on television appearances for either sport.

The Gators also will not be eligible for the Southeastern Conference football championship because an SEC rule prevents teams that are ineligible for a bowl game to win the conference title.

The basketball program’s scholarships will be restricted, and it must repay at least $287,000 in revenue from the 1988 NCAA tournament because guard Vernon Maxwell played while he was ineligible. The Gators will be permitted 13 scholarships in 1991-92, two fewer than the maximum, and 14 scholarships in 1992-93.

First-year football Coach Steve Spurrier said the bowl ban was a more severe penalty than Florida deserved.

“This has been a clean-run program in the last four or five years,” Spurrier said. “There’s been no cash payments, no buying tickets of players, no falsifying of transcripts.”

As part of the ruling, the NCAA cited former basketball Coach Norm Sloan and former football Coach Galen Hall, both fired last October, for unethical conduct.

Chuck Smrt, director of enforcement for the NCAA, said the case was unique because the school took significant corrective steps after the investigation was disclosed. For that reason, Smrt said, the five-member Committee on Infractions did not impose the minimum proscribed penalties.

The minimum penalties could have also included restrictions on postseason basketball, recruiting in both sports and television appearances.

Florida even faced the remote possibility of having its football and basketball programs shut down by the “death penalty.” But even though the school escaped severe sanctions, university president John Lombardi took exception to the postseason ban on this year’s football team, which is 2-0 and ranked No. 19.

“We are not entirely comfortable with a set of penalties that appear to us to . . . penalize the innocent for the sins of a prior generation,” Lombardi said.

“This is particularly difficult when you recognize that these players and these coaches are now in the middle of their season, and these penalties at this time in their season appear to us to be a particularly difficult blow to accept.” The school has 15 days to appeal the sanctions or ask that the ban on the football team be delayed. Neither Lombardi nor Athletic Director Bill Arnsparger would say whether the school will appeal.