UTEP Probation Is Upheld

The NCAA on Wednesday denied the University of Texas El Paso’s appeal of sanctions against its football and men’s and women’s basketball programs.

In May, the NCAA sentenced the school to five years’ probation, a penalty that included the loss of 10 football scholarships and four scholarships each from the men’s and women’s basketball teams over the next two seasons.

The NCAA agreed to reduce the penalty against the football program by one scholarship in recognition of the head coach’s persistent questioning of a favorable but improper interpretation of NCAA financial-aid legislation by the university. That means the football team can award 21 scholarships in each of the 1998 and 1999 seasons, instead of the 20-scholarship limit imposed by the committee on infractions.

The NCAA Infraction Appeals Committee upheld findings that the following violations, among others, were major: two student-athletes competed in men’s basketball while ineligible; a men’s basketball players and two football players received financial aid even though they didn’t meet NCAA academic eligibility requirements.