The National Collegiate Athletic Association has placed Lane College on probation for four years after finding that the institution’s former athletics director allowed 32 ineligible athletes to practice, compete, and receive financial aid over a six-year period.
A report released today by the NCAA’s Division II Committee on Infractions said the former athletics director at the historically black college, in Jackson, Tenn., was running the department without a support staff and had misapplied NCAA eligibility rules from the 2001-2 through the 2006-7 academic years.
The report noted that Lane’s athletics department has since made “substantial improvements” to its administration, including the addition of a compliance officer.
In addition to the four-year probation, Lane will have to vacate wins in games in which any of the ineligible athletes participated. The college must also reduce the dollar amount of scholarships in football and men’s and women’s basketball until 2011.
The former athletics director will also be required to appear before the infractions committee if he seeks employment at another NCAA institution within the next four years.
Lane officials could not be reached for comment.
The full report is available on the NCAA’s Web site. —Libby Sander
