NCAA Penalizes U. of South Alabama for Violations in Men's Tennis

The NCAA has placed the University of South Alabama on probation for three years and banned its men’s tennis team from postseason competition for the next year after finding that a former coach made several impermissible payments to players.

According to a report released today by the Division I Committee on Infractions, the former coach promised five international players more scholarship money than the university was allowed to give them, totaling more than $12,000 in unauthorized payments from the 2000-1 to the 2004-5 academic years. The coach, Scott Novak, made cash payments to the students and credited their accounts at the university.

Mr. Novak also allegedly paid one player $3,000 in 2001 to establish a bank account that would help him obtain a visa. The NCAA says the student decided not to get a visa and later returned the money.

The university was also accused of not overseeing the men’s tennis program and not certifying the amateur status of its 27 international athletes in 10 sports over the past five academic years.

In addition to the probation and postseason ban, the tennis team must forfeit all team and individual records from its period of ineligibility. And if Mr. Novak seeks employment at another NCAA member institution, he will have to face the Committee on Infractions to possibly have his duties limited.

The university had already imposed on itself a two-year reduction in men’s tennis scholarships and a two-year ban on awarding athletics scholarships to midyear transfers. South Alabama does not plan to appeal the additional penalties. —Megan Eckstein