The NCAA announced on Wednesday that it would reduce one of the biggest of the penalties it imposed last year on James J. O’Brien, the former head men’s basketball coach at Ohio State University who was fired for making an improper $6,000 payment to a recruit’s mother.
Last month the NCAA Division I Infractions Appeals Committee overturned several penalties against Mr. O’Brien, after finding that NCAA investigators had missed a deadline for notifying Ohio State about their inquiry into problems with the coach.
On Wednesday the NCAA reduced the show-cause penalty against Mr. O’Brien from five years to two, meaning it will expire next March. If he wants to take another job in college sports before then, he will have to appear before the infractions committee to see if his duties should be limited. —Brad Wolverton
