UConn Men’s Basketball Announces Self-Imposed Sanctions

UConn men’s basketball announced a handful of self-imposed penalties after receiving a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA which occurred under former head coach Kevin Ollie.

From the school’s press release, the sanctions are:

• Limiting the number of permissible grants-in-aid to 12 for the 2019-20 academic year (reduction of one);
• Imposing a one-week ban on unofficial visits during the 2018-2019 academic year;
• Imposing a one-week ban on recruiting communications during the 2018-2019 academic year;
• Reducing by one the number of allowable official visits during the 2018-19 academic year;
• Reducing by four the number of allowable recruiting person days (RPD) during the 2018-19 academic year (maximum of 126 RPD to be allowed);
• Proposing the payment of a $5,000 fine;
• Prohibiting student-managers from attending pick-up basketball games involving men’s basketball student-athletes during the non-championship season (8-hour weeks) during the 2018-19 academic year; and
• Providing violation-specific rules education.

The most notable penalty is the loss of a scholarship for next season — from 13 to 12 — meaning the Huskies only have one more open scholarship for the 2019-2020 season. The rest of the penalties are much more minor and will likely only be a small hassle to deal with for Hurley and his staff.

“I understand the decision by our athletic administration to impose these penalties,” Hurley said in a press release. “We have been preparing for this eventuality and will make the necessary adjustments to move forward.”

The NCAA sent their Notice of Allegations to Ollie in September, although UConn was not cited at the time. Ollie was hit with an unethical conduct charge after the NCAA alleged he lied or misled investigators about arranging phone calls with a 5-star recruit to Ray Allen and Rudy Gay. Other violations included impermissible workouts, unfair recruiting benefits, going over practicing time limits, failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance and failing to monitor his players’ workouts outside the program.

Separately, the school is engaged in a legal battle with Ollie over the remaining $10 million on his contract. Ollie is looking into filing racial discrimination charges against the school as well.

These penalties are only UConn’s view of an appropriate punishment for the infractions. The NCAA still may add more on in the future.