Auburn basketball finally receives NCAA Committee on Infractions panel's decision

AUBURN – Four years and three months after former Auburn basketball assistant Chuck Person was arrested and charged with six federal crimes, the NCAA has passed down a verdict from their investigation.

Here’s what the NCAA decided in regards to Bruce Pearl and the Auburn basketball program moving forward:

The panel classified the case as Level I-aggravated for the associate head coach, Level I-aggravated for the school, Level I-mitigated for the former assistant coach and Level I-mitigated for the head coach. The panel used the Division I membership-approved infractions penalty guidelines to prescribe the following measures:

• Four years of probation.
• A 2020-21 postseason ban for the men’s basketball team (self-imposed).
• A $5,000 fine plus 3% of the men’s basketball program budget.
• A reduction of one scholarship during the 2020-21 academic year (self-imposed). The program must reduce the total number of scholarships by two during the term of probation.
• A reduction in the number of official visits in men’s basketball to 20 during the 2017-18/2018-19 rolling two-year period (self-imposed).
• A ban on unofficial visits for 19 weeks during the 2017-18 academic year (self-imposed).
• A ban on recruiting phone calls for a 20-week period during the 2017-18 academic year (self-imposed).
• A reduction in the number of recruiting person days in men’s basketball by 82 days during the 2017-18 academic year (self-imposed).
• A 10-year show-cause order for the former associate head coach. During that period, any NCAA member school employing him must restrict him from any athletically related duties unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply.
• A one-year show-cause order for the former assistant coach. During that period, any NCAA member school employing him must restrict him from any athletically related duties unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply.
• A two-game suspension for the head coach during the 2021-22 academic year immediately following the release of the panel’s decision.
• A vacation of all team records in which student-athletes competed while ineligible.

[Read the entire NCAA release here]

[Talk about this and more on The Corner]

[Column: Auburn basketball, Bruce Pearl breathe a sigh of relief]

Pearl statement: “I’m appreciative of Auburn University, our leadership, the AU family and our current and former student-athletes as we navigated through the challenges of the last four years. We respect the NCAA peer evaluation process and appreciate the panel recognized we took meaningful and contemporaneous penalties. It is time to put this behind us. As part of our penalty, I will begin my two-game suspension tomorrow against Nebraska.”

Auburn University statement: “We are pleased that a conclusion has been reached in this case.  For the last four years, Auburn has been proactive and cooperative with the NCAA enforcement staff and Committee on Infractions. We have been and will continue to be committed to NCAA rules compliance. As such, we accept all penalties and are ready to move forward.”

This is Auburn’s sixth major NCAA infraction since 1979, but first since 2004. That year, it was also basketball that was hit with a scholarship reductions and probation.

It’s beyond absurd that it took the NCAA four-plus years to make a decision from start to finish. It’s been 1,536 days since Person was arrested. Jabari Smith was 14-years-old and Zep Jasper was the only current player enrolled in college when this happened. While the national talking heads are talking about Pearl and Auburn, maybe some criticism of the almighty NCAA is warranted, but I digress.

Recapping the Auburn basketball case

After being arrested and suspended in September of 2017, Person was fired on November 7 after being indicted by a federal grand jury.

Five days before that happened, on November 2, Auburn announced that Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy would sit out indefinitely. They both ended up missing the entire 2017-18 season after the NCAA ruled them ineligible for the remainder of that season. Wiley returned to start the 2018-19 season, but Purifoy continued to be sidelined by the NCAA. Purifoy didn’t return until December of 2018.

Person’s wrongdoing involved facilitating in the payment of Purifoy and Wiley. Prosecutors in the case said Person accepted $91,500 in bribes to steer top players to a government cooperator posing as a financial adviser. Person blamed financial troubles for his decision. The two players were already at Auburn. These were payments to steer them towards agents and financial advisors.

Amid the NCAA’s investigation, two additional Auburn staffers were dismissed. Frankie Sullivan and Jordan VerHulst were put on administrative leave in November of 2017 and did not return. Sullivan and VerHulst were involved in Person’s actions on the periphery. Sources with knowledge of the situation have indicated that the two were not fully aware of Person’s exact actions at the time, and certainly didn’t condone the actions. Person’s actions were his alone, as sources indicate Sullivan and VerHulst were more caught up in the situation than anything else.

Since the investigation began, Auburn compliance has worked tirelessly to defend the university, Pearl and their players. Auburn sat Wiley and Purifoy for incredible lengths of time. They immediately suspended and then fired Person. Auburn then self-imposed a recruiting ban that took the coaches off the recruiting trail for months. Then last year, Auburn self-imposed a postseason ban.

Not one player on Auburn’s current roster was remotely close to starting their college careers at the time. Most likely didn’t even have the attention of college recruiters yet.

NC State, LSU, Kansas, Louisville and Arizona were all programs caught up in the federal probe similar to Auburn.

Auburn Live will have more in this decision and its impact.