LINCOLN — The NCAA spared the University of Nebraska anything stiffer than its self-imposed punishments when it ruled Wednesday on the impermissible benefits case first reported last July.
Nebraska was placed on two years' probation and fined $38,000 for the infractions involving textbooks and school supplies provided to student-athletes from 2007 through 2010.
Athletic Director Tom Osborne said in a statement to The World-Herald on Wednesday that NU was “pleased the NCAA chose to accept our self-imposed penalties without additional sanctions.”
“We are also pleased that the NCAA Committee on Infractions noted there was no intent to violate NCAA rules and no members of our coaching staffs were involved in the matter,” Osborne said.
“We regret that this violation occurred. We failed to properly communicate with the University Bookstore concerning the NCAA rule regarding the use of athletic department resources for the purchase of required and recommended textbooks. We have taken corrective measures to ensure a violation of this type does not happen again.”
Osborne last summer released details of wrongdoing involving Husker student-athletes who inadvertently used scholarship money to buy textbooks beyond those listed in class syllabi as required reading.
It was determined that nearly 500 total individuals in a number of sports were involved. The total value of non-required textbooks provided from the spring semester of 2007 to the fall of 2010 was $27,869.47, with the average amount less than $60 per individual.
In leveling the self-imposed two-year probation and a fine of $28,000 — that the school would pay to charity — Osborne at the time said: “Essentially what we're doing is pleading guilty to ‘failure to monitor.' ”
An NU spokesman confirmed Wednesday that the $38,000 figure was reached with the university bookstore adding $10,000 to the amount because it was the other entity involved.
Osborne said last summer that Nebraska traced its problems to losing an athletic department employee in 2005 who had previously kept the bookstore acquainted with regulations for what student-athletes could and could not buy with scholarship money. Somewhere thereafter, because of changes in personnel on both sides, student-athletes began to be told they could receive “recommended” materials.
Nebraska said in its report to the NCAA that there was no intentional wrongdoing, monetary reward or competitive advantage gained by the athletes involved.
The probation will run through Jan. 31, 2014.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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