Retreating from a possible yearlong television ban, the NCAA infractions committee imposed additional penalties on the UW football program July 12, including limiting TV appearances to four games during the 1995 season.
“Four is a lot more than zero,” said President William P. Gerberding at a press conference held after the NCAA announcement. The NCAA had considered a total television ban during the 1994 season, which the UW appealed at a June 5 hearing.
The NCAA TV restrictions come on top of Pac-10 penalties already imposed on the UW football program for recruiting violations and a lack of institutional control over a summer jobs program in Los Angeles. The Pac-10 penalties included a bowl ban for the 1993 and 1994 seasons and a loss of TV revenue for 1993. The NCAA committee could not lessen these Pac-10 penalties. It could only approve them as is, or apply additional sanctions. In its decision the NCAA also extended the UW’s probationary period an extra year through June 1996.
President Gerberding said the proposed yearlong TV ban was the major issue before the NCAA committee. “We are gratified that our appeal was at least partially successful,” he said.
The TV ban prohibits both live and tape-delayed broadcasts. According to David Swank, chair of the NCAA infractions committee, the group imposed extra penalties on the UW to establish “consistency on a nationwide basis.” He said there were no additional violations that the NCAA discovered following the Pac-10 investigation.
Asked why the NCAA retreated from a season-long ban, Swank said, “The University presented a good case. … The committee decided that to impose a full year of a television ban was too severe a penalty.”