UW officials announced May 6 that they would challenge an NCAA proposal to impose extra penalties on the Husky football program, including banning a season of TV broadcasts.
In late April the NCAA Committee on Infractions, which reviewed an earlier investigation by the Pac-10 Conference, decided that the UW committed an additional violation: failure to “adequately monitor” the summer employment program for football players. In light of this violation, the panel recommended a complete TV ban for any 1994 Husky football game, including cable and rebroadcasts.
Because of contractual arrangements between the Pac-10 and ABC, the TV ban, if upheld, might be delayed until the 1995 season.
The NCAA penalties are in addition to Pac-10 penalties already imposed on the program, which included a bowl game ban for the 1993 and 1994 seasons and loss of 1993 TV revenue.
At the May 6 press conference, President William P. Gerberding said the NCAA penalties were “excessive and disproportionate” and that the UW will challenge them at an NCAA hearing held June 5 in Kansas City.
The President noted there was “a disconnect between the findings and the penalties,” pointing out that most of the summer jobs violations occurred before the NCAA or the Pac-10 adopted specific rules for monitoring such programs.
He said that an additional TV ban would penalize innocent players, coaches and athletics officials who were not at the UW when the violations occurred.
The penalties are excessive, he added, compared to universities “whose circumstances were graver than ours.” For example, Auburn, which had staff paying bonuses to players, received a two-year bowl ban and a one-year TV ban. In contrast, no UW coach or athletics official was charged with any NCAA violation. Yet the combination of Pac-10 and NCAA sanctions would mean a two-year bowl ban, a two-year loss of TV revenue and a one-year TV ban.