From: reiher@pram.cs.ucla.edu (Peter Reiher)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college
Subject: Notre Dame Under Investigation From the NCAA
Date: 21 Aug 92 15:09:40 GMT
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department

Since no one has yet posted what details are available, here are
a few.  Except for one announcement from Notre Dame, almost everything 
else I've heard has been attributed to unnamed sources, and we
all know how reliable those are, but, for what it's worth, here's
what the unknown sources have been saying.

The investigation, so far, apparently relates to one player, Demetrius
DuBose.  The allegations are that he has been illegally (according to
NCAA rules, of course, not federal, state, or local law) receiving
gifts from a married couple who are both Notre Dame alumni.  This
couple lives in the Seattle area, where DuBose comes from.  The claim
is that they have made him a variety of small gifts, plus one loan of
some size.  (I've heard $4000 and $5000 from "unnamed sources", and
$600 from Notre Dame itself.  At any rate, not money to do his laundry
with, or to pay for a quick trip to the Golden Arches.)  The loan,
supposedly, was in the form of a handwritten promissary note to be
repaid when DuBose signs an NFL contract.  At least one unnamed source
claims to have seen the note.  No one seems to be denying that the loan
was made.  It's been long established that the NCAA considers all alumni 
of a university to be representatives of that university, for these purposes.

This sort of gift from a university representative is illegal, according
to NCAA regulations.  There is a loophole.  If the gifts are not related
to the player's recruitment, and if the giftgivers and the player had
a pre-existing relationship before recruitment started that was not 
related to the recruitment, certain forms of gifts/favors/etc. are 
acceptable.  There is a claim floating around, mostly from other
unnamed sources, that this couple was involved with DuBose during his
high school days, before Notre Dame expressed any interest in him.
DuBose's high school coach backs up the claim, to some extent, and
says that such relationships are common for the less affluent students
at the private school DuBose attended.  This principle of the NCAA's
rules has been tested before, and, in at least one case, has permitted
a college coach to do things for one of his players that would otherwise
have been illegal.  (At the extreme, this rule makes a lot of sense.
Otherwise, parents and other close relatives of athletes who are alumni 
of the university their child attends couldn't give them Christmas gifts, 
let them stay at home, send them spending money, etc.)

Notre Dame has announced that DuBose was declared ineligible by
Notre Dame some weeks ago (mighty quietly, but that would make sense),
pending the ruling of the NCAA's committee.  Unless the NCAA committee
restores his eligibility, DuBose will not play this year.  There is
an appeals process if the committee rules against DuBose, which presumably
Notre Dame would use.  Also, the committee can level sanctions of various
sorts against Notre Dame, in addition to declaring the athlete ineligible.

The investigation seems to have been started by the NCAA on a tip from
somebody, rather than having come up through media sources.  (Remember
a few months back when people on this newsgroup were claiming that the
NCAA would never investigate Notre Dame, regardless of possible guilt,
because of ND's economic importance to college football?  As they wrote
those words, the NCAA was probably snooping around about this charge,
and without even a hint of a leak to the press to force them to act.)  
Don James, the coach of Washington, has denied that anyone on his staff 
tipped off the NCAA.  (DuBose was apparently originally considered very 
likely to attend Washington.)

So far, there is no hint of the investigation spreading to other players.
There is also no evidence or speculation that the university or its
coaches were in any way involved with the couple who gave the gifts.
(Other, of course, than issuing them degrees years ago.)  As far as the
NCAA is concerned, whether the university was involved doesn't matter at
all, as far as DuBose's eligibility was concerned, and very little, as
far as sanctions on the university are concerned.  If the NCAA decides
the actions were improper, they will almost certainly level some kind of
penalty on Notre Dame.  If this is the only case, and Notre Dame didn't
have any knowledge of it, I would expect the penalty to be light.

--
		Peter Reiher
		reiher@wells.cs.ucla.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college