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NCAA places Miles College on probation for major infractions
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Athletes competing under assumed names, others receiving athletic scholarships despite being ineligible and school officials conspiring to fake track results are just some of the major infractions that led the NCAA to place Miles College on four years' probation.
The NCAA Division II Committee on Infractions found violations involving 124 student-athletes in all 10 sports that the school offered.
The NCAA imposed a one-year ban on all postseason activities on the school on all sports, in addition to the probation. The four-year ban was self-imposed.
Some of the worst violations involved former athletic director Augustus James, according to Mike Perrin of The Birmingham News. James reportedly worked with an unnamed administrator at another member institution to fabricate the results of two women's outdoor track meets to make it appear that Miles College had enough participants to meet NCAA requirements. The infractions committee also said that James lied to them about the investigation.
James retired June 30 and stopped corresponding with the investigation.
The NCAA also reported that a former head track coach, who was not named in the report, allowed six student-athletes to participate under assumed names.
Miles College allowed 124 student-athletes to receive travel expenses and athletically-directed financial aid such as scholarships while ineligible for such transgressions as academic failure, failure to progress toward degrees and not meeting transfer requirements.
The school failed to maintain a viable compliance system composed of trained and competent personnel, a system that is required of all NCAA Division II schools.
Other penalties, some of which were self-imposed, included:
-- reduction in athletic scholarships
-- vacation of records in several sports from 2004-05 through 2008-09
-- four-year show cause letter for James
-- three-year show cause letter for the former track coach
The sports affected by the probation and ban are football, men's and women's track, softball, men's and women's cross country, baseball, men's and women's basketball and volleyball.
Miles College, located in Fairfield, Alabama, is a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
