UI hit with another two-year probation by NCAA

Jun. 23—The University of Idaho was hit with NCAA sanctions late last week for the second time in almost one year, as the school was found to have committed Level II violations because it improperly reduced student-athlete scholarships and incorrectly calculated scholarship equivalences.

The national organization and the school negotiated a settlement, which came out Friday, in which the school will serve two years of probation, pay a $5,000 fine and the financial aid liaison must participate in an NCAA regional rules seminar.

The school was hit with a two-year probation on June 18, 2020, for violations that took place under the regime of former men's basketball coach Don Verlin. Verlin also was hit at that time with a one-year show cause order.

Adding this new penalty onto the penalty that was resolved in 2020, the UI athletic department now will be under probation until June 17, 2024.

An athletics spokesman said the school would have no comment on this current case, in which the Division I Committee on Infractions said the school failed to monitor its financial aid processes and failed to educated its staff members responsible for administering that aid.

In this case, student-athletes from fall 2016 to fall 2019 were charged for fees that were covered after dropping courses past the deadline. Because the fees reduced the value of the scholarships, the charges were not allowed because the school didn't give the student-athletes notice in writing about the reductions in their scholarship or an opportunity to have a hearing.

Also, UI awarded scholarships before the financial aid was vetted between the 2016-17 and 2020-21 school years. There were 39 cases where the school reduced scholarships to removed athletics-based aid equal to the amount of nonathletics aid the individuals received. UI didn't notify those athletes about the reductions.

The school incorrectly calculated scholarship equivalences for those whose scholarships including housing and a meal plan. The school used the cost of a meal plan $720 less than the cost of the maximum plan available to all students. It also incorrectly used a wrong average cost of two on-campus dorms at double the room rate instead of a weighted average of the rooms or the actual cost.

It also found a football player received an off-campus housing and meal stipend after graduating after the 2020 fall semester and before he enrolled in classes this past spring. In this case, UI spotted the violation and self-reported, going through the reinstatement process before the athlete competed. None of the violations resulted in anyone competing while ineligible or caused ineligibility.

Idaho currently is looking to fill a new financial aid liaison spot to focus more on athletics. Also, as of July 1, 2020, the compliance department, led by associate athletic director Heath Senour, has taken the oversight lead for all financial aid issues. Originally, oversight came from the athletic department's business office.