Nebraska Pays Fine, Placed Under 2-Year Probation For Textbook Violations

The NCAA has placed the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Athletic Department under two years’ probation and enforced a $38,000 fine, which has gone to local charities, after what the department committed what the NCAA called “major violations.”

The announcement came Wednesday afternoon. It marks the end of an investigation that began last summer after the department realized nearly 500 student athletes had, from 2007 to 2010, received recommended course books under scholarship. NCAA rules prohibit scholarships from paying for anything but required materials.

Last July, Athletic Director Tom Osborne announced the department would self-impose a two-year probation period, report its findings to the NCAA and pay $28,000, roughly matching the value of the recommended books student athletes got for free. The official sanction increased that amount and re-started the two-year probation clock to start Jan. 31.

“The violations, which included a failure to monitor, were narrow in scope and centered on student-athletes in all sports receiving impermissible benefits,” reads a statement on the NCAA website.

Student athletes who benefitted from the mistake have also paid the value of the problematic books to local charity. The average value per athlete: $60.

“It came out of our own pocket,” said Kaitlyn Burke, a senior guard on the women’s basketball team and president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. “People kind of understood and knew the severity of it.”

Gary Bargen, the athletic department’s associate director of compliance with NCAA rules, said the problem came to the department’s attention in November 2010 and stemmed from a misunderstanding with the University Bookstore.

“The NCAA rule says you are permitted to provide required textbooks … but not recommended,” Bargen said. “That rule has been in effect for a long time, and evidently the bookstore had a misunderstanding of that or weren’t aware.”

“They weren’t trying to break the rule,” Bargen added. “It’s not like somebody was trying to do something wrong.”

The University Bookstore suggested and paid the addition $10,000, according to the Associated Press.

A spokesman for the bookstore wasn’t available to comment by press time.

Since the discovery of the mistake, Bargen said, policies for educating bookstore employees and student athletes have been adjusted, including having separate lines for the student athletes with textbook scholarships to keep the rule’s boundaries clear.

The department-wide probation means that if the athletic department violates another rule, the penalty is made more severe. The department must also file annual reports on its solution to the problem, Bargen said.

The $38,000 fine, meanwhile, was distributed to several local charities by the Student Athlete Advisory Board, Burke said.

After several organizations applied, Burke said, funds were donated to the Autism Family Network, the Lincoln Food Bank, Tiny Hands International, a Christian organization that works against human trafficking and three others.

“For the most part, they were all split evenly” from the $38,000, Burke said.

The NCAA has imposed a probation on the university before. In February 2002, the athletic department was penalized with a two-year probation period after a swimming coach and wrestling coach provided money to several students for education or competition expenses.