The NCAA cited Syracuse University for failing to follow its own drug policy. And while the NCAA doesn’t have its own policy and doesn’t force universities to have their own, it does require that they follow them if they have them.

SU did not, allowing players to practice and play after one or more failed drug tests, contrary to the school’s policy, according to the NCAA report. Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim was personally responsible for not calling parents after players failed drug tests, as SU’s policy stated he was supposed to, according to the NCAA report. On Thursday, Boeheim took responsibility for the violations but said he didn’t craft or administer the policy and that he didn’t know that not following the school’s own policy was equivalent to an NCAA violation.

“I had one part,” he said when asked how he differentiated between administering the policy and failing to call parents. “I didn’t administer who played or who couldn’t play or who practiced or who couldn’t practice. The drug policy, and I took responsibility for that and I do now, no one knew that if you have a policy and you don’t follow it exactly step by step, it’s the same as violating an NCAA rule. No coach in the country would have known that.”

Boeheim said not calling parents was a matter of trust. He said four players were one-time offenders that never tested positive again after he told them he would tell their parents the next time.

The head coach also said there were some instances where calling parents would not have been helpful.

SU’s drug policy was implemented in 2000 and remained largely unchanged until 2009, according to the NCAA report. That original policy stated that first offenders would be ineligible until Boeheim spoke with their parents, second offenders would be removed from the team until a counselor told the team doctor the player was no longer using the substance and third offenders would ineligible and have their financial aid withdrawn at the end of the semester, according to the NCAA report.

A 2004 amendment added a one-time grace period after the third offense and a 2008 change allowed Daryl Gross to intervene if he thought the grace period wasn’t long enough.

Gross knew Boeheim wasn’t calling parents, Boeheim said. The SU head coach also said the positive tests were only for one substance. He pointed out that in daily compliance meetings he was never told about the strictness of the NCAA rules on team’s following their own drug policies.

“To me the crucial part of the drug testing program is do you let someone practice or play when they shouldn’t have,” he said. “I never made that call. I was told what to do. If I’m told not to do something, that, a press conference, I don’t do it. Because I work for people.”

Published on March 19, 2015 at 2:22 pm

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