From page four to page 29 of the NCAA’s public infractions decision — which totals 94 pages in all — Syracuse’s violations concerning academics, its own drug policy and impermissible benefits, among other things, are clearly laid out.

And because the NCAA’s findings are both dense and at times long-winded, we’ve pulled out some of the striking results of the investigation, which resulted in a five-year probationary period, the loss of 12 scholarships in a four-year stretch and a nine-game suspension for Jim Boeheim at the start of the 2015-16 conference schedule, among other punishments.

It’s worth noting that these are not the only important facets of the “Findings of Fact” section of the report, but ones that stood out. The full report can be accessed here, and the referenced pages are sprinkled in with summaries of the report.

The details of “student-athlete 7” — whose career path seems to follow that of former Syracuse center Fab Melo’s — are delved into here.

Incentives for ‘the representative’ (page 6)

The report identifies “the representative” — as a “representative of the institution’s athletic interests.” The representative remains unnamed like the rest of the actors in the report, but has been identified by The Post-Standard as Jeff Cornish. The report cites him for providing impermissible benefits to athletics staff members and student-athletes, most notably in the form of payments out of an account named “AAU-DCCT,” which would connect to the men’s basketball program.

The report continues to detail the representative’s involvement in various NCAA violations but doesn’t spend many words on incentives provided by the athletic program. The report spends a small section explaining how the representative was, on multiple occasions, provided with complimentary tickets from the basketball program.

The representative was described in the report as “an individual responsible for teaching or directing an activity in which a prospect is involved.” As a result, he was limited to receiving just two complimentary tickets. However, according to the report, the men’s basketball staff “misunderstood or was confused about” NCAA legislation regarding limits to complimentary tickets.

The report also states that SU head basketball coach Jim Boeheim admitted that he knew complimentary tickets were being issued to the representative under the head coach’s name.

Here is that section of the report:

“The institution submitted a post-hearing response identifying a number of instances where individuals with the representative’s last name received complimentary admissions. Based on the parties’ submissions, including the institution’s self-report, it is clear that the representative received more than two complimentary admissions on a number of occasions. In his interviews, the head basketball coach claimed he never personally gave the representative complimentary admissions but stated that he did review the complimentary admission request list prior to events. The head basketball coach was therefore on notice of complimentary tickets going out under his name.”

Syracuse NCAA Violations: Page 6

The representative’s bank account (pages 10–11)

The report also refers to a checking account, named “AAU-DCCT,” opened by the representative and used partly to provide benefits to student-athletes and athletics staff. The account served as a source of payments to student-athletes, men’s basketball staff members and payments for local youth to attend coaching staff members’ basketball camps.

Specifically from May 2004 through July 2005, the representative used the account to write checks to student-athletes, compensate athletics staff and supplement one men’s basketball staff member’s income by paying his rent for a month. However, other transactions were unpredictable at times and didn’t pertain to any particular AAU, YMCA or sporting event, according to the report. In that timeframe, the representative deposited more than $300,000 into the account.

The representative identified “a variety of sources” for the $300,000 in the account, which included loans from his mother, his long-time friend and former assistant athletic trainer and the bank. He added that camp registration fees collected from area campers were deposited into the account. He claimed later that the fees were used to register campers for Boeheim’s “Big Orange Camp,” and a former assistant men’s basketball coach’s “Elite Camp.”

While the NCAA investigation was ultimately unable to determine the exact source of the account’s funds or exact extent of the funds use, no one disputes it was used to make payments to student-athletes, according to the report.

Syracuse NCAA Violations: Pages 10-11

Internship program (pages 13–16)

The “part-time tutor” frequently referenced in the “Findings of Facts” section — identified by The Post-Standard as Hank Leo — agreed to facilitate internships for student-athletes that were required to receive academic credit for a course in the child and family studies major.

The part-time tutor did so through the Oneida YMCA, an establishment that frequently turns up in the report. The report says that he identified himself as the “point of contact for the YMCA” regarding the student-athletes’ internships. The report also says that “Additional paperwork related to the internship identified the part-time tutor as the ‘administrator’ of the internship.” The NCAA details how the course professor worked closely with the part-time tutor regarding the student-athletes’ internships, and the professor was reportedly under the impression that the part-time tutor would act as a supervisor for the internships.

The part-time tutor reported that the representative was the internship supervisor for student-athletes 2 and 3 — as they are referred to in the report — in 2005-06. The professor notified the part-time tutor that the students hadn’t completed the internship and they, according to the NCAA report, agreed that the internships could continue into the 2006 spring semester.

At that time, the YMCA no longer employed the representative and the report says: “The part-time tutor became ‘very nervous’ and he admitted that he ‘did not want to hurt the student-athletes’ chances of receiving credit for the course.’”

The report continues, in the same section on page 14: “The professor relied on the part-time tutor’s certification in assigning the student-athletes passing grades in the course. During interviews, the student-athletes’ recollection of their internship experience did not match the part-time tutor’s representation.”

Examples of how the recollections of the part-time tutor and student-athletes didn’t match up can be found on pages 14 and 15 below.

Syracuse NCAA Violations: Pages 13-16

Pushing the problem (pages 17–18)

Under the subhead “The Director of Basketball Operations’ Involvement,” there is a case in which the director of basketball operations — who, according to the report, was hired by Boeheim after the 2004-05 academic year to monitor and improve the academic standing of basketball student-athletes — and student-athlete support services directly participated in academic fraudulence.

The report says that the director of basketball operations and student-athlete support staff “developed student-athletes’ academic plans, tracked course responsibilities and scheduling as well as incoming communications from professors regarding course work and class status,” going as far as directly corresponding with professors through student-athletes’ email accounts.

Later in that section of the report, the NCAA says that in the spring of 2011, the director of student-athlete support services discovered emails between basketball student-athletes and a student-athlete support service mentor. The student-athlete support service mentor emailed colleagues of suspicions, saying “it looks as though work might have been done for these students,” according to the report.

But instead of reporting the findings, here is how that situation played out, from page 18 of the report:

“Although concerned, the director of student-athlete support services did not report his discoveries to the provost or compliance offices. Rather, he permitted the support services mentor and tutor to continue working with student-athletes and even assigned the support services mentor to a new student-athlete.”

It was far from the last time that work was done for student-athletes, as that would become a theme of the academic violations committed by Syracuse.

Syracuse NCAA Violations: Pages 17-18

Published on March 7, 2015 at 2:13 am

Contact Jesse: [email protected] | @dougherty_jesse