Probation status puts tight limits on UO's recruiters.

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

Oregon is on probation, but what does that really mean?

The Ducks are still eligible for bowl games. They won't lose any television appearances. They weren't penalized any scholarships, nor do they have any future limits on recruiting beyond those of any other school that hasn't been found in violation of NCAA rules.

`What probation generally means is if you make another mistake while you're on probation, the penalty for the ensuing violation will be a bit more severe than it would be otherwise,' said Mike Matthews, the Pac-10 assistant commissioner in charge of the league's compliance office. `A school on probation is supposed to have a heightened awareness' of possible violations.

So what's probation really amount to, in the world of college athletics?

Probation is all but automatic when a school is found to have committed a `major' infraction of NCAA rules, Matthews said, adding that `I'd be surprised' if there had ever been an instance of a school being found to have committed a major infraction, and probation not resulting as a portion of the NCAA sanctions.

Beyond the two years of probation, Oregon also faces increased penalties if there is a second major violation within five years under the NCAA guidelines for `repeat violators.' Matthews acknowledged that a second major infraction likely would be considered as serious whether it fell within the two years of probation or the five-year period.

The concern during the period of probation, Matthews said, is that what ordinarily might be a secondary violation, with less serious penalties, could be elevated to the level of a major if a pattern is shown.

It also is considered more serious if the second violation is in the same sport, but even a penalty in another sport could result in more severe sanctions for the university.

In NCAA Division I, there are 36 schools listed as being on probation, with the addition of the Ducks, and the length of the probation ranges from one to five years. There are some of the most prestigious universities in the country - Michigan for men's basketball and Texas for baseball - to schools that literally aren't in the same league - Gardner-Webb and Oklahoma Panhandle State, both penalized for violations in multiple sports.

Of those three dozen schools on probation, 14 are there for violations in football, including fellow Pac-10 member California. Washington is likely to be added later this summer, when the NCAA rules on violations it has been considering for the past year. USC completed a two-year probation last August.

California's probation extends to March 7, 2006, a five-year span that came with penalties that included a one-year bowl ban, now concluded. The more serious punishment for the Bears stemmed from a professor at the Berkeley campus being involved in academic fraud on behalf of two players.

The NCAA probe of Oregon was limited to the actions of assistant coach Gary Campbell, who was found to have engaged in unethical conduct for aiding a recruit in falsifying information on a letter of intent.

Probably the closest recent case to Oregon's in terms of infractions and penalties was a 2003 case involving the University of Maryland, with the Terrapins handed probation for one year and the rest of the penalties falling on the assistant football coach found to have committed the `major' infraction while recruiting.

In that instance, the assistant coach at Maryland, who later resigned over the matter, provided extra benefits to a recruit, including $200 in cash on the prospect's official visit to campus after earlier placing $100 in the prospect's shoe during a meeting in the training room at the recruit's high school. The assistant coach later told the head coach at Maryland he committed the violations because `I just couldn't fail. I just had to get him.'

In the Maryland case, the recruit involved was considered one of the best players at his position in that recruiting class. Campbell's violations, if not involving providing any extra benefits such as cash or gifts, also seemed related to the pressure involved with recruiting a highly sought player. The recruit being pursued by Campbell was a junior college running back, J.J. Arrington, who was seen as a potential replacement for Onterrio Smith, who had left for the NFL.

`This was an example of what we feel is bad judgment in the 11th hour of crunch time,' UO director of athletics Bill Moos said in discussing the violation. `That's no excuse, but I do feel that the NCAA looked at this in that manner.'

In the Maryland case, the NCAA accepted the proposed self-imposed penalties of the school except for ruling the violations were major instead of secondary, as the Atlantic Coast Conference school maintained. A secondary violation, as defined in NCAA by-laws `is a violation that is isolated or inadvertent in nature, provides or is intended to provide only a minimal recruiting, competitive or other advantage and does not include any significant recruiting inducement or benefit.'

The NCAA committee found instead that the actions of the assistant coach at Maryland `formed a pattern of deliberate violations,' and the money involved was significant and obviously used as an extra inducement for him to sign a letter of intent with the Terps.

While apparently isolated, Oregon's violation was raised to `major' because of Campbell's unethical conduct, in both condoning and assisting the recruit in falsifying his letter.

Beyond the one-year probation for Maryland, the penalties there included ending their recruitment of any players involved in the violations, the assistant coach being relieved of his recruiting duties and another assistant coach who was involved in a secondary violation having his salary frozen.

For Campbell, his salary was already frozen under a statewide policy and he served a one-week unpaid suspension last summer. He, and the UO staff, also had some extra limits placed on them in last year's recruiting.

The Ducks are required to make some additional reports to show an increased effort in educating staff and monitoring, but beyond that, it's probation for the Ducks until May 4, 2006.