Pepperdine University’s athletics program has been hit with major self-imposed sanctions following a lengthy investigation by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
According to a press release issued Monday afternoon by the NCAA, the ruling organization found Pepperdine guilty of failing to monitor it’s athletics program from 2005 to 2011 in five sports: baseball, men’s volleyball, men’s water polo, men’s tennis and women’s soccer.
The NCAA investigation revealed the program incorrectly marked 22-transfer student athletes as eligible during the investigated time period due to an “inadequate compliance effort at the university”. In addition, Pepperdine illegally gave student athletes non-athletic scholarships without marking them towards team scholarship counts.
Most importantly, an independent audit of the university’s athletics program revealed the university did not have sufficient manpower to comply with NCAA regulations, and that those involved were not educated enough in applying such rules.
Sanctions for the Pepperdine program, as imposed by the university and approved by the NCAA include three years of probation through July 2015; the vacation of all wins and team accomplishments from 2007-08 through 2010-11 for the baseball, men’s tennis and men’s volleyball teams; a four-year 25 percent scholarship reduction for the baseball, men’s tennis, men’s volleyball and men’s water polo teams; and a .88 scholarship reduction per year punishment for the women’s soccer program through the 2014-15 academic year.
The entire NCAA report detailing it’s findings can be accessed online via PepperdineSports.com.