In a year where the SMU Mustangs had a chance to take the college basketball world by storm, their dream came crashing down on them this morning.

The NCAA released a statement today in which showed that SMU’s men’s basketball and men’s golf programs “committed multiple violations, including academic fraud, unethical conduct and head coach control in the men’s basketball program and recruiting and unethical conduct in the men’s golf program, according to a decision issued by a Division I Committee on Infractions panel.

Larry Brown, the head coach of the men’s basketball team at SMU, reportedly failed to report a case of academic fraud where a student athlete on the team enrolled for an course and then gave his account details to a former basketball administrative assistant, who completed the course for him, as stated in the report. Brown did not have an immediate tie-in with the case of the academic fraud, but he did fail to report the incident to the proper staff for more than a month after learning what happened, as also stated in the report.

The NCAA went on further to say, “[Brown] failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within his program. He failed to report the violations when the former administrative assistant committed academic fraud on behalf of the student-athlete and he initially lied to enforcement staff about his knowledge of the potential violations”.

As for penalties, the NCAA is issuing a three-year probation period, a 2015-2016 postseason ban for the men’s basketball program, a suspension for Larry Brown for 30 percent of games in the 2015-2016 season (nine games), a scholarship reduction over the course of the next three years, along with other smaller corrective measures. SMU is expected to appeal the ruling.

As for the Mustangs’ 2015-2016 season, well it might be over before it even started. Going into this season, SMU is ranked 21st in a preseason Top-25 poll on ESPN and many were predicting a huge year from the Mustangs that could have resulted in a deep run. Now, the Mustangs won’t be eligible for March Madness play, or even conference tournament play, given a ruling from the American Athletic Conference on the situation.

SMU’s roster for this year included stars returning from last year’s strong season, such as Nic Moore, Markus Kennedy, and Keith Frazier. Now, in what will be the last year for Moore and Kennedy, the Mustangs will only be playing for their own pride. Nothing more. Nothing less.

This is not the first time that Larry Brown has had sanctions placed on him for misconduct at the NCAA level. While coaching at the University of Kansas towards the end of his tenure, Brown and the Jayhawks committed recruiting violations and were banned from postseason play in 1989, after Brown had left Kansas to coach in the NBA.

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About the author
Maxwell Rizer
My name is Maxwell Rizer. I am 17, a senior in high school, currently residing in Pennsylvania. I like to watch sports, along with analyzing the statistics, and write about what I see.