By Marissa Scott
The NCAA announced early Thursday that it will place San Jose State’s baseball team on two years of probation and subject the team to fines and sanctions.
The announcement came after the former head coach Jason Hawkins exceeded NCAA’s countable activity rules in 2017.
“We are committed to adhering to NCAA and conference rules and self-reporting when we learn of violations,” said SJSU Athletic Director Marie Tuite. “We have a comprehensive rules education program, and we emphasize the importance of having a culture of compliance in our program at all times.”
The association reported that Hawkins asked the student athletes if they would attend voluntary activities before and after mandatory practices and later started to list those activities on the practice schedule.
“The student-athletes believed their presence at the activities was mandatory and, at times, members of the coaching staff were present and observed the activities,” the NCAA wrote in the public reprimand. “Additionally, sometimes the coach allowed the required practice and skill activities to run longer than their scheduled times.”
Because of the violations, the baseball team will only be able to practice six hours with one hour of skill instruction per week as opposed to eight hours with two hours of skill. During the season, they are only allowed 17 hours per week as opposed to the 20 hours all other teams are allowed.
Along with the probation, SJSU and the NCAA agreed to a $5,000 fine.
The NCAA placed a one-year show-cause order on Hawkins.
“We will continue to emphasize rules education, compliance and self-reporting of violations in our program. Compliance will always be at the core and a guiding principle of everything we do in our athletics program,” Tuite said.
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Link to the NCAA’s statement:
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/former-san-jose-state-baseball-coach-failed-promote-atmosphere-compliance
Link to SJSU’s response:
http://www.sjsuspartans.com/genrel/090618aaa.html