Pepperdine announced today that it will not be allowing certain athletic teams to compete in post-season play.
The announcement came on the heels of a discovery that the University “had failed to properly administer financial aid awards to a number of student-athletes according to a university press release.
As a result of the error, the men’s tennis, volleyball and baseball teams will not be allowed to compete after the end of the regular season. Pepperdine Athletics voluntarily elected” to remove the teams from “post-season competition this academic year according to the press release.
Jerry Derloshon, executive director of Public Relations and News, said a Pepperdine staff member discovered the error and reported it the to administration, who then reported it to the NCAA. While the decision was difficult, another member of the athletics staff who spoke on the condition of anonymity explained, Ethically it’s the right thing to do. It should show everyone that we’re trying to live in the light.”
While the details of the error are still somewhat unclear the staff member described that the error involved the misreporting of student athletes’ financial aid to the NCAA.
According to the source the investigation could affect some teams more than others depending on the nature of the violation. “It sucks. There’s just no good answers because no one intentionally did anything wrong.”
When asked to respond to the situation Kat Krtnick the NCAA assistant director of communications replied in an e-mail “It is NCAA policy to not comment on current pending or potential investigations.”
Gualberto Escudero dean of all Pepperdine coaches and the head coach for the women’s tennis team said the effect was overwhelming for the Pepperdine coaches when they gathered to hear the news.
In his 34 years as a Pepperdine coach he said he’d never encountered a mood among the coaches so sad quiet and overwhelmed.
Though each team will be affected by the situation differently — and some coming out completely unaffected — three teams in particular bear the burden the most: No. 7-ranked men’s tennis (14-4) No. 13-ranked men’s volleyball (8-12) and baseball (13-11).
“It’s affected us tremendously one athlete wrote in an e-mail. We were excited about our post-season chances but unfortunately we won’t be able to play. We put so much work into this season and now we feel that it was [all] for nothing.”
Citing privacy concerns Derloshon wouldn’t say how student scholarship amounts would be affected but referred back to the press release saying “Pepperdine will work closely with the affected student athletes to determine the best courses of action going forward.”
One athlete with scholarships in question with a heavy voice and saddened expression said his entire team “is really discouraged. It’s unfortunate that the mistakes [of others] fall on the athletes and we are the ones that are affected … nobody was aware that they were doing anything wrong.”
As of yet players and coaches are not sure how they are going to respond to the potential added pressure of tuition responsibilities but the affected athlete continued to say that the team “has to work it out in order to keep everyone on the team.”
“We’re going to be discussing everything in the next couple of days to see what each person will have to do.”
According to Derloshon all fall-competing teams are “prepared to field players.”
And Escudero said the incident should leave Pepperdine recruiting efforts unaffected.
“Most of the recruits are choosing Pepperdine because of its uniqueness and that’s not going to change. Not many [recruits] will be lost he said.
In regard to the future of those programs, Derloshon said Pepperdine will have to wait for the NCAA to respond, which could perhaps take a few weeks or even a couple months.
Though anxious to see how events will unfold in the days to come, Escudero said he’s always found the NCAA to be very even handed.
I think they’re very fair — in my experience almost every time he said. I seldom feel angry at them.”
“The rules are there for a reason Escudero continued. They’re there to protect the student athletes.”
The NCAA has recently responded to other universities in a variety of different ways.
One example Pepperdine is hoping to emulate in this unfortunate situation is of a small state school in southern Florida. Upon recognizing their financial aid errors the university cancelled their post-season competition and the NCAA decided not pursue further discipline in October 2010.
A northeast football powerhouse similarly recognized and attempted to make amends with financial-aid-compliance violations in February 2010 however the NCAA did not feel they made appropriate corrections for their violation and reprimanded them further.
Though not analogous to Pepperdine’s current situation the NCAA showed how hard it can come down on violating teams recently barring USC from playing in any bowl game for three years causing the program to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in endorsements recruitment and playing recognition.
The issue of NCAA compliance falls heavy on Pepperdine’s Christian mission financial mind and student body.
As more updates become available they will be posted on pepperdine-graphic.com/sports.
To see a copy of the press release click here
Zach Alfred Chris Bishop and Stan Parker contributed to the reporting and writing of this story.
UPDATE: This article has been updated to clarify that not all Pepperdine teams will be affected by scholarship issues and that USC’s NCAA violations were not analogous to Pepperdine’s situation.