A week after Pepperdine’s announcement that the Athletic Department was voluntarily forgoing post-season play in men’s tennis men’s volleyball and baseball players and staff are still dealing with the news.
In an interview last Thursday Athletic Director Dr. Steve Potts clarified that Pepperdine was over-awarding financial aid.
Potts said Pepperdine’s job “is to stay within the limits of ‘countable aid'” the NCAA term for financial aid reported to the NCAA Clearinghouse for student-athletes. As he explained in an interview with the Malibu Times the NCAA allows 4.5 scholarships for men’s tennis and volleyball and 11.7 scholarships for baseball.
“We made some mistakes in not counting all aid that should have been counted.”
The NCAA is currently conducting an investigation to determine whether harsher penalties should be imposed despite Pepperdine’s decision to defer post-season opportunities. According to the LA Times Pepperdine has not had any major infractions against the NCAA rules and regulations in past years.
Although he was reluctant to specifically admit that some student-athletes were going to lose scholarships and/or financial aid athletes from various teams are now expressing concerns about their athletic future.
Redshirt freshman Joel Lopata of the men’s volleyball team explained thatthis is a product of previous administration. This is Potts’ first year.
Potts stated that after reviewing the past year’s records and reporting the disparity to the NCAA Pepperdine staff began reviewing the past three years’ records.
“Indications are that we’ve over-awarded aid in past years as well he said. There was no indication that anyone in the department was knowingly over-awarding aid. Should they have been aware?” he questioned to himself. “Yes.”
Potts also made it aware that men’s water polo and women’s soccer have also unknowingly been over awarding financial aid.
Lopata explained that many athletes are faced with the decision to transfer quit or pay out of pocket to cover financial aid they must forfeit. If the affected athletes choose to compete they forfeit the financial aid they were awarded. If they choose to quit competing they may maintain their financial aid awards. Or athletes may transfer to other schools to compete with financial aid he explained.
Although five teams are affected Lopata said that men’s volleyball and men’s water polo were affected the most.
“There are 4.5 scholarships for the team and 20 to 25 guys on each. There aren’t many options. … The ideal model of dealing with this is men’s tennis he continued. All of their players are staying because they don’t have a lot of guys and are redistributing the scholarships. They don’t have a lot of new guys.”
Soccer Coach Tim Ward commented that none of his players were losing scholarship. Since women’s soccer and men’s water polo compete in fall they will be affected differently in terms of competition.
“We have the flexibility in time to rework scholarships to get the athletes the scholarships they were promised.”
He continued to explain that depending on the extent of the violations “it will affect some teams longer than others.”
Despite being sensitive regarding the nature of the subject considering the fact that student-athletes’ professional and educational futures are on the line Potts said he was “positive about our future moving forward because these are problems that we have to fix. I know what we need to do he said, and we will do it.”
Knowing how hard the athletes have worked this season Potts said he was inspired by their effort and saddened that the athletes must “suffer because of [others’] mistakes.
“I can’t emphasize enough he continued, enough as this hurts me my pain pales in comparison to what those young men are feeling. Anyone that watches our teams compete can see the tremendous effort they give and it hurts me deeply.”
Shortly after finding out about the post-season suspension senior Alejandro Moreno preparing for a professional tennis career said the situation was “really disappointing … what more is there to say?”
“Potts is doing the right thing Ward said, even as hard as it is.”
Although the immediate effects fall on the athletes and coaches Pepperdine has opted for the short-term loss instead of long-term punishment from the NCAA.
The NCAA will publicly publish the results of the investigation when it concludes in a few weeks or during the summer. When that happens Pepperdine will find out if there will be any further sanctions or if they may continue normal competition in following seasons. Until that happens the Athletic Department cannot comment on any information relating to the investigation as part of the NCAA investigation’s privacy clause.
For more on the story as it develops in the next few weeks and months check pepperdine-graphic.com/sports.