Athletics: NCAA to meet on alleged UL violations Friday

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, Nov. 13, 2015

Even after he declined to cooperate with investigations by the NCAA, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of Mississippi into his alleged involvement in improper recruiting activity, and after months of questioning and queries into the matter, former Ragin’ Cajuns assistant football coach David Saunders received a rather kindly worded dismissal letter from UL.

Saunders, who denies all of the NCAA’s allegations directed at him, also felt “prevented from responding more fully” to the NCAA in part “because … he lacks the financial resources to do so,” according to a letter from his lawyer to the NCAA.

Those are just a couple documents, obtained by The Daily Advertiser, the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions will be considering Friday afternoon during a hearing on the matter at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis. Cajuns head coach Mark Hudspeth and athletic director Scott Farmer are among UL’s representatives scheduled to appear at the hearing.

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The NCAA alleges Saunders orchestrated an “elaborate” scheme to send six UL football recruits, including five who later played for the Cajuns, to the same rural Mississippi ACT testing center, where exam answers were altered and/or provided to help them meet academic eligibility requirements.

The NCAA also alleges Saunders paid one ex-Cajun approximately $6,500 with help from an unidentified booster, including $5,000 before he played at UL, which the Cajuns are expected to refute at the hearing.

UL has acknowledged and conceded the ACT-related allegations, and ones suggesting Saunders provided “false or misleading information” and later refused to furnish information to UL and NCAA enforcement staff.

The school takes issue, however, with the notion Saunders orchestrated the scheme.

The infractions committee is expected to take at least 60 days before ruling whether to impose any additional sanctions beyond those already self-imposed by UL, which includes reducing football scholarships by 11 over a three-year period, recruiting restrictions and vacating its 2011 season.

According to UL’s August response to the NCAA’s Notice of Allegations, Saunders’ termination letter — dated Oct. 30, 2014, and typed on Department of Athletics letterhead — read as follows:

“Your employment as Assistant Football Coach at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette will end effective Dec. 31, 2014. …

“The Athletic Department sincerely thanks you for your contribution to our football program, and we wish you success in your future endeavors.

“Sincerely,

Scott Farmer

Director of Athletics”

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About two weeks later, UL president Joseph Savoie put his stamp of approval on the letter, which does not mention any reason for termination.

Saunders was paid through the end of December 2014, which is the UL athletic department’s standard practice for non-contract employees.

The letter was delivered to the coach the NCAA later alleged was involved in Level 1 “severe breach of conduct” violations.

Both UL and Ole Miss have been under investigation by the NCAA because of Saunders’ alleged actions.

Saunders had three different employment stints at Ole Miss, most recently through 2010, before coming to UL in 2011 to coach cornerbacks and later outside linebackers and work as assistant recruiting coordinator.

It’s unknown if Ole Miss has received, or will receive, a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA.

But UL did, earlier this year, a fact it acknowledged only after a public records request by The Daily Advertiser.

Yet Saunders was thanked for his “contribution” to a Cajuns program that, because UL acknowledges rules violations occurred, has agreed to self-impose sanctions.

The Cajuns face potential further sanctions that could include additional vacating of victories post-2011, a postseason ban, additional recruiting restrictions and/or more scholarship reductions.

In an Aug. 3, 2015, letter from Saunders’ former attorney Richard T. Phillips of Batesville, Mississippi, to NCAA assistant director of enforcement Michael Sheridan, Phillips wrote that the NCAA was proceeding “to destroy the reputations and careers of Mr. Saunders and others with derogatory allegations.”

Retired school teacher Ginny Crager is a former ACT supervisor accused by the NCAA of altering the tests for UL’s six recruits at an exam center in Waynesboro, Mississippi, where for decades she taught gifted students at Wayne County High School.

Crager has denied, under oath, the NCAA’s allegations.

She’s no stranger to NCAA scrutiny, having previously tutored former Wayne County High, Ole Miss and NFL defensive lineman Jerrell Powe.

Written by Phillips on Saunders’ behalf in the same letter obtained by The Daily Advertiser is this passage: “The tactics employed by NCAA and its ‘investigators’ appear calculated to break the financial back of persons being accused by the organization and make it impossible to gather evidence to defend themselves.”

Phillips suggested actions by the governing body for college athletics do not appear “unique,” and wrote that “Such institutionalized tactics by the NCAA shock the reasonable conscience.”

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Saunders, nicknamed “Sarge,” received an annual salary of $93,500 in 2014.

Also among the documents obtained by The Daily Advertiser are ones showing that around the same time he was engaged in behavior the NCAA alleges was improper, Saunders was making queries within UL’s athletic department as to whether or not certain actions involving Cajun student-athletes would be an NCAA rules violations.

In a 2011 email, UL associate director of athletics for academics and compliance Jessica Leger answered an eligibility question from Saunders “concerning the SA (student-athlete) who attended a 2 yr. college in the fall and then a 4 yr. college in the spring.”

A 2012 email from UL compliance coordinator Tom Burke to the coach shows Saunders asked about an athlete engaging in voluntary summer workouts. His question, according to the email, was asked after a “rules education meeting.”