Football: Hudspeth reacts to UL vacating 22 NCAA football wins

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, March 5, 2016

 

News Thursday that UL was forfeiting 22 wins from 2011-2014 as the result of an NCAA investigation into its football program was akin to picking at an old wound for Ragin’ Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth.

He knew what was coming, and it still hurt.

“It just seems like they just keep peeling the scab back,” Hudspeth said in his first public comments on the full extent of what the Cajuns had to vacate.

“I would have preferred for them to just come out (with) one announcement, get it all over with. Instead it seems like every four months they just let a little more out, a little more out, and it just keeps pulling the scab back.”

The Cajuns originally self-vacated their entire 9-4 season from 2011, including a New Orleans Bowl win over San Diego State.

On Thursday — as ordered by the NCAA, and after taking their allotted time to determine in which games five ineligible players took part — they said they have vacated eight of their nine victories from 2011, four from 2012, eight from 2013 and two from 2014, including their 2011 New Orleans Bowl win over San Diego State and their 2013 New Orleans Bowl win over Tulane.

UL went 9-4 in all four of those seasons.

The Cajuns also forfeited their 2013 Sun Belt Conference co-championship, which they shared with Arkansas State.

“Luckily now it’s all over,” Hudspeth said.

The NCAA did not find Hudspeth to be at fault, but the victories will be deleted from his record anyway.

“We’ve already moved forward, so that’s not an issue. And this was nothing unexpected,” Hudspeth said. “This was all expected, so it’s nothing that caught us off-guard.”

The Cajuns knew they’d have to vacate more games after the NCAA made its ruling in January.

UL was saddled with added sanctions when the NCAA issued a final decision on its lengthy investigation into alleged recruiting violations and payment to a player by former assistant coach David Saunders.

Officials from UL appeared before an NCAA Committee on Infractions last November at Indianapolis after the NCAA had issued a four-count Notice of Allegations earlier in 2015.

The committee ruled that Saunders, who was fired by UL and now the is head coach at Pearl River Community College in Mississippi, “violated NCAA rules by arranging fraudulent college entrance exam scores for five prospects,” and that he also denied his involvement and failed to cooperate in the investigation.

The university agreed with the findings that resulted in invalid ACT scores but chose not to appeal the ruling.

The NCAA also found after a year-and-a-half-long probe that Saunders paid one unidentified student-athlete “$6,500 over two semesters,” something UL has denied but also did not appeal.

Beyond accepting the penalties initially self-imposed by the Cajuns, which also included recruiting restrictions and a reduction in football scholarships by 11 over a three-year period, the NCAA in January levied additional sanctions including “two years of probation, a $5,000 fine, additional recruiting restrictions and an eight-year show-cause order” for Saunders.

It did not take away any added football scholarships, however, and it did not impose a postseason bowl ban.

“Obviously, it doesn’t affect our team moving forward. And that’s a big plus,” Hudspeth, who did not initially comment Thursday, said one day after the 22 forfeited games were announced.

“When they don’t hit you with a postseason ban,” Hudspeth added, “then you know it wasn’t as bad as some other programs have done.”