Football: No NCAA bowl ban boosts Cajun recruiting effort

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, January 16, 2016

 

When the NCAA made public last Tuesday its ruling on an investigation into ACT-related recruiting improprieties allegedly committed by former UL assistant coach David Saunders, the Ragin’ Cajuns escaped with no postseason ban.

With the NCAA’s Feb. 3 National Signing Day just a few weeks away, it was a major development with critical consequences – all of them seemingly positive – for Cajun football recruiting efforts in 2016 and beyond.

“Now, with no bowl ban, we’re really moving forward,” said UL head coach Mark Hudspeth, who went into a key recruiting period, and almost a dozen recruits visiting this weekend, with 16 known hard but non-binding verbal commitments and five more scholarships to offer. “We’re in great shape.”

The list of commits includes three Acadiana-area locals in Cecilia High running back Raymond Calais Jr., Breaux Bridge High linebacker Korey Louis and quarterback Jake Arceneaux of Ascension Episcopal in Youngsville.

UL did self-impose penalties including a reduction of 11 scholarships over a three-year period when it acknowledged that the answers on ACT tests for multiple Cajun recruits – the NCAA ruled it was five, including some who later played for the program – had been favorably and fraudulently altered.

Five scholarships already were reduced this past season, leaving UL three short for the coming 2016-17 school year (22 new grant-in-aids instead of the usual 25 awarded, and 82 total instead of 85) and three short for the 2017-18 school year (also 22/82 instead of 25/85).

With all 25 signees in a given year rarely if ever all developing into significant contributors, that makes it more important for Cajun recruiters to be spot-on in their assessment of talent and potential.

But it’s relatively small potatoes in the bigger picture.

UL also vacated the results of its 9-4 2011 season, which included a New Orleans Bowl win over San Diego State, and it self-imposed certain recruiting restrictions.

Saunders is accused of directing multiple Cajun recruits to an ACT exam center in rural Mississippi, where a test administrator changed answers to help the athletes become eligible.

The NCAA also ruled Saunders, a former Ole Miss assistant coach and now head coach at Pearl River (Mississippi) Community College, paid $6,500 to one ex-Cajun, something UL continues to deny.

UL didn’t appeal the NCAA ruling, however.

The NCAA accepted UL’s self-imposed sanctions, and imposed others, including added recruiting restrictions (reducing the number of official visits and off-campus recruiting days permitted, and not allowing phone contact over a three-week period), the vacating of still to-be-determined games from 2012-2014 in which ineligible student-athletes played and a $5,000 fine.

Although vacating more victories is not ideal – they must be removed from Hudspeth’s record, and school records – the added penalties are all quite minimal.

But, citing UL’s cooperation in the case and the fact alleged misdeeds were limited to one former assistant, the NCAA didn’t further reduce scholarships and – perhaps most importantly – it didn’t impose a bowl ban.

“I was concerned about that,” Hudspeth said, “just (because) when you see what’s happened to the other programs that’s had those bowl bans in the past.”

Prime recruits typically tend to shy from signing with teams they now will not be able to play in a bowl game, and before going 4-8 in 2014 UL had won four straight New Orleans Bowls.

“So you’re always concerned about that,” Hudspeth said. “But, obviously, when we realized they were not gonna give us a postseason ban, (we were) relieved to see that.

“Moving forward now, we’re full-speed ahead and focused on the future and the kids are excited. They may have had a little bit hanging over their head too, because they had heard the rumors (of possible added penalties) also.

“I think they now have got that off their minds, so I think we’ve got a fresh start. … All this is behind us now, finally,” he added. “Because it’s been lingering. This has been really lingering for a year or two years now. So, luckily this is all over and we’re ready to move forward.”

The case for UL began with NCAA interviews in December 2013, and the NCAA sent a verbal Notice of Inquiry in January 2014.

Saunders’ employment was terminated during the 2014 season, but rather than say he was fired the school announced he was “no longer associated with the … football program due to personal reasons” and thanked him for his service.

The NCAA didn’t issue its Notice of Allegations until May 2015, UL responded last August and the school didn’t make facts of the investigation public until it answered a Freedom of Information filing from The Daily Advertiser in October 2015.

Hudspeth also said he didn’t sense that any competing programs were negatively using the threat of a UL bowl ban while pitching potential recruits that both schools were after.

Had the NCAA imposed such a ban, however, it’s possible that could have happened, especially between now and next month’s signing day.

“That’s the crazy thing about it,” Hudspeth said. “We have had to answer few questions.

“Most of our questions that we had to answer were moms calling and crying, worried (if) was this gonna cause their sons to lose their scholarships – not that they wanted to not come.”

Because they have not over-committed beyond 22, UL did not have to pull any scholarship offers.

“That, to me,” Hudspeth said, “is a testament of our program and our university and our community – when they were more worried about if this was gonna keep (them) from coming, rather than ‘we don’t want to come now because of what’s happened.’

“So that was a huge plus, when we felt that from all the recruits.”