NCAA rules violations disputed at Texas A&M-CC
CBSSports.com wire reports
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- Former Texas A&M-Corpus Christi athletic director Brian Teter is fighting allegations of NCAA rules violations, including use of ineligible players, recruiting violations in men's basketball and lack of institutional control.
In July the NCAA notified the university of alleged violations, eight of them major, that occurred between 2004 and 2008 in men's basketball, women's volleyball and men's tennis.
The NCAA had accused Teter of not reporting his knowledge of two ineligible players and later submitting a false self-report regarding one of those players. Teter failed to conduct himself in accordance with the association's "high standards of honesty and sportsmanship," the notice said.
The report singles out two former compliance directors and Teter for failing to report ineligible players once they learned of them or for failing to withhold them from competition.
A volleyball player was improperly given a sixth year of eligibility and a men's tennis player was given a partial athletic scholarship when he had not qualified academically and was later allowed to compete even after officials knew he was ineligible, according to the NCAA.
The Corpus Christi-Caller Times reported on its website Thursday that Teter claims he had school president Flavius Killebrew's backing to not report an eligibility issue involving a former volleyball player.
Killebrew said he asked Teter to report the matter and believed it had been taken care of.
Teter's response to the NCAA gives a different version, claiming Killebrew said he would back any decision. Teter says he decided not to report the issue, but that he had Killebrew's blessing. He also claims he never heard about the issue again from Killebrew.
"I said, 'Let's play this thing out and see what happens.' So (Killebrew) supported that," Teter testified to the NCAA. "And he says, 'Well, let's just make sure none of this happens again."'
Teter's response cites a Nov. 25, 2007, e-mail exchange with Killebrew. An A&M System audit had picked up the unreported violation and Teter made the move to self-report. He notified Killebrew via e-mail and Killebrew responded that the matter should be self-reported.
As to the allegation of filing an inaccurate self-report to the NCAA in November 2007 on former volleyball player Anna Machado's ineligibility, Teter's response claims the NCAA has not spelled out any inaccuracies in that report.
Scott Tompsett, Teter's attorney, said the NCAA dismissed a third charge Wednesday, the failure to report the ineligibility of tennis player Raul Morant-Rivas.
The men's basketball program, led by former Miami coach Perry Clark, also faces allegations of improprieties. The NCAA alleges an assistant coach made at least 43 impermissible phone calls to four recruits.
A separate allegation involves the program providing impermissible recruiting inducements to a possible transfer, including transportation to the border town of Laredo so the player could renew his immigration documentation.
Teter plans to fight the NCAA allegations against him Friday in Kansas City, Mo.
