The Syracuse basketball program was hit hard by NCAA sanctions earlier this year and they immediately appealed the decision. The sanctions were handed down by the NCAA at the beginning of March and they said the appeal would take about 155 days but it instead took much longer than that. Finally on Wednesday afternoon the ruling on the appeal was made and Syracuse was given back a scholarship per year, according to Chris Carlson of Syracuse.com.
The initial ruling by the NCAA was to take away 12 scholarships over four years from Syracuse along with having them vacate 101 wins and having head coach Jim Boeheim suspended for nine ACC games. Syracuse will still have to vacate all of those wins and Boeheim has still not heard back in regards to his suspension but they will at least have an extra scholarship over the next few years which should certainly be helpful.
In the report released back in March the NCAA said that Syracuse had committed "a series of violations spanning in excess of 10 years that demonstrated clearly misplaced institutional priorities." Boeheim was not personally named in that report but the new rules state that the head coach is responsible for overseeing everything within his program so if any wrongdoing is happening around him it ultimately falls on his lap.
Boeheim's nine game suspension was the longest ever handed down by the NCAA while the scholarship sanctions were the biggest ever handed down to a basketball program and the vacated wins were the second most ever taken away from a basketball program.
There has not been a timetable announced as to when Boeheim's personal appeal will be heard but this is a very minor win for Syracuse and vice president of public affairs Kevin Quinn released a statement on the decision.
"The appeal decision results in the reduction of a significant penalty. We strongly believed the original scholarship penalty was too severe when compared to other infraction cases. Also, the scholarship reduction penalty directly impacts current and future student-athletes and their academic and athletic opportunities. We remain disappointed in the decision to vacate a significant amount of men's basketball wins, a decision that was upheld," said Quinn.
