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Randy Bennett and Saint Mary’s Appeal Turned Down

Saint Mary’s College and Randy Bennett both had their appeals of major violations by the NCAA’s Infractions Appeals Committee. The result is that Bennett will serve a five-game suspension this season and Saint Mary’s will have to abide by the scholarship restrictions imposed by the Committee on Infractions.

Saint Mary’s argued that the scholarship restrictions were excessive given the violations, so excessive that they constituted an abuse of discretion. Critics of the consistency of NCAA sanctions will not be swayed by the reasoning of the IAC:

The Infractions Appeals Committee found that the most recent cases involving recruiting violations in basketball provide a wide enough spectrum of potential penalties within which this case falls.

If you believe the NCAA’s penalties are not consistent, this logic sounds like using that inconsistency to justify penalties which the institution is arguing are inconsistent.

Bennett challenged not just the suspension imposed on him but also the findings of the Committee on Infractions. The Infractions Appeals Committee did not rule on one of Bennett’s points, that the Notice of Allegations was too unspecific. Instead, the IAC simply ruled that there was enough evidence presented to the COI to find the violations charged and those violations were enough to support the penalty imposed on Bennett.


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