The day after Binghamton University officials announced that NCAA found no major infractions in its investigation of BU, the NCAA stated that it had closed the BU investigation because involved parties had refused to cooperate, which itself is a breach of NCAA’s ethical conduct bylaws.
‘Although we were concerned about the extremely serious nature of the case, we were unable to determine that allegations of major violations occurred, especially since some potentially involved parties refused to cooperate with the investigation,’ wrote David Price, the NCAA’s vice president of enforcement. ‘Consequently, we decided to close the case.’
That letter came a day after another letter from NCAA Assistant Director of Enforcement Mike Zonder, which made no mention of the reasons the investigation had been closed, and stated that BU had committed no major infractions.
‘The enforcement staff does not believe that the information developed during its preliminary inquiry supports allegations of major NCAA infractions and, absent the emergence of new information, is closing the case,’ Zonder wrote.
But according to NCAA bylaws, failure to cooperate with an investigation is a breach of ethics.
‘Refusal to furnish information relevant to an investigation of a possible violation of an NCAA regulation when requested to do so by the NCAA’ is considered unethical conduct, according to the NCAA bylaws.
At this point, it seems that no officials are aware who the uncooperative parties might be.
The NCAA was not immediately available for comment, and they declined to comment to the Press & Sun-Bulletin last week on who the uncooperative parties were.
BU Interim President C. Peter Magrath said the University had fully complied with the NCAA’s investigation.
‘We were not aware of any issues until we saw the Oct. 19 letter stating that potentially involved parties refused to cooperate with the NCAA investigation,’ he said. ‘Binghamton University fully cooperated with all requests made by the NCAA during this review and we were not made aware of any concerns during this time.’
SUNY Spokesman David Belsky also said SUNY did not have information on the alleged failure to cooperate.
‘We are unaware as to who those parties might be,’ he said.
Magrath acknowledged the NCAA’s decision to close the investigation, saying it would be unlikely for the organization to close the investigation on the grounds that the University did not cooperate.
‘The NCAA has indicated that they have closed the infractions inquiry into Binghamton University’s men’s basketball program,’ Magrath said. ‘It is hard to imagine that the NCAA would clear any institution of serious violations if the school failed to cooperate fully ‘ as we did.’
The letter from Price came a day after Magrath and Interim Athletic Director Jim Norris held a press conference to announce that the NCAA had closed its investigation into BU.
‘This news today will start to give us the light at the end of the tunnel and the best of times are going to be coming,’ Norris said of the closing of the investigation on Monday, Oct. 18.
SUNY Chancellor Zimpher also responded to the investigation’s closing in a separate statement.
‘We are pleased that the NCAA has completed its investigation following up on that undertaken by Judge Judith Kaye on behalf of SUNY and Binghamton,’ she said. ‘This action brings the matter to a conclusion and the campus and its student athletes can now move forward.’
The announcement also brought up questions of whether the NCAA’s findings signaled a vindication for former men’s basketball head coach Kevin Broadus. Magrath was adamant about Broadus’ future at BU.
‘We can use indefinite future or whatever, but for the term ahead, whatever that is ‘ Mark Macon is going to be our head coach,’ Magrath said. ‘Mr. Broadus will not be coaching basketball at Binghamton University.’
Broadus remains under contract, however, and continues to receive his coaching salary of $218,626. He has been reassigned to an office position.
‘ Justin Mathew and Justin Tasch contributed to this report.