Athletic department and administration officials worked together to make the 2008-09 men’s basketball team the NCAA champions they were, but before all that, they pressured the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to lower academic standards for athletes and admit them to Binghamton University.

At least, those are the findings of the review conducted by Judge Judith Kaye and her team.

Upon entering Division I athletics in 2006, BU had to conduct a self-study of the athletic department to ensure the University was in compliance with NCAA Division I operating principles.

POLICY FOR ADMITTING RECRUITS

According to the Report to the Board of Trustees of the State University of New York by retired Judge Judith Kaye, BU had to demonstrate that it only admits student-athletes who meet the academic expectations of the University in order to receive NCAA certification.

When a coach chooses a recruit, David Eagan, the director of compliance for BU, must review this recommendation, and then forward the decision to admissions.

These recommendations are then reviewed by the director and associate director of admissions, and if necessary the vice provost for enrollment along with the provost.

The job of the admissions staff, according to the report, is to base its final decision on the probability of the recruit’s academic success at the University, with the understanding that support services, such as the Education Enhancement Program, are available to monitor the academic excellence of student-athletes.

“BU admissions personnel resisted internally the enrollment of certain applicants deemed academically unqualified,” the audit stated.

AN “EXPERIMENT”

According to the report, the athletic department often took it upon itself to override the decisions of the director of admissions.

“It appeared that the coaching staff had used the relative academic success of players the previous year as the basis to recruit players who were even more academically challenged,” the report said.

However, according to the report, Broadus was supported by the leadership of the athletic department and by the most senior ranks of the BU administration.

After Sandra Starke, vice provost of enrollment management, attempted to obtain the GPA and SAT scores of all incoming athletes in order to assure that they met University admission standards, DeFleur informed her that there was a concern that she was making her admissions decisions based on race, a statement which disturbed Starke.

“After their meeting with the president, the provost met privately with Ms. Starke and told her that she supported every step she had taken, that no one in the administration thought she was racist and that the president had a blind spot regarding athletics,” the report said.

The pressure from the athletic department to provide exceptions for their recruits continued when a meeting was held on July 7, 2008, between members of the athletic department, personnel from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the director of compliance.

At the meeting, which Cheryl Brown, the director of undergraduate admissions, and Eagan did not attend, Jim Norris — then-associate athletic director — and Broadus urged admissions representatives to admit prospective team members who only met the minimum NCAA eligibility requirements, the document states.

Included in Starke’s notes, and attributed to undisclosed representatives at the meeting were statements such as, “Why should admissions determine the [roster] of athletics,” and “Other sports such as soccer took a goalie that never went to class. At first Jim [Norris] thought it was wrong, then he saw the light.”

The content of the meeting was then brought to the attention of DeFleur, who, along with Provost Mary Ann Swain, described Broadus’ recruiting tactics as an “experiment,” the report said.

EXCEPTIONS MADE TO ACADEMIC STANDARDS

According to the report, the University understood that the student-athletes recruited by Broadus presented a risk on academic success and retention, so to alleviate this threat on academics, an associate athletic director for student services was hired to oversee student support services of the 450 student-athletes.

Although Ed Scott was hired to oversee athletes on the 21 sports teams, he focused on providing the men’s basketball team with academic guidance.

Scott set up a nine-step recovery program and a mentoring and tutoring program was designed by Sharon Holmes, chair and associate professor of the College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA) Student Affairs.

The tutors — graduate students who were provided a stipend paid by the athletic department and partial tuition reimbursement through CCPA — had no prior training or experience and soon realized that their jobs were difficult because the basketball players showed no motivation to complete assignments.

In a February 2009 report by The New York Times, Pete Thamel wrote that BU had lowered its admissions criteria so that only the minimum qualifications for NCAA were required for a player to be admitted to the University.

In response, then-athletic director Joel Thirer made an ESPN appearance on March 16, 2009, where he said that BU was still committed to its core academic values while it attempted to be competitive in the Division I program.

Professors at the University often proved otherwise by allowing members of the men’s basketball team to pass through independent study courses created by Holmes.

“Mr. Scott also took on the role of communication with faculty about whether player’s failing grades could be changed if they took steps to complete coursework,” the report said.

According to the report, the basketball team’s conference championship in March 2009 placed extreme pressure on other athletic programs to produce America East champions.

This pressure came from DeFleur, the report stated.

By July 2009, Scott expressed frustration that the players were not making sufficient effort to succeed academically and that the basketball program was taking no responsive action.

But by then it was too late.

Only one month into the fall 2009 school year, four veteran players and two transfer recruits were released from the men’s basketball team.

Following their release, Thirer announced his resignation and Broadus was placed on leave for an NCAA recruiting violation.