NCAA rejects former MSU assistant's appeal of penalty

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) An NCAA appeals committee has upheld the penalty accessed to a former Mississippi State University assistant football coach whose actions contributed to the Bulldog program being place on four years probation in 2004.<br> <br> The NCAA infractions appeals committee Thursday upheld a two-year show-cause penalty against the former assistant. The penalty requires any NCAA member institution attempting to hire the former coach to appear before the infractions to determine whether the individual&#39;s activities should be limited.<br> <br> The former assistant appealed the findings and penalty, prompting Thursday&#39;s decision.<br> <br> The names of individual coaches, staff members and student-athletes are always kept confidential throughout the infractions process, the NCAA said.<br> <br> The NCAA&#39;s infractions committee announced on Oct. 27, 2004, that it found that two former assistants and several boosters committed recruiting violations between 1998-2002. But allegations of unethical conduct against former coach Jackie Sherrill were dismissed.<br> <br> University officials said at one point last year that Sherrill and former assistants Glenn Davis and Jerry Fremin did not violate the NCAA&#39;s ethical conduct rules.<br> <br> Davis left Mississippi State in January 2004 to become head coach at Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Wesson. Fremin resigned in 2001 after receiving a reprimand from Athletic director Larry Templeton.<br> <br> The Bulldogs were allowed just 81 football scholarships for the 2005 and 2006 seasons, and were limited to 45 expense-paid recruiting visits in each of the 2004-05 and 2005-06 academic years 11 per year fewer than the maximum allowed by the NCAA.<br> <br> The school had limited itself to 83 scholarships in the 2005-06 academic year as part of a self-imposed penalty down from the NCAA maximum of 85.<br> <br> Sherrill retired after the 2003 season and was replaced by Sylvester Croom, the first black head football coach in Southeastern Conference history.<br> <br> Mississippi State had admitted to secondary rules violations within the football program, but denied the more serious NCAA allegations of offering to provide cash and other perks to recruits.<br> <br> The infractions committee found that an assistant provided transportation and lodging expenses for campus visits for a recruit, and the assistant reimbursed the recruit&#39;s family for most of the cost of a rental car and for a hotel room, and a student host provided the player with $30 in cash.<br> <br> Among other findings, the NCAA determined that another unnamed assistant arranged to pay for two high-school courses so a recruit could become academically eligible.<br> <br> Also, student-athlete hosts gave cash to recruits on official visits during the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 academic years, and a booster illegally allowed two recruits to stay at a hotel for free, the NCAA ruled.<br> <br> (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)