Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 3, 1995 TAG: 9508030059
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Alabama was not banned from TV appearances, but will lose perhaps two dozen or more scholarships over the three years.
The NCAA cited the Tide football program, which has never been on probation during decades of prominence including six national championships, with exhibiting ``a distressing failure of institutional control.''
A statement released by the NCAA said Alabama was censured for three chief reasons:
A player obtained from boosters six impermissible deferred-payment loans totaling $24,400, during 1989 and 1990. The player, Gene Jelks, completed his career in the fall of 1989. The NCAA said he never repaid the loans.
Antonio Langham was allowed to play in 11 regular season games in 1993 even though he had signed with an agent, and athletic officials were aware that a potential violation of rules had occurred.
The school's faculty athletics representative provided ``false and misleading information'' to the NCAA.
No names were given in the NCAA release, but Jelks, whose play-for-pay claims kicked off the probe, was listed in previous documents for receiving improper help from boosters. Langham admitted signing with an agent after the 1993 Sugar Bowl when Alabama won a national title, then tried to get out of it and was allowed to play.
According to NCAA documents, Langham told coach Gene Stallings something about the signing, and Stallings conferred with athletic director Hootie Ingram, but the NCAA was not alerted until the season was almost over.
The sanctions against Alabama call for the loss of four scholarships for 1995-96, which Alabama already has given up voluntarily, plus four more for 1996-97, along with 13 from the initial number allowed in 1996-97 and nine from the initial number in 1997-98.
It wasn't immediately clear how many lost scholarships might be involved.
The forfeiture of games puts an ugly asterisk on the Tide's record book. The 1993 team went 8-2-1 during the games Langham played and 9-3-1 including the two games after he was declared ineligible.
With the forfeits, Alabama's record would be 1-12, the worst since 1955.
``Am I anxious to get it behind us? I am. Has it been a distraction? It has,'' Stallings said before the announcement. ``What I do not want it to be is an excuse for us to play poorly.''
The investigation began three years ago. Eventually it uncovered improper loans to Jelks and mishandling of Langham's signing with an agent, Darryl Dennis of Washington.
Jelks' accusations that he received money and gifts to sign with Alabama in 1985 did not hold up during the probe. But loans Jelks received from 1989 and May 1990 showed up in an NCAA letter of inquiry in September 1994.
The NCAA also found out that Langham, a top defensive back, signed with a sports agent on Jan.2, 1993, the morning after the Crimson Tide won the national championship by beating Miami in the Sugar Bowl.
by CNB