STILL UPHILL FOR UA
Aug 17, 2002
Mobile attorney Robert Cunningham feels Alabama's appeal of NCAA punishment
went well but says school still faces 'difficult challenge' in
getting sanctions reduced
By THOMAS MURPHY
Sports Reporter
Mobile Register
TUSCALOOSA -- The University of Alabama's legal team emerged from
a 3-hour hearing with the NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee Friday still
saying the school faces an uphill battle to have recently imposed sanctions
against the football program softened.
"We feel it did go well," Mobile attorney Robert Cunningham
Jr., UA's lead counsel in the appeal, told reporters after the hearing
at The Westin hotel in downtown Chicago. "I did say at the beginning
the case provided a difficult challenge and nothing that happened at the
hearing today has caused me to change that opinion."
Alabama director of athletics Mal Moore said he was happy to see the two-year
process coming to a close.
"We made our points we wanted to make," Moore said. "We
said what we wanted to say. I'm very proud this is coming to an end."
Alabama is expected to release a redacted copy of its appeal brief Monday.
Alabama's arguments, according to sources close to the case, centered
around a few key issues.
They were: NCAA enforcement's use of an unidentified witness, whether
the NCAA's "repeat violator" bylaws were properly applied,
inconsistencies in applying sanctions and whether Alabama's cooperation
-- it was not cited for lack of institutional control -- was appropriately
considered.
Alabama is seeking relief from a two-year postseason ban, the loss of
six scholarships on top of the self-imposed 15, a five-year probation
and other penalties imposed by the NCAA Committee on Infractions (COI)
on Feb. 1.
The four-member appeals committee is expected to render a decision in
the next four to six weeks. The committee can uphold the COI's sanctions
or vacate any of all of those penalties.
Most of the NCAA's findings against the UA program centered around
alleged improper payments and extra benefits given to Crimson Tide football
recruits and players by boosters Logan Young, Wendell Smith and Ray Keller,
who have all been disassociated from the athletic program.
Friday's hearing included a twist in that Thomas Yeager, chairman
of the NCAA infractions committee, was in attendance. On the day the infractions
committee revealed Alabama's punishment, Yeager said the school was
"staring down the barrel of a gun," in reference to how close
Alabama came to receiving the so-called "death penalty."
Alabama was also represented at the hearing by university attorneys Stan
Murphy and Glenn Powell, outside attorneys Chuck Cooper and Rich Hilliard
and interim UA president Barry Mason. Former UA president Andrew Sorensen,
who is now in the same position at South Carolina, also attended.
Clemson athletics director Terry Don Phillips served as the appeals committee
chairman in the absence of Mike Slive, who recused himself after becoming
SEC commissioner on July 1. The other committee members hearing the appeal
were Noel Ragsdale, faculty athletics representative at Southern California;
Allan Ryan, Harvard University attorney; and Robert Stein of the American
Bar Association, the committee's mandated public member.