Director of enforcement leaves NCAA for Auburn

Rachel George, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

NCAA director of enforcement Dave Didion finished his last day on the job in Indianapolis on Friday, with just more than a week before he leaves to return to Auburn.

The veteran enforcement officer left his position to take one as the associate director of athletics for compliance, effective April 22. He returns to a campus he left more than a decade ago after 14 years at the NCAA.

"It's personal," Didion said of his decision to leave the NCAA, "but I just wanted to go back to campus, and Auburn is one of the few places that I could go to.

"I really enjoyed the people, and I enjoyed members of the coaching staff. It's a great community. It's a beautiful university. No reason not to go back."

Didion, who has 25 years experience in compliance and enforcement, previously worked at Auburn from 1995 to 1999 as the assistant director of athletics for compliance before leaving to work for the NCAA. He is the latest of several enforcement officials to leave the NCAA during the 2 1/2-year tenure of President Mark Emmert.

Investigator Ameen Najjar was fired last year before it was revealed he approved paying the lawyer for former Miami (Fla.) booster Nevin Shapiro. The NCAA's admission that it had paid Maria Elena Perez, Shapiro's attorney, to use bankruptcy proceedings to obtain information from witnesses that otherwise wouldn't cooperate led the association to throw out part of its case against the school. Shapiro is serving a 20-year prison sentence for running a $930 million Ponzi scheme.

As a result of its investigation, the NCAA fired Julie Roe Lach, whom Emmert had named vice president of enforcement when he was hired.

Within the past year, the NCAA enforcement staff has seen veteran investigator Rich Johanningmeier retire as well. Investigator Abigail Grantstein was fired in December after it was revealed a man who said he was her boyfriend was overheard on a flight bragging that UCLA freshman Shabbaz Muhammed would not be cleared before key facts had been gathered.

The NCAA investigated Muhammed for accepting impermissible benefits on three recruiting trips but reinstated him after a three-game suspension and ordered his family to repay $1,600.

Jon Duncan, a lawyer who previously defended the NCAA in court, began an 18-month tenure as vice president of enforcement last month.