Alabama A&M has been hit with scholarship reductions and a 2018-19 postseason ban in four sports - football, men's basketball, baseball and men's golf - as part of NCAA punishments for violations involving the certification of student-athletes from the 2011-12 through 2015-16 school years.

Women's basketball and volleyball were also assessed recruiting penalties.



The miscertifications involved 101 student-athletes in 14 sports. The violations were discovered during a NCAA Academic Performance Program data review initiated in the fall of 2015.



The NCAA Committee of Infractions imposed the following penalties:

*Five years of probation from Sept. 11, 2018, through Sept. 10, 2023.



*A vacation of records in which student-athletes competed while ineligible. The victories that Alabama A&M must vacate will be released after school officials go determine which games ineligible players competed in, according to sports information director Janay Robinson.



*A 2018-19 postseason ban for the baseball, men's basketball, football and men's golf teams.



*Scholarship reductions for the baseball, men's basketball, football and men's golf teams.

Alabama A&M must reduce its grant-in-aid awarded to baseball, men's basketball, football and men's golf by 10 percent. The reductions are are based on the average amount of aid awarded in each sport over the past four academic years. Alabama A&M may aggregate the reductions in baseball, men's basketball and and men's golf over the five-year probation period.



Football can aggregate its reductions through the 2024-25 school year. The NCAA granted Alabama A&M's request to avoid reductions in 2019-20 and 2020-21 for the football team, since the Bulldogs have contracts for games against FBS opponents in 2019 and 2020 (Auburn); those game contracts require that Alabama A&M award 61 scholarships in 2019-20 and 2020-21, and award an average of 56.7 scholarships in 2018-19. Alabama A&M told the NCAA it would lose more than $1 million through liquidated damages and loss of payment from breach of contract should it not play the games.



*Recruiting restrictions for the 2018-19 academic year, including:



*A 13-week ban on unofficial visits and recruiting communications with prospects in all programs in which the violations occurred.



*A 25 percent reduction in official paid visits in all programs in which the violations occurred.

*A 13-week ban on all off-campus recruiting contacts and evaluations in programs in which the violations occurred except for men's and women's basketball, football, men's golf and women's volleyball.



*A 25 percent reduction in recruiting or evaluation days for men's and women's basketball, football, men's golf and women's volleyball.



*Alabama A&M may not recruit two-year college transfers who would enroll during the 2019-20 academic year (self-imposed by the university).



*A $5,000 fine (self-imposed by A&M), plus 1 percent of the annual budgets of the baseball, men's basketball, football and men's golf programs. The 1 percent of the combined budgets equals about $48,000, according to Alabama A&M athletic director Bryan Hicks.

An NCAA press release said that "Alabama A&M lacked institutional control," when it improperly certified the 101 student-athletes. The infractions committee noted that the school's certification process failed in multiple areas:

*Staff members lacked the necessary experience, rules education and training to complete certifications.

*Making proper certification even more difficult, the university provided little rules education to the registrar and those outside of athletics responsible for certifying eligibility.

*The university also did not involve the appropriate staff members from outside of athletics in the certification process.

*The university did not correctly apply NCAA eligibility certification rules.

The NCAA release said that, in addition to the 101 student-athletes who competed while ineligible, Alabama A&M, "did not withhold 60 of the student-athletes from the subsequent year's competition before they were reinstated."

Hicks responded to the sanctions during an afternoon press conference that lasted less than nine minutes.

"We had a lot of transition with staff since 2009," he said. "There were individuals who were hired and didn't have the necessary NCAA experience, but who had institutional knowledge and other responsibilities. What we ended up having to do is refresh and hire those seasoned professionals who specifically dealt with compliance and academics."

Hicks said that the school's self-imposed restriction on transfers was so that A&M "could get a handle on our transfer process, to make sure we had time to accurately to do the certification. It's important for us to get this right."



The NCAA said that Alabama A&M, "took meaningful corrective action after it learned of the violations."



"The investigation confirmed the miscertifications were unintentional and the NCAA Committee concurred with that finding," the A&M release read. "The University acknowledged that errors were made in the certification process. Since the beginning of the data review, the University implemented new processes and hired additional personnel in the areas of compliance, academics and registrar's office to prevent future miscertifications."



Alabama A&M's baseball, men's basketball, men's golf and women's cross country teams were previously banned from the postseason for the 2017-18 school year due to low Academic Progress Rate scores.

Read the entire NCAA infractions release:

AAMUPublic Decision by Josh Bean on Scribd