Kelly Gets 18-Month ‘Show Cause’ Penalty From NCAA

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The NCAA today announced sanctions against Oregon for use of a recruiting service provider “who became a representative of the university’s athletics interests, to assist the school with the recruitment of multiple prospective student-athletes.”

Of interest to this crowd is that Chip Kelly was hit with an 18-month show-cause penalty.

What does that mean? If Kelly wants to return to the college ranks within the next 18 months, he and the new school would have to appear before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions and explain why he should be allowed to do so. The school would also have to detail how it planned on monitoring him, and the program would be subject to harsher penalties were he to break the rules again.

Of course, the likelihood is that Kelly sticks with the Eagles for 18 months anyway.

Kelly released the following statement:

“Now that the NCAA has concluded their investigation and penalized the University of Oregon and its football program, I want to apologize to the University of Oregon, all of its current and former players and their fans. I accept my share of responsibility for the actions that led to the penalties.

As I have I stated before, the NCAA investigation and subsequent ruling had no impact on my decision to leave Oregon for Philadelphia. I have also maintained throughout that I had every intention to cooperate with the NCAA’s investigation, which I did.

I do expect the University of Oregon and its football program to continue to thrive at a high level. They are a talented and resilient group of coaches and players and I’m sure they will attempt to put today’s news behind them very quickly and move forward as they prepare for the 2013 season.”

Here is the part of the report that specifically focuses on Kelly:

While the former head coach was unaware that the involvement of the representative in the recruiting process, the staff’s recruiting calls and the lack of recruiting service reports all violated NCAA rules. The committee noted that it is the head coach’s responsibility to know NCAA rules and ensure that every coach and staff member complies with those rules. Because of this, the former head coach agreed that he failed to monitor the football program.

Meanwhile, the penalties against Oregon did not include a bowl ban. The program is on probation for three seasons and will operate with 84 scholarships, instead of 85, during that span.

One obvious question is: What would the penalty have been if Kelly were still the coach at Oregon? NCAA compliance expert John Infante chimed in with some thoughts on Twitter:

If Kelly is still employed at Oregon, I say his show cause is a similar length, but prohibits him from recruiting. — John Infante (@John_Infante) June 26, 2013

People better versed in Oregon football can decide if they could have weathered a head coach not being able to recruit for 18-24 months. — John Infante (@John_Infante) June 26, 2013

Oh, and Kelly would have almost certainly been suspended. Maybe not a half season, but 2-4 games seems likely. — John Infante (@John_Infante) June 26, 2013

In other words, according to Infante, Kelly would have been operating under challenging circumstances, but the school still would not have faced a bowl ban or greater reduction of scholarships.

Hat tip to friend of the blog Justin for the Infante Tweets.

For more:

The NCAA’s official ruling

A column from Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports

Follow Sheil Kapadia on Twitter and e-mail him at skapadia@phillymag.com.

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