The NCAA has recently placed Wofford’s men’s basketball program on probation for a year due to violations related to former coach Jay McAuley’s actions. The violations stemmed from McAuley’s failure to monitor the program properly, as he regularly made players participate in team activities on days off. This breach of NCAA rules led to a negotiated settlement between Wofford, McAuley, and the NCAA, with the details of the agreement being made public on Friday.
As part of the settlement, McAuley agreed to a two-year show-cause order, which means that if he were to return to coaching in the college ranks while the order is in effect, the school would be required to suspend him for 15 games in his first season. McAuley, who resigned during the 2022-23 season, is currently coaching at a high school in Georgia. Additionally, Wofford was fined $5,000 by the NCAA as a result of the violations.
The investigation into Wofford’s men’s basketball program revealed that McAuley had been forcing players to engage in team activities on days that were designated as off days by the program. This included activities such as film study, walk-throughs, and individual workouts that exceeded the NCAA’s 20-hour-a-week limit for student-athletes. Players at Wofford expressed their concerns about McAuley’s coaching methods in a letter to the school’s president, Nayef H. Samhat, in December 2022, stating that they would no longer play for McAuley.
The NCAA found that McAuley had committed violations „most weeks during the championship segment of the playing season“ in both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons until he was placed on leave by the school on December 5, 2022. He subsequently resigned later that month, midway through his third season at Wofford. The violations included having players review video of the next opponent after a loss in November 2022, which is against NCAA rules, as well as meeting with a player past midnight, another violation of NCAA regulations.
In response to the violations, the NCAA determined that Wofford did not have adequate compliance monitoring systems in place to deter and detect such infractions. As a result, the NCAA imposed sanctions on the program, including shortening the team’s countable preseason practice days from 30 to 25 and reducing the weekly countable hours for team-related activities from 20 to 18 for the upcoming season. Coach Dwight Perry, a former assistant under McAuley, will be entering his second full season at the helm of the program this fall.
Overall, the NCAA’s decision to place Wofford’s men’s basketball program on probation serves as a reminder of the importance of adhering to NCAA rules and regulations. It also underscores the need for schools to have robust compliance monitoring systems in place to prevent violations from occurring in the future. As Wofford moves forward under Coach Perry’s leadership, the program will need to prioritize compliance and accountability to ensure that similar incidents do not happen again.