UW-River Falls says it’s already making changes to scholarship programs in the wake of a major violation of National Collegiate Athletic Association scholarship rules, but the school doesn’t expect the penalties to impact current or prospective students.
Starting in 2008, UW-River Falls began awarding financial aid and scholarships to students hired on as assistant football coaches who were no longer eligible to play. The practice continued until a new financial aid director questioned whether it violated rules set by the NCAA. It did, according to Blake Fry, public information officer for the university.
“The violation occurred in that the payments were in the form of a scholarship rather than a straight student salary,” Fry said. “Even though they weren’t athletes anymore, the fact that we were giving them scholarships was a violation of the NCAA policy.”
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The NCAA has placed the school on probation for one year, ordered an outside audit to be done on student athletic hiring practices along with a thorough review of financial aids after the year is up. Fry says the penalties are minor because the university self-reported and has already addressed many of the organization’s concerns.
“It’s not a positive message, but on the same hand we can still participate in post-season play, [and] we haven’t had to vacate any victories,” he said.
UW-River Falls will now have to tell prospective student athletes about the violations, but Fry doesn’t think that will impact team recruitment or retention.
“A lot of it is going to be for the administration and the coaches of the university to just have to be diligent in some reporting, [and] attending some workshops,” Fry said.
UW-River Falls will be on probation with the NCAA until March of next year.
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