In what might be a good sign for Arizona, Auburn's men's basketball program did not receive an additional ban on top of the one it self-imposed last season.
The NCAA's ruling was announced Friday. Coach Bruce Pearl will be suspended for two games starting Saturday. Pearl “violated head coach responsibility rules because he did not adequately monitor the associate head coach and failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance," the report stated, according to the Associated Press.
“Further, when the head coach became aware of potentially problematic situations involving the associate head coach, he failed to ask reasonable and pertinent questions. These shortcomings allowed violations to go undetected.”
Auburn will vacate wins and pay $5,000 plus 3% of the program's budget.
There is one parallel between Auburn's and Arizona's cases. Former Auburn assistant coach Chuck Person accepted $91,500 in bribes in exchange for promising to steer players to a firm for professional representation, according to federal prosecutors. Former UA assistant coach Book Richardson admitted to taking $20,000 in bribes as part of the same scheme.
However, Richardson's action resulted in only one of five Level I charges levied against Arizona by the NCAA enforcement staff and, after the case moved to the Independent Accountability Resolution Process, also by the IARP's Complex Case Unit.
Arizona also faces a Level I charge of academic misconduct by Richardson and Phelps, and a Level I charge that Phelps tried to cover up a loan to a player -- both charges that did not originate in the initial FBI investigation that looked into the scheme that involved both Person and Richardson.
UA also faces a Level I charge for a lack of head coach responsibility with former coach Sean Miller and another for the athletic department as a whole.
Auburn's case was handed via the standard NCAA resolution process. Arizona, however, also faces an unknown in that the IARP still has not finished a case and therefore there is no precedent on how it might rule.
