AL.com reported in August 2019 that the Tigers had self-imposed recruiting restrictions from September 2017 to April 2018. The school didn’t publicly disclose the self-imposed punishment.
The NCAA’s ruling stated that Pearl’s monitoring efforts “were tardy or limited in nature” and that there were specific examples, despite Pearl’s claims “to have monitored and educated his staff about NCAA compliance,” that other noncoaching staff members failed to report potential issues to the coach or the compliance department.
The report said that when Pearl became aware of “potentially problematic situations involving Person, “he failed to ask reasonable and pertinent questions. These shortcomings allowed violations to go undetected.”
The NCAA noted that, despite its efforts, it was unable to verify the claim that a walk-on player’s tuition was paid for by an unidentified Auburn assistant coach and a non-scholastic coach. Two meetings with NCAA investigators were attended by the assistant coach, but no further meetings were scheduled “after it uncovered additional information about potential violations.” The assistant was accused by the NCAA of not fulfilling his duty to provide complete cooperation throughout an inquiry. The report said that the person never met with NCAA enforcement personnel.
According to the NCAA, Pearl has to execute the penalty as soon as the panel’s decision is made public. The Tigers are 7-1 this season and No. 18 in the AP poll. “I’m appreciative of Auburn University, our leadership, the AU family, and our current and former student-athletes as we navigated through the challenges of the last four years,” Pearl said in a statement. The matchup is set for Saturday, 11:30 a.m. ET on ESPN2. “We value the panel’s recognition that we accepted significant, immediate fines and we respect the NCAA peer evaluation process. It’s time to get past this. I will start my two-game suspension against Nebraska tomorrow as part of our sentence.”
Along with additional recruiting limitations, Auburn was also penalized $5,000 by the NCAA and forced to forfeit 3% of the revenue from its men’s basketball program. The Tigers had already decided to forfeit one scholarship during their probation.
A 10-year show-cause sentence was imposed on Person, and a one-year penalty of the same kind was imposed on an unidentified Auburn assistant coach.
Due to their alleged acceptance of illicit perks from Person, Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy, two former Auburn players, were suspended for the entire 2017–18 campaign. For thirty percent of the upcoming season, Purifoy was also suspended. Auburn officials claim that Purifoy stole $1,250 from Person and that his parents received hotel rooms and $4,500 in cash. According to Auburn officials, Wiley took over $800 from Person during a ten-month period.The NCAA found that Person also provided impermissible benefits to Wiley and Purifoy over several years.
“The payments to one student-athlete began when he was a college prospect, after his father — the associate head coach’s distant family member — and mother separated,” the investigation stated. “The mother of the then-prospect remained friendly with the associate head coach, but over time, their discussions turned to recruiting the prospect. Over the course of three years, he gave the prospect’s mother a total of about $2,300, and he also covered the prospect’s $750 outfit.”
Person, who was chosen by the Indiana Pacers in 1986 and spent 13 seasons playing with five different NBA clubs, was given a two-year probationary period and community service punishment in July 2019. He was spared jail time, and upon accepting, his attorneys informed the judge that he was experiencing financial difficulties.At the time of Person’s sentencing, university officials wrote in a victim impact statement that his poor decisions “failed Auburn in every way.”
“They have resulted in considerable financial expense relating to internal and external investigations that confirmed the limited scope of Person’s misconduct,” the letter said. “Those costs — which are already considerable — will continue to rise through Auburn’s completion of the NCAA process, which presents the possibility of significant sanctions and penalties flowing from Person’s criminal actions. Perhaps more damaging, Person’s actions have immeasurably damaged Auburn’s national reputation based on it being attached — fairly or unfairly — to Person’s criminal spectacle.”
Auburn was among 12 men’s basketball programs that were alleged to have violated NCAA rules as part of the government’s wide-ranging investigation, which also included pay-for-play schemes involving Adidas employees and a business manager.
Following the customary Committee on Infractions process, seven of the charges were settled, and as a result, staff members and assistant coaches from Alabama, Auburn, Creighton, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, TCU, and USC were all sentenced to at least two years of probation. The only program to earn a postseason suspension was Oklahoma State. The Cowboys will not be allowed to participate in the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments this season after the NCAA rejected their appeal in November.
The NCAA-established Independent Accountability Resolution Process is currently handling five further cases involving Arizona, Kansas, Louisville, LSU Tigers, and NC State. This process was designed to handle difficult cases. State of North Carolinais the only school that had its hearing with the Independent Resolution Panel, on Aug. 9-10. The IRP hasn’t issued its final report; that decision will be final and there are no appeals.