While the punishments inflicted on Savannah State are all clear-cut, one of the murkier provisions is the two-year probation that will stretch from Thursday, June 20, 2019 to June 19, 2021.

According to the decision, many of the certification issues stemmed from the university’s failure to certify amateurism and progress-toward-degree requirements. The university also violated rules when it allowed two student-athletes with expired eligibility and two nonqualifers to compete.

“As a fundamental obligation of NCAA membership, schools must ensure that all student-athletes are properly certified, both prior to participation in college athletics and on a continuing basis throughout their enrollment,” the committee said in its decision.

The committee and the university agreed that persistent turnover caused several breakdowns, such as not following written policies, inadequate communication and insufficient rules education.  In its decision, the committee noted “all of these weaknesses combined to create a lack of checks and balances needed to ensure academic certification was complete and accurate.”

Despite the failure to monitor the certification process, the committee said most student-athletes were properly certified.

The committee noted that this is the fifth infractions decision in the past year involving eligibility certification violations. In its decision, it instructed the membership that enough resources must be allocated to ensure the integrity of this process.

In short, Savannah State will have to regularly report to the NCAA during the two-year probation period to ensure that the university is following NCAA rules. There are specific facets of probation that are detailed in the NCAA’s full report and they paraphrased, from pages 10–12 in the report, below.

1. Probation: Two years of probation from June 20, 2019, through June 19, 2021.
2. Financial penalty: The institution shall pay a fine of $5,000. (Self-imposed.)
3. Public reprimand and censure through the release of the public infractions decision.
4. Vacation of records. SSU acknowledged that ineligible participation occurred as a result of the violations in this case. Therefore, pursuant to Bylaws 19.9.7-(g) and 31.2.2.3, SSU shall vacate all regular season and conference tournament records and participation in which ineligible student-athletes detailed in this case competed from the time they became ineligible through the time they were reinstated as eligible for competition. (Self-imposed.)
5. At least on one occasion during the two-year probationary period, each staff member responsible for the certification of student-athletes shall be required to attend an NCAA Regional Rules Seminar. The sessions and those who attended shall be identified in the annual compliance reports and should include eligibility and certification related educational sessions.
6. During the period of probation, SSU shall: Continue to develop and implement a comprehensive compliance and educational program on NCAA legislation to instruct coaches, the faculty athletics representative, all athletics department personnel and all institutional staff members with responsibility for NCAA recruiting and certification legislation; Submit a preliminary report to the OCOI by August 15, 2019, setting forth a schedule for establishing this compliance and educational program; File with the OCOI annual compliance reports indicating the progress made with this program by May 15th during each year of probation. Particular emphasis shall be placed on SSU’s eligibility certification process and related compliance education. Inform prospects in all affected sport programs in writing that SSU is on probation for two years and detail the violations committed. If a prospect takes an official paid visit, the information regarding violations, penalties and terms of probation must be provided in advance of the visit. Otherwise, the information must be provided before a prospect signs an NLI; and publicize specific and understandable information concerning the nature of the violations by providing, at a minimum, a statement to include the types of violations and the affected sports program and a direct, conspicuous link to the public infractions decision located on the athletic department’s main webpage “landing page” and in the media guides for the affected sports program. SSU’s statement must: (i) clearly describe the violations; (ii) include the length of the probationary period associated with the case; and (iii) give members of the general public a clear indication of what happened in the case. A statement that refers only to the probationary period with nothing more is not sufficient.
7. Following the receipt of the final compliance report and prior to the conclusion of probation, SSU’s   resident shall provide a letter to the COI affirming that the institution’s current athletics policies and practices conform to all requirements of NCAA regulations.