NCAA Hits Caltech Beavers with Sanctions

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has announced Thursday its decision of reprimanding California Institute of Technology’s Beavers athletics program for allowing 30 student athletes who were apparently academically ineligible to play in practice or games participate in 12 sports which included basketball, baseball, swimming, and tennis.

Ironically, the decision from the NCAA put Caltech, infamous for its losing streaks, in the company of some of the top athletic teams from major conferences.

The problems arose from the school’s course system wherein students were allowed to attend classes for three weeks at the start of a term before officially registering, which meant that under NCAA rules, some athletes were not considered full-time students when they took the field.

The NCAA blamed the campus’ athletic administrators, registrar, and coaches’ lack of communication and supervision, which resulted in the oversight.

The slip-up had gone on for over four years, and was discovered and reported by Caltech athletic officials themselves.

In a statement claiming that the violations were purely unintentional, Caltech said that “We very much regret that the high standards we expect of ourselves were not met.”

The statement went on saying “We acknowledge our responsibility and have taken all necessary steps to remedy this situation and ensure it does not happen again.”

True enough, the school’s various sports teams are currently under penalties, many of them self-imposed by Caltech itself.  The penalties include no postseason play next season, three years of probation, one year of no campus recruiting and the vacating of wins and records.