The NCAA placed the Ball State University athletics department on two years probation Tuesday for infractions of multiple athletic teams.
The football, men's tennis and softball teams were given sanctions as part of the violations.
The football and men's tennis team's lost scholarships for player's involvement in the textbook scandal of 2005. Student-athletes from about half of Ball State's athletics teams were found to have used scholarship money to buy textbooks not needed for their classes.
The football team lost three scholarships of 85 and the tennis team lost $400 of a scholarship for next year for their involvement in the violations.
The softball team lost two hours of practice a week from its normal 20 hours. The team was sanctioned for exceeding practice hours and failing to count events as mandatory athletically-related activities from 1999 to 2006, while Terri Laux coached the team. Laux's contract was not renewed after the 2006 season.
Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tom Collins said he does not think the sanctions will have a dramatic affect on the athletic department.
"Anytime you have rules violations, anything like that, I think it puts a mark on you," Collins said. "I think the thing the summary disposition does for us is we agreed with the NCAA, we fully cooperated with the NCAA, we came to a summary disposition together."
Ball State and the NCAA agreed on the findings of the investigations of the textbook scandal and the softball violations, Collins said. He said summary dispositions are released when the two organizations agree to the findings.
Collins said he was not surprised by the sanctions that were placed on the teams. Softball coach Craig Nicholson said he also was not surprised. But men's tennis coach Bill Richards and football coach Brady Hoke said they were surprised.
There is a sense of relief that the investigations have come to an end, Collins said.
"I think the good news now is, now we know what it is," he said. "Now that it is done we can move forward. We just need to be diligent in our rules education for not only the staff, coaches and student-athletes, but we also have to be diligent in our monitoring."
The violations occurred while Bubba Cunningham, the athletics director at the University of Tulsa, was the Ball State athletics director. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Tony Proudfoot, associate vice president for university marketing and communications, said President Jo Ann Gora was unavailable for comment and she has no plans to release a statement. Kyle Brennan, director of compliance and eligibility also could not be reached for comment.
The books were all returned or paid for right after the university found out about the violations, Collins said.
He said the department distributes books to students when the bookstore is closed. The athletics department also checks each student's books to make sure they are correct, he said.
He also said the NCAA will require Ball State to meet specific objectives including filing a report to the NCAA about the university's book distribution program.
Collins said he does not think the summary disposition will not affect ongoing investigations like the men's basketball investigations into violations committed by Ronny Thompson's staff.
"The summary disposition shouldn't affect any of the other programs," Collins said. "We're doing a separate investigation on men's basketball and when our outside council finishes that we'll turn that report into the NCAA."
The athletics department was also put on two-years probation in 1994 for violating NCAA bylaws.
Collins said if there is another major violation the NCAA will likely look at the number of teams that are on probation.
He said he does not think any teams were singled out in the textbook scandal as football and men's tennis were the teams that violated scholarship limitations and no other teams did.
Collins said he does not think the violations and other ongoing investigations have put his job in jeopardy.
"I come in and do my job everyday to the best of my abilities," he said.
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