Though there were 10 Ball State University athletic programs involved in the textbook scandal of 2005, two coaches learned Tuesday their programs would receive additional punishment from the NCAA.
As football coach Brady Hoke and men's tennis coach Bill Richards prepared for their team's upcoming opponent, Cardinals' athletics director Tom Collins broke the news to the both of them. The football program lost three scholarships, while 0.02 scholarships ($400) was taken out of the men's tennis budget.
"It was a little bit of shock that there were more penalties by the NCAA," Hoke said. "I really thought it was over with. I haven't thought about it until today. I thought because of the actions of the university to right what went wrong and to punish the people involved, that would be enough."
Richards said the $400 was insignificant to his program for recruiting purposes because he has a maximum budget of $45,000, or 4.5 scholarships. However, he wasn't pleased the penalty was tacked on after he said his team was initially punished severely.
Ball State's former No. 1 tennis player, Matt Buccarani, was suspended for the Cardinals' NCAA match against Florida State University. Richards said it was upsetting to learn his program had received a slap on the wrist after a severe initial penalty.
"My team basically had no chance to win in the NCAA tournament against Florida State without our [Buccarani]," Richards said. "... What I lost was nothing compared to what football lost when you talk about losing three scholarships out of 85."
Richards said he's most upset with the additional negativity the minor punishment generates for his program.
"All we're getting right now is some negative publicity," Richards said. "Obviously we're very much above that. We do everything the right way. At the same time, we understand that what our player did was wrong and we accept the sanctions."
Though three football scholarships might not appear to be significant penalty, Hoke said he was disappointed that his program received a penalty at all.
"Whenever you don't have your full compliment of scholarships it's disappointing, regardless of the sport you play," Hoke said. "If you say you get 85 scholarships, I wouldn't know why you would want less than 85 student athletes."
Though Hoke wasn't happy about the penalties nor the timing of Tuesday's decision, he said he doesn't expect it to affect players' preparation for their game this Saturday against Western Michigan University.
"It brings closure on the situation," Hoke said. "It doesn't really affect us that much because there's a lot of other things you do to take your mind off it."
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