[The U Maine press release on the NCAA appeal decision..wts)
 
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Thu, 13 Feb 1997 16:01:25 -0500
From:          Joe Carr <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:       NCAA Appeals Decided
To:            [log in to unmask]
 
    NCAA Appeals Decided
#001#
Feb. 13, 1997
 Contact: Joe Carr at 581-3571
 
NCAA COMMITTEE LETS PENALTIES STAND
 
ORONO, Maine -  The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has
denied the University of Maine's appeal of two penalties imposed on it by
the NCAA last July, the university announced Thursday.
 
The denial means that the UMaine men's ice hockey team will not be allowed
to compete in the upcoming post-season tournaments scheduled for March
and April.  The denial also lets stand a one-year reduction in the number of
football scholarships UMaine is allowed to award.
 
In response to the denial of the appeals, UMaine President Frederick E.
Hutchinson said the decision "brings to an end a very difficult period for the
entire university community."  He said the decision "adds nothing new to
what had previously been said or known, except closure."
 
However, Hutchinson said he was troubled by the denials.  He said the NCAA's
Infractions Committee previously has failed to explain why it applied a
separate standard for setting  penalties for football from what was applied
to other UMaine sports for the identical infraction.  He said he was hopeful
the Appeals Committee would shed light on the matter, but it failed to do so
while upholding the penalty.
 
Hutchinson said he was also troubled by the Appeals Committee's decision to
uphold the post-season ban on the ice hockey program.  He noted that the
university itself had imposed a series of penalties on the ice hockey program
as the result of its extensive self-investigation.  Those penalties included a
one-yea ban on post-season
competition for 1995-96 and a year-long suspension of head coach Shawn
Walsh, without pay.  When the NCAA's Infractions Committee imposed
additional penalties on the program last July, it publicly stated that the
year-long suspension of Walsh was sufficient penalty for his part in rules
violations. Yet, Hutchinson noted, in November the Infractions Committee
said that the extension of penalties was related to Walsh, something which
Hutchinson called "an after-the-fact statement" in defense of the committee's
actions four months earlier.
 
"There was no indication given in that (July) report that the addition of
penalties by the NCAA was related to Shawn," Hutchinson stated. "
 
"Had that position been part of the committee's official report in July, it
likely
would have influenced our decision to appeal the post-season ban (for
1996-97),"
he added.
 
Suzanne J. Tyler, UMaine's athletics director, said she "respectfully disagrees
 
with the findings" but agrees with the NCAA "in its praise for  the positive
way the University operated during the course of the investigation."  Tyler,
who arrived at UMaine near the end of the investigation period, credited
Hutchinson, former interim athletics director Walter Abbott, and compliance
officer Tammy Light with overhauling the athletics department's compliance
operation to make it "as good as you will find anywhere in the country."