ENMU exits NCAA probation

PORTALES — While university officials insist much went on at the administrative levels, an average fan of Eastern New Mexico University didn’t see much impact while the college spent four years in NCAA probation.

And now it’s over. The university received word last week that it has satisfactorily completed the probation period that started Sept. 1, 2015.

"We are extremely pleased to hear about the NCAA's recent decision," Interim Athletic Director Jeff Long said in a school release. "It has been a total team effort as we have moved through this process and are looking forward to many years of future success in Greyhound Athletics."

Four years ago the college self-reported to the NCAA, and they collectively determined 132 student-athletes in 12 sports competed for Greyhound teams despite not clearing academic or paperwork hurdles for eligibility from 2008 to 2013. The college faulted a system that did not include enough checks and balances rather than individuals.

Steps the university and athletic department were tasked with included maintaining the full-time position of a compliance officer, hiring an athletic academic advisor and submitting yearly compliance reports to the NCAA. Also, the school was required to create and implement compliance processes that verified full-time credits, academic and athletic eligibility and clearance for athletic competition.

The university announced at the beginning of the probation period that it paid a $3,500 fine and vacated its 2011 men’s soccer Lone Star Conference regular season championship, its 2011 men’s cross country LSC and NCAA Southwest Regional titles and wins in numerous sports during those seasons. The school retained its 2012 LSC men’s cross country title, as it still won the meet after factoring in the disqualification of two ineligible runners.

University President Jeff Elwell said his predecessor, Steven Gamble, got the ball rolling on most of the necessary work in his final two years and it continued over the last two years.

“A lot of the stuff was put in place by Dr. Gamble that we had to continue and follow up on,” said Elwell, who credited the work of numerous consultants, ENMU staff and current compliance officer Matt Grawrock. “We had a lot of changes in compliance under (former athletic director) Greg Waggoner.”

The probation impacted every ENMU team except for rodeo, which does not fall under the umbrella of the NCAA.

On the surface, the probation didn’t seem to impact athletic successes, particularly because it included no postseason bans. With the exception of softball, every ENMU athletic team has competed in at least a Lone Star Conference tournament during the probation period, and in a few cases qualified for national tournaments or meets. The university has had two athletic directors depart since the probation period began and nearly all of ENMU’s athletic programs are with a different coach than they were when probation started, but that scenario can be argued as the natural attrition of college athletics.

The university was required to report its probation status on various public documents and inform any athletic job candidate or potential student-athlete during recruiting.

“I don’t know if that affected the decision of any coaches or any athletes to not come here,” Elwell said.

The violations constituted ENMU’s first infraction since it became part of the NCAA in 1984.