The Syracuse men’s basketball program has re-gained one scholarship for each of the next four years, the NCAA announced Wednesday afternoon. Initially, the NCAA imposed a penalty that took away three scholarships for each of the next four years. Now, SU will only have two taken away in each of 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19.

The Division I Infractions Appeals Committee upheld the vacation of 101 wins and Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim now drops from second on the all-time wins list (969 victories) to sixth (868). Before the ruling was released Wednesday, Syracuse also received a $1.23 million reduction in a previous financial penalty. The committee acknowledged the mistake of requiring SU to forfeit that amount received from the 2013 NCAA Tournament.

The NCAA’s release states that in SU’s appeal of the scholarship reductions, the university claimed the penalty was disproportionate to the details of the case. The committee ruled that the scholarship reductions were a “departure from precedent,” but that the stripping of wins “was not an abuse of discretion by the Committee on Infractions.”

Syracuse NCAA Violations Appeal Ruling

The initial punishments stemmed from a lack of institutional control within the men’s basketball program. Syracuse self-reported multiple violations dating back to 2001, including the failure to follow its own drug policy and academic misconduct.

The initial penalties handed down included five years probation, the reduction of three scholarships for each of the next four years, financial penalties, two-year recruiting restrictions, vacation of wins and the suspension of Boeheim for the first nine conference games.

The appeal on Boeheim’s suspension is still pending.

Published on November 25, 2015 at 12:14 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman