Tom Izzo will serve a one-game suspension during Michigan State's matchup with Prairie View A&M Saturday after the NCAA found the school committed a secondary violation during a basketball camp.
The Spartans said in a statement that the school hired an "individual associated with a prospect," as determined by the NCAA, for the Michigan State Boys Basketball Camp in June 2010. The individual was paid $475 for five days of work with middle school-aged campers.
"I've always placed a high importance on following the rules and pride myself on adhering to high standards of professional conduct and doing things the right way," Izzo said in a statement released by the school late Friday. "This is an isolated and inadvertent secondary violation of a new rules interpretation. I regret that it happened.
"While I accept the findings that we unintentionally violated the broad letter of the interpretation, we did not violate the intent of the interpretation in that we did not receive any benefit, nor did we attempt to gain an advantage.
MSU athletic director Mark Hollis noted what he deemed the "broad definition" of the term "individual associated with a prospect" led to the violation.
The NCAA defines an individual associated with a prospect as "any person who maintains (or directs others to maintain) contact with prospective student-athlete, the prospective student-athlete's relatives or legal guardians, or coaches at any point during the prospective student-athlete's participation in basketball, and whose contact is directly or indirectly related to prospective student-athlete's: a) athletic skills and abilities; or b) recruitment by or enrollment in an NCAA institution."
The NCAA toughened its enforcement of existing rules governing the funneling of money and hiring of persons associated with prospects in late October, 2009.
Neither the identity of the employee or the recruit were given.
Assistant head coach Mark Montgomery will coach in Izzo's place.
December 17 2010 Last updated at 05:55 PM ET
Tom Izzo Suspended One Game for NCAA Violation
By FanHouse Staff
| Follow on Twitter: @NCAAFanHouse
Read More: tom+izzo, tom+izzo+ncaa+violation
- 9Comments
- Say Something »
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Izzo, the king of the Final Fours. Most coaches dream of playing for a National Championship, this guy with more talent than most any other Big Ten thinks its cool to finish 2nd in the Big Ten and go to Final Fours. While every other big time program would kill to have his talent, all he wants is to hang another Final Four banner on the ceiling and say we did it!!! We did it!! His talent alone should get him to a Final Four it takes a coach to win it. Oh well at least the football team is going to the Rose Bowl after beating the other most overated coach in the Big Ten. What? They are not going to the Rose Bowl? Oh well its ok with them, at least they get to hang a banner that says We did it!! We did it!! (win a big ten title).
must be a sore loser loser from Ann Arbor
jealous are we ?
Tom Izzo is ONE of the most respected coaches around. He is one of the good guys. He makes no excuse and took the blame for this even tho he really did not have to. If you know anything about college hoops, you KNOW this is true!!
Love Izzo at tournament time. He however is the biggest whiner/cry baby I have ever seen. When they lose, he often times throws the officials under the bus in his post game comments. Glad to seee Sparty do well in football....maybe the ball bounced their way a few times (Northwestern game Purdue and Notre Dame) and of course they were blown out by a marginal Iowa team. I wish they were in the Rose Bowl......then we would find out how bad they really are, TCU would crush them.
He does whine sometime, I will give ya that!! But his face expressions are priceless, and makes it look like he is crying more than he really is lol. They prob. would get beat bad by TCU in football. But they have come along way, and the BIG 10 is a tough conference (my opinion anyhow).
The NCAA rules and regulations are almost as silly, convoluted and impossible to understand and follow as the rules and regulations of the PGA.
NCAA has its priorities right for sure. Izzo gets suspended and Cam Newton goes off scott free.
Someone needs to investigate the NCAA. Here is an organization with unlimited power, responsible to no one, and with a treasury worth a
king's ransom. Surely they are in violation of anti-trust laws. The
recent appeals process is like sending a guy to the electric chair,
then asking if something was wrong with apppeal. Where there is this
kind of secrecy, there is corruption. How about an investigatio, you investigative reporters!!!
Tom Izzo gets a game suspension for some minor violation, yet John Calipari, who has two vacated Final Fours and two schools on probation, along with God only knows how many cheating players under his regime, somehow never gets a suspension. Gotta love the NCAA's definition of "justice."