EUGENE, Ore. -- The NCAA has hit the University of Oregon in the pocketbook in levying sanctions that include loss of potential television revenue for athletic program violations such as phony school credits and a 'paid talent scout.'
'It is to television revenue that you look for relief in your fiscal worries,' said Ray Hawk, UO vice president for administration and finance.
The NCAA Committee on Infractions' two-year probation for the school includes sanctions that will prohibit Oregon's football team from participating in any postseason bowl games following the 1982 season.
The sanctions, announced Wednesday, also ban the Ducks from appearing on any NCAA-controlled television program or series during the 1982 season, but do not keep UO from sharing in any of the revenue divided among the other Pac-10 teams from a school's Rose Bowl or TV appearances.
In addition, the school will be permitted to offer only 25 initial scholarships, rather than the normal limit of 30, to football recruits during the 1982-83 academic year and will be permitted to award only 28 scholarships during the 1983-84 academic year.
Also, as a result of two violations occuring in the basketball program, Oregon will be permitted to award only 14 scholarships in that sport during the 1982-83 academic year, rather than the normal 15. However, the basketball team was not placed on probation.
The violations included creation of a 'secret' fund at a Eugene travel agency, misuse of UO telephone services, and for operations of several other individuals, one of whom the NCAA ruled to be a 'paid talent scout,' the school said in a statement.
'Even more severe penalties would have been imposed by the NCAA if the Pacific 10 Conference had not taken earlier action related to the academic violations in the case,' said Charles Alan Wright, committee chairman.
The violations involving athletes receiving unearned athletic credits for courses signed up for at other schools across the country, and in some cases tuition paid for or advanced by members of the UO athletic staff, the school said.
The university also said that several athletes, whose names were deleted, received meals at restaurants through an arrangement between UO 'athletic interests' and the owner. In addition, the sanction report said the violation in the basketball program invcluded the recruiting of one player by former members of the school's basketball staff.
Rick Bay, who took over as athletic director this fall, said he thought the NCAA was too tough on Oregon.
'In my view, the penalty is severe and I am particularly distressed over our ineliigility for a football television appearance next fall,' he said. 'Although a television appearance is never a certainty, even when a team's record seems to dictate such an opportunity, the money involved is so signifiant the possibility represents hope, if nothing else.'
Football Coach Rich Brook said, 'I am glad after two years we are able to put this chapter behind us. Now I look forward to bigger and better things. I'm not interested in looking back. All I want now is to look ahead.
'I don't necessarily agree with all the conclusions the NCAA has arrived at.'
