Issues at UConn cut down list of programs without major infractions

You can count the number of top-tier college athletic programs without an NCAA rap sheet on one hand. Minus a finger.

The NCAA violations at Connecticut found under the watch of Jim Calhoun are the first for the school's athletics department.
CAPTION
By Jeff Hanisch, US Presswire
Connecticut was officially scratched from the list Tuesday, when the NCAA added to penalties self-imposed by the school last October for rules violations committed in men's basketball two and three years earlier. Among the sanctions: the suspension of Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun from UConn's first three Big East Conference games next season.

The Huskies also were docked one of their 13 allotted scholarships for three years and hit with recruiting restrictions beyond those they assessed themselves.

"We are disappointed," athletics director Jeff Hathaway said in a statement, "that the (infractions) committee determined that additional penalties needed to be imposed."

The infractions stain is Connecticut's first in any sport. It leaves four marquee athletics programs -- of the 65 in the nation's six major football-playing conferences, plus Notre Dame -- without a major case in their histories, and two of them carry asterisks. Boston College and Northwestern endured point-shaving scandals that weren't adjudicated by the NCAA.

The Unblemished Two: Penn State and Stanford.

The remaining 62 programs have been involved in 241 infractions cases dating to 1953, according to NCAA records. Arizona State is the dubious leader with nine, the most recent a postseason ban in baseball late last year for recruiting and other improprieties. Well fewer than half of those schools (28) have gone 10 years without a major case.