Published: August 18, 2008 11:35 pm         

Report: Pruett tied to academic fraud at Marshall

The past has reared its ugly head to former Marshall football coach Bob Pruett.

A report on CBSSports.com says Pruett, who coached the Thundering Herd for nine seasons, was directly involved in academic fraud and overpayment of athletes who worked while in school from 1996 to 2000. This according to affidavits filed by David Ridpath, the school’s former compliance director, in an ongoing lawsuit.

Marshall was penalized for the infractions by the NCAA, which put the athletic department on four years’ probation beginning in 2001. The charges against Marshall included impermissible employment of academic non-qualifiers, academic fraud and lack of institutional control.

Both the football and basketball teams had their scholarships reduced significantly. The football team is now back at the maximum scholarship limit of 85 for the first time under fourth-year coach Mark Snyder.

The report cites substantial sworn testimonies in the affidavits.

Mike Jenkins, a former Marshall strength coach now at the University of Memphis, says “Coach Pruett assured the staff that certain football athletes ... would be eligible for the Fall 2000 season because ‘they were guaranteed to get A’s ...,’” according to the story written by Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com.

Also included is a statement from one of the players involved, Sam Goines, who claims he made “$200 per 8-hour day,” which breaks down to $25 per hour.

Goines says that in order to maintain his eligibilty, Pruett made him sign a statement saying he was paid $12.50 per hour at Chapman Printing in Huntington.

“We were instructed by the coaching staff ... that we should not talk about the job(s) or tell anyone about the job and keep it in the football family,” Goines stated.

At issue, now, is whether the NCAA chooses to open a case after its statute of limitations has expired. The NCAA Manual states that a notice of allegations shall be limited to possible violations occurring “not four years before the notice of inquiry is forwarded ...”

The NCAA states the following are not subject to the four-year limitation: Information that indicates “a pattern of willful violations ...” or “a blatant disregard for” NCAA rules and “an effort to conceal the occurrence of the violation.”

The NCAA has gone back into several cases after the statute had expired. One notable case included Jim Tressel’s Youngstown State program in the 1990s. However, a veteran college athletic administrator familiar with the Ridpath lawsuit and the NCAA process said it is “not likely” the NCAA would come back in on Pruett.

Pruett was not named in the infractions report, but Ridpath sued both Pruett and Marshall administrators in 2002 after he was reassigned from his compliance job to director of judicial affairs three months before the NCAA penalties were handed down. Ridpath disputes that the reassignment was listed as a “corrective action” by Marshall in the NCAA case.

The defendants are seeking summary judgment of the lawsuit. The affidavits emerged after Ridpath’s lawyers filed a resistance to summary judgment last week in West Virginia federal court.

Ridpath is now an associate athletic director at Ohio University. Marshall and Ohio begin a football series in 2010.

Ridpath is seeking financial damages from both the university and Pruett. He claims he was on track to become an AD before he was reassigned.

Pruett, a Beckley native, retired in March 2005 with a 94-23 record, making him the school’s all-time winningest football coach. The Herd went 15-0 in 1996, Pruett’s first season, and won the Division I-AA national championship.

Marshall moved to Division I the following season and won five Mid-American Conference championships and five bowl games under Pruett. The 1999 team, led by senior quarterback Chad Pennington and a defense that allowed just 10.4 points per game, went 13-0 and finished the year ranked No. 10 in the nation.

Pruett, who could not be reached for comment, came out of retirement in February when old friend Al Groh hired him as defensive coordinator at the University of Virginia.

— On the Internet: www.CBSSports.com