Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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18 DECEMBER 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY MATT JONES N otre Dame's losing season somehow got even worse. The NCAA Committee on Infractions handed down a stiff penalty to Notre Dame Nov. 22, recommending that the school vacate all football wins from the 2012 and 2013 seasons due to a former student athletic trainer's misconduct. Notre Dame said it discovered in 2014 what the former student trainer had done in years prior, which in- cluded writing papers for football players. The university lowered player grades retroactively and gave the athletes no credit. An NCAA release said the Notre Dame trainer committed academic misconduct — which Notre Dame does not dispute — with two players and provided six others with imper- missible academic benefits. One ad- ditional football player committed academic misconduct on his own. The Irish went 12-0 in the 2012 regu- lar season before losing to Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game. In 2013, Notre Dame went 9-4 with a Pinstripe Bowl win over Rutgers. Notre Dame announced it will ap- peal the vacation of wins penalty. "I was always hopeful that we wouldn't be at this day," head coach Brian Kelly said at a press confer- ence shortly after the NCAA's release came out. "We did the right thing, I'm proud of our support staff. I'm proud of the people that represented us at Notre Dame during this time. "If doing the right thing means that you've got to put an asterisk next to these games, that's fine with me. We still beat Oklahoma, we still beat Wake Forest, we still beat all those teams. So you can put an asterisk next to it. If that makes you feel bet- ter, then that's fine with me." The NCAA's investigation of the misconduct confirmed the findings of Notre Dame's internal investiga- tion, which originate from August 2014, when the school said it became "concerned about potential academic misconduct by one student-athlete and the former student." Notre Dame then launched an investigation. Five former Notre Dame football players — wide receiver DaVaris Dan- iels, safety Eilar Hardy, linebacker Kendall Moore, cornerback KeiVarae Russell and defensive end Ishaq Wil- liams — were suspended prior to the 2014 season for academic misconduct. The other four players implicated in the NCAA report are unknown. Kelly said he had "zero" culpa- bility in the academic violations at Notre Dame and that the resources and support staff for academics has since been addressed and bolstered. The vacation of wins, Kelly said, is an unprecedented penalty for a violation that was strictly "student on student cheating." Eighty percent of colleges, he said, go through cheat- ing. No coach, academic support staff personnel or faculty member was aware of misconduct, Kelly said. "It's never happened before in the history of the NCAA," Kelly said of the nature of this penalty, which he deemed excessive. "The penalty has never been issued in this fashion before. "Clearly when you hear about va- cating wins, you think about lack of institutional control, you hear of clear abuse within the university rel- ative to extra benefits, things of that nature. When these don't even come close to that, although you hear those GOODBYE WINS? NCAA recommends Notre Dame vacate all wins in 2012 and 2013 seasons due to academic misconduct Brian Kelly said the NCAA's decision to force Notre Dame to vacate all wins from the 2012 and 2013 seasons is "excessive." PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND