Speaking publicly about the NCAA's disciplinary action against him and his men's basketball program at Syracuse, Jim Boeheim indicated he believes the charges against him are trumped up due to his status.
The Hall of Fame coach told ESPN the NCAA wants to make an example of him in order to show how it comes down hard on coaches they believe are not monitoring their staff and players. However, Boeheim said he does not even know what the NCAA's definition of the charge is.
"I didn't commit a violation in eight years of investigation, and obviously they tried to find everything that was there, as they should," he told ESPN. "I'm guilty of not monitoring, which is a very nebulous term. Nobody has defined it. What does that mean?"
The NCAA investigated Boeheim's team for a range of violations committed from 2004 to 2012. Chiefly among its sanctions, the NCAA vacated 108 wins in that time period for Syracuse playing with players who should have been ruled ineligible by failed drug tests and academic fraud.
In case of the latter, the NCAA determined a basketball coach helped a player with his coursework in order to keep him academically eligible. The NCAA also found a Syracuse booster who paid two of Boeheim's players a total of $8,000.
For lacking oversight of his program the NCAA also suspended Boeheim for Syracuse's first nine ACC games next season and took away 12 scholarships over the next four years.
"I think we feel the punishment has been excessive, and it's the first time a head coach was really charged with the monitoring part and been so severely punished," Boeheim said. "I know how many games we've won.
"I don't know how many they take away. I know how many we've won, for sure."
