The NCAA will not reduce Jim Boeheim's nine-game suspension, but the Syracuse basketball coach will only miss the team's first three ACC games.
"The Infractions Appeals Committee determined the stipulation that the suspension be served during conference play was a departure from precedent," the NCAA said in a statement. "Because the coach was not directly involved in the underlying violations of the case, the appeals committee modified the penalty to begin with the team's next game."
According to ESPN, the NCAA notified Boeheim of its ruling on his appeal Wednesday night after the Orange's game against Wisconsin. The nine-game suspension will stand, but it will go into effect at midnight on Saturday, hours before Syracuse's rivalry game with Georgetown.
"The University is pleased the Appeals Committee recognized that the initial sanction imposed on Coach Boeheim was too harsh," Kevin Quinn, Syracuse University senior vice president for public affairs, said in a statement. "Nevertheless, we supported Coach Boeheim's argument made during his hearing that any nine game suspension would be too severe based on previous cases, and his lack of involvement in the underlying conduct, which the Appeals Committee recognized."
The NCAA determined in March that Boeheim failed to monitor his program while players committed various rules violations and played while they should have been ineligible. Before the NCAA levied its sanctions, Syracuse self-imposed a postseason ban, which was upheld.
In a partial appeal ruling last week, the NCAA upheld its decision to void any wins between 2004 and 2012 in which a player that should have been ineligible played, but lessened the program's scholarship reduction over the next four years from 12 to eight.
The appeal ruling may appear as a partial win for Boeheim, but the coach is not pleased with how the NCAA handled his case. He will miss the Orange's last six nonconference games and their first three ACC games before returning to face Roy Williams and North Carolina on Jan. 9.
"They gave us two days' notice," Boeheim told ESPN Thursday. "If they were going to do this, why not six weeks ago? We'd been preparing to use the next few games and practices to prepare the coaching staff for what was going to happen. Now we have less than two days. It's less than ideal. The players are in class. I can't pull them out of class. They're going to know from the public before they hear it from me."
