TSU football banned again from postseason

For the second consecutive season, Texas Southern's football team will face NCAA sanctions this fall for shortcomings in retaining and graduating student-athletes, including a ban on postseason play and practice limitations that will extend into next spring, the school announced Friday.

TSU's announcement, based on the results of a meeting last month with NCAA officials, came in advance of the NCAA's disclosure next week of Academic Progress Report scores for all colleges and universities.

The news came almost one year to the day from the announcement that TSU would lose 14.78 scholarships for the 2011-12 school year because of APR shortfalls, the most severe sanctions levied by the NCAA against any school in the country.

And now, TSU faces another year of penalties. Because of its shortcomings in the NCAA report to be released next week, TSU said it will not be eligible to compete in the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship game or the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs this fall.

For the second consecutive year, its football practice schedule and its out-of-season schedule will be cut by four hours per week, and it cannot stage spring practice or a spring game in 2013. All lost hours must be replaced by hours of academic-related activities, the school said.

Ray of light on horizon

Still, TSU athletic director Charles McClelland is "confident that we are heading in the right direction" with academic reforms designed to retain and graduate student-athletes.

He said that based on current academic performance, TSU will exceed NCAA requirements next year and will not face a third year of APR sanctions.

"Texas Southern University athletics is a much-improved program today, and despite this setback we are proud of the improvements that we have made to date in all 16 programs," McClelland said in a statement issued by the university.

A second year of APR-related sanctions is not unexpected.

A year ago, TSU staff member Michael Moleta, a former NCAA staff member hired to monitor the department's academic performance, said the school could post perfect APR numbers ? retaining and graduating every eligible player ? and be in danger of future NCAA sanctions.

McClelland, though, was adamant in his assertions TSU has improved significantly during the current academic year, the results of which will be factored into the four-year APR average a year from now, and that its APR troubles are about to end.

"We have totally revamped our football program," he said. "We're 100 percent about academics. And you will see the numbers that will bear that out."

Awaiting probe results

McClelland said the school announced the upcoming penalties in advance of the NCAA's release of the latest APR figures "because it was our prerogative to do so."

TSU also is awaiting the results of an NCAA investigation that could include evidence of academic irregularities during the last decade prior to McClelland's arrival at Texas Southern University and could include events that took place under former football coach Johnnie Cole, who led the Tigers to the 2010 SWAC championship and was dismissed in the spring of 2011.

david.barron@chron.com

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