Written by Pat Forde at YahooSports.com
The NCAA Committee on Infractions issued a report Wednesday detailing prior rules violations committed by Baylor assistant football coaches Kendal Briles and Tate Wallis.
The report is unrelated to the sexual assault scandal that has enveloped the Bears football program in recent months, leading to wholesale changes in leadership of the school and its athletic department.
The school released the report to the public Wednesday. The NCAA found the Baylor staffers committed two Level II violations – Level I being the most serious and Level IV the least – but does not impose significant penalties beyond what was already levied by the institution.
Kendal Briles, son of then-head coach Art Briles, and Wallis were suspended by Baylor for one game in 2015 and prohibited from off-campus recruiting for 12 weeks after impermissible evaluations and contacts with prospects in the Dallas area. The two assistants attended track meets in order to “be seen” by two prospects, according to the NCAA report, but did not record their visits with the Baylor compliance office as evaluations of those prospects. The purpose was to avoid those visits counting against the overall number of in-person evaluations the staff could have with those players.
Baylor also discontinued football recruiting at track and field meets and stopped recruiting one of the two prospects for a period of eight weeks. The NCAA imposed an additional $5,000 fine and public reprimand and censure for Briles and Wallis.
The NCAA determined that Baylor’s attendance and interaction with recruits gave the program “more than a minimal advantage over institutions that were in compliance with NCAA recruiting legislation.”
But in applying few additional sanctions, the NCAA cited the following mitigating factors by Baylor: “Prompt acknowledgement and acceptance of responsibility and imposition of meaningful corrective measures and/or penalties; … (a)ffirmative steps to expedite final resolution of the matter; and … (e)stablished history of self-reporting Level III or secondary violations.”
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