U of South Carolina football violations

[The Third Dukes]

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- South Carolina admitted to 10 NCAA violations committed under former football coach Lou Holtz in a report released Wednesday.

Five of the violations were classified as major.

The report was prepared jointly by the NCAA enforcement staff and the university and has been forwarded to the NCAA's Committee on Infractions, which can accept, reject or modify the proposed penalties.

The school found violations occurred when prospective student-athletes were given impermissible tutoring sessions and offseason workouts from 1999-2002.

South Carolina was also found to have a lack of institutional control.

``These are serious violations that are not in keeping with the values of the University of South Carolina and our athletics programs,'' University President Andrew Sorensen said. ``They certainly cast our university in a light, which no one in the Carolina family condones.''

Holtz did not immediately return messages left by The Associated Press at his home in Orlando, Fla.

The school proposed two years of probation, a reduction from 56 to 50 paid campus visits for football recruits this year and next; and a loss of two football scholarships for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years.

Steve Spurrier, who replaced Holtz, says he hopes the NCAA will accept the penalties, ``which I believe are fair, so that we can get this matter behind us.''

School officials said Tom Perry, former senior associate athletic director for academic support services, is no longer with the school and and Pat Moorer, former strength and conditioning coach, was reassigned after Spurrier took the job.

Holtz retired at the end of last season.

``Any violation of the NCAA legislation is unacceptable, and I regret that five violations not previously discovered by the athletics department were discovered,'' said Mike McGee, who retired after more than 12 years as South Carolina's AD last month.

The report closes a chapter during which South Carolina had some of greatest success as Holtz went 17-7 and won the Outback Bowls in 2000-01.

``Any success that we have in athletics should be earned honorably and never be tainted by any violation of the rules and regulations that govern intercollegiate athletics,'' University of South Carolina board Chairman Herbert Adams said.

[Agent Risktaker]

It goes on everywhere -- you just don't hear about it because colleges are rarely caught. I mean, almost every Division 1 college out there has violations every year but most of them are rarely caught. Just how college football is nowadays.

[Guest Bluesman]

Doesn't excuse the behavior. The big problem is the fact that NCAA football has become a business (and a highly profitable one) above anything else.