Women's Tennis: NCAA penalizes University with major violation

The University was pronounced guilty of a “major violation” of NCAA rules Wednesday, in a case in which an alumnus contributed roughly $33,000 for a women’s tennis player’s tuition, room and board during the 2007-08 academic year, and the fall of 2008.

The alumnus self-reported his violation after reviewing a standard rules-focused e-mail from the University sent to alumni athletics supporters. The school subsequently notified the Ivy League and conducted an internal investigation. The names of the student and alumnus were not released.

Only three members of the team were enrolled during the entirety of the concerned period: seniors Blakely Ashley, Sarah Hoffman and Taylor Marable.

The team, coaching staff and athletics department were unaware of the donation until the alumnus reported it, according to a University statement released Wednesday afternoon. The alumnus said he met the player four years before she decided to apply to Princeton, and would have donated the money regardless of where she enrolled. He offered to support the student after her parents noted their “unwillingness to pay for the portion of her educational expenses not covered by a substantial award from the University’s need-based, no-loan financial aid program,” according to the statement.

The Ivy League found that “the violation was isolated and inadvertent, it did not provide the tennis team with a recruiting advantage, and the alumnus had no intention of providing the team with a recruiting advantage,” Council of Ivy Group Presidents executive director Robin Harris explained in the release. Harris said the League did not intend to impose any sanctions on the school.

The NCAA ruled that the University would receive a public reprimand and censure, and vacate all individual records for the matches in which the student won during the 2007-08 academic year and the fall of 2008, until the violation was reported. It must also include this information in all recruiting guides.

The NCAA also directed the student to “establish a payment plan to donate to charity the full amount that the alumnus had contributed toward her education,” according to the statement. Her family is now paying the costs that the financial aid program does not cover.

President Shirley Tilghman expressed her disappointment with the ruling in the statement, noting that she regretted the mistake, but believed the violation should have been ruled secondary, not major.

The women’s tennis team has had a successful run recently, despite the departure of head coach Kathy Sell after the 2008-09 school year. In the 2009-10 school year, under new head coach Megan Bradley, the team won the Ivy League title and made it to the NCAA tournament, where it narrowly lost to No. 27 Virginia in the first round.

When reached via telephone Wednesday afternoon, Bradley said neither she nor any of the players would have any comment, and that the University's communications office would be handling the issue.

Executive Editor for Sports Vikram Rao contributed reporting to this article.