On top of disagreeing with various facets of the NCAA’s report on Syracuse and the severity of its punishments, Jim Boeheim was not pleased with how his program was treated compared to the SU football program.

“The Committee on Infractions suggested in this report that there was a 10-year period where I failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance, and during which student-athletes in the men’s basketball program ‘freely committed academic fraud.’” Boeheim said at a press conference on Thursday morning.

“In fact, during that 10-year period, after an extensive investigation, there was one case of academic fraud in the men’s basketball program.”

Boeheim hinted that that was the case of Fab Melo. He then continued by saying that the football program was faultier in that time.

“… I note that in the same time period the Committee found that three student-athletes in the football program did commit academic fraud,” Boeheim said. “These infractions did not go unnoticed, but the penalties on the football program were far less than what was imposed on the basketball program.

“Does the central issue of head coach responsibility apply only to the basketball program? This illustrates the arbitrary manner in which the NCAA issues its penalties not just from school-to-school, but even within a single institution.”

As part of the NCAA’s punishments for more than a decade of violations within the athletic department, the basketball program will forfeit 12 scholarships over a four-year period, vacate games from five different seasons and will have its off-campus recruiters reduced from four to two until May 31, 2017. Syracuse Chancellor Kent Syverud confirmed in a campus-wide email Wednesday that the university will appeal the scholarship reduction and vacated wins.

Additionally, Boeheim received a nine-game suspension for the start of conference play next season — which he said he’ll partly appeal on Thursday — and the program will also be on probation for five years.

As for the football program, it will also serve a five-year probationary period, vacate wins from three seasons and, like the basketball program, pay $500 for every contest an ineligible student played in.

The rest of the NCAA’s punishments focused on Boeheim and the men’s basketball program, even with a handful of football players sprinkled into the report. It’s worth noting that while a football program has to account for close to 100 student-athletes, and more in some cases, Boeheim’s teams generally hover around 15.

Either way, Boeheim made sure to point out that football players were the first to get tangled up with a local YMCA and that the football program was also guilty of violating the school’s self-written drug policy.

“I wish I knew the answer to that question,” said Boeheim regarding why the basketball program received harsher punishments. “And I don’t want the football program to be penalized, I love the football program, I’ve supported, I’ve been to every game here since I’ve been here.

“They were the first student-athletes to go to the Y, they were involved obviously in the drug-testing program. They had three cases of academic fraud, there were no charges brought. I don’t know the answer to that, that’s something (the NCAA) would have to answer.”

Published on March 19, 2015 at 1:40 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse