The NCAA announced Tuesday that several violations occurred in the Ohio State women’s golf, women’s basketball and fencing programs over the past few years. Credit: Jack Westerheide | Lantern File Photo
The NCAA announced Tuesday that several violations occurred in the Ohio State women’s golf, women’s basketball and fencing programs over the past few years.
All three programs have been placed on four-year probation by the NCAA while the Ohio State athletic department was fined $5,000 in addition to 3 percent of the fencing budget and 1 percent of the women’s golf and basketball budgets. The NCAA’s findings stem from the Klein investigation, which dug into recruiting, Title IX and practice violations from the women’s basketball, fencing and women’s golf teams and resulted in a self-imposed, postseason ban for all three programs during the 2020-21 season.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said he was “proud of our university, athletics department, and the involved sports programs for our management of this matter” in a statement Tuesday.
“We are committed to our proactive and pre-existing system of compliance methods and rules education,” Smith said. “A comprehensive compliance program ensures adherence and institutional control over the athletics department and furthers the mission of the university. We are pleased that this matter is now behind us, and our focus remains on our student athletes.”
The fencing and women’s basketball teams saw self-imposed scholarship reductions in 2020-21, but the fencing team will see a 10 percent reduction in 2022-23, as prescribed by the NCAA. Fencing also received numerous recruiting penalties, including 10-week bans on unofficial visits and recruiting communications, as well as a one-week ban on off-campus recruiting for the fencing coaching staff.
All three programs will be required to vacate wins, championships and individual records from student-athletes that benefitted from recruiting violations. The women’s basketball team will be required to vacate 52 wins, including its 2017 and 2018 Big Ten championships, as well as its Big Ten Tournament championship in 2018.
The fencing team will also vacate several titles, including a trio of Midwest Fencing Conference championships from 2016-18 and top-three finishes in the NCAA Tournament from those three years.
In addition to program penalties, former fencing head coach Vladimir Nazlymov and former women’s basketball associate coach Patrick Klein received 10-year show-cause orders — which aim to restrict them from athletics-related activities unless their university shows cause as to why the violations should no longer apply.
While several programs were impacted by the penalties levied by the NCAA, the governing body said the compliance program in place at Ohio State “outweighs the deficiencies identified by the panel.”
Ohio State’s athletic department will remain on probation until April 18, 2026.
