The NCAA’s committee on infractions announced on Friday that BYU will be forced to vacate 47 games stemming from the interactions that star guard Nick Emery had with a booster.
Emery played in 47 wins during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons. The player, who is suspended for the first nine games of this season, withdrew from school prior to the start of the 2017-18 season.
Over the course of a two-year period, Emery received more than $12,000 in impermissible benefits from four different boosters. The NCAA determined that the booster left $200 in Emery’s locker in the BYU locker room, that he was granted access to a golf course the booster was a member of, the the player was given use of a 2017 Volkswagen Jetta and that trips to Germany, New York, Texas and California were paid for.
(Since this is BYU, it only makes sense that among the offenses that will cost head coach Dave Rose 47 of his 282 career wins was, according to reporting from the Salt Lake Tribune, a trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.)
“Although this case involved only one student-athlete, the committee noted in its report that it was concerned about the level of unmonitored access the four different boosters had with the prominent student-athlete,” the NCAA wrote in their decision. “The COI was particularly troubled that one of the boosters had access to the men’s basketball locker room and used that access to provide the student-athlete with cash.
The school will be appealing the decision to vacate the games.
“The vacation-of-records penalty is extremely harsh and unprecedented given the details of the case,” the school’s statement said. “For more than two decades, the NCAA has not required an institution to vacate games in similar cases where the COI found there was no institutional knowledge of or involvement in the violation by either the coaching staff or other university personnel.
“In fact, this sanction includes the most severe vacation-of-record penalty ever imposed in the history of NCAA Division I basketball for infractions that included no institutional knowledge or involvement. In addition, in the case most similar to this situation, appropriate penalties were imposed, but no wins were vacated. BYU believes the vacation- of-records penalty is unfair and not consistent with recent NCAA precedent.”