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USF: No evidence to support personal phone call claims

School investigated ex-women's basketball players' stories of using coaches' office phones.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 15, 2001

TAMPA -- A University of South Florida investigation has concluded there is insufficient evidence to prove women's basketball players were regularly allowed to make personal phone calls from office phones, a possible violation of NCAA rules.

In October, at least five former players told the Times that team members frequently were permitted to make long-distance calls from the coaches' phones, particularly during the 1999-2000 season.

But after a five-month investigation, Steve Horton, USF assistant athletic director/compliance, said that based on interviews he conducted and documentation he received, he believes no NCAA violations occurred. Horton submitted his report to acting athletic directors Lee Roy Selmon and Barbara Sparks-McGlinchy on Wednesday.

"In this type of investigation, you try to look for patterns of any type," Horton said. "After interviewing all the people that I did and not finding anything, and then with the information that we got from the phone logs, I didn't find anything (to substantiate the claims)."

Horton, however, did not interview the former players who made the claims. They are involved in federal racial discrimination lawsuits against the university and would not speak without their attorney present. The university would not agree to that stipulation, said Jonathan Alpert, the former players' attorney.

The former players, including Charmain Leslie and Dione Smith, told the Times in October that they were allowed to call family and friends from the coaches' offices and that the practice was widespread among team members.

"The coaches knew about it," Leslie said at the time. "Basically, the way it worked was you'd say you wanted to make a call. You'd go in, dial the number, (the coaches) would put in their code and then walk out. Supposedly it was to call family, but sometimes I'd call friends."

According to the NCAA manual, it is "not permissible to allow student-athletes to use a telephone or credit card for personal reasons without charge or at a reduced cost." Such actions are referred to as an extra benefit.

As part of his investigation, Horton asked the USF Information Technology Department to cross-reference the calls made from coaches extensions in the women's basketball office to the home numbers of all current and former players from June 1, 1999, to Jan. 1, 2001.

Horton said much of his inquiry centered on the phone logs.

"It had to, when it came down to it," he said. "If one of the players said, 'No, I didn't make any calls," and it turned out there were 25-30 calls made to her home, then you'd have something. But that was not the case."

During taped interviews, some current players said they made personal calls. But Horton said phone records did not substantiate those claims. He also said some calls were related to basketball issues, which is allowed by the NCAA.

As for calls to homes of players who would not be interviewed, Horton said there was "no way to know what the nature of those calls were."

Horton's findings centered on two major factors: There was no discernible pattern of calls from the coaches' offices to players' homes and few of the calls lasted more than five minutes.

"You look for length of time in an investigation like this," Horton said. "If you're going to call and talk to somebody to just talk in a social nature, I think the calls will be longer than five minutes, and the vast majority were in the five-minute range. I have interviewed as many people as I can, and I have nothing here other than I saw so-and-so making phone calls, and we have nothing to say they couldn't have been calling a friend that lived across campus. You just don't know. In the future, I think I may say to coaches just don't let players use your phones for anything."

Selmon said he had not had time to thoroughly review Horton's report but he is satisfied with the result.

"Unless something else comes up, (Horton) has taken it about as far as he can at this point," Selmon said. "I've not had a chance to examine it closely, but I'm assuming everything is okay with the NCAA."

Horton said he consulted with NCAA director of enforcement Mark Jones before submitting his report. NCAA spokeswoman Jane Jankowski could not be reached for comment.

Horton said that though he considers the matter closed, if the former players come forward to substantiate their claims after the litigation has been settled, the university would investigation further.

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