NCAA brings down the hammer on Stephen F. Austin college athletics

[caption id="attachment_300435" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Elsa, Staff / Getty Images[/caption] In another classic case of NCAA hypocrisy, Stephen F. Austin is being forced to vacate a total of 289 wins, including conference championships, across several sports over the course of 2013 to 2019. Due to an administrative error in regards to the academic administration office, 82 student-athletes were ruled eligible when they actually were not. The University has been hit with Level 1 violations. Banners from the basketball team's conference championships will be taken down. The damage done from this is going to rock the SFA program for a while. On Wednesday, the athletic department was placed on a three-season postseason ban. Here is everything SFA will lose/be forced to vacate, according to East Texas Matters:

• 117 men’s basketball wins (including the 2016 NCAA tournament win over West Virginia)
• 112 baseball victories
• 31 softball wins
• 29 football wins
• Three men’s basketball conference championships
• Three years of probation;
• Public reprimand and censure;
• A fine of $5,000 plus one-half of one percent of the total budgets for football and men’s basketball;
• The return of 50 percent of the University’s financial share earned from participation in the 2016 NCAA Tournament
• Included in the vacation of wins are conference championships in men’s basketball in 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2017-18, as well as the program’s First Round win in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.  The banners recognizing those achievements will be removed from William R. Johnson Coliseum.
• A 2.5% reduction in financial aid awards (scholarships) in football for 2020-2021 and 2021-2022; a 5% reduction in baseball in either 2020-21 or 2021-2022 and the loss of one scholarship in men’s basketball in either 2020-2021 or 2021-22.
• Prior to the conclusion of the probationary period, the institution will submit to a data review with APP staff.

Good lord... This is as close to the 'Death Penalty" as we're going to see from the NCAA in the year 2020. "The primary issue was that former department personnel responsible for the certification process were incorrectly counting all semester credit hours to determine academic eligibility instead of counting only degree-applicable credits, as prescribed by NCAA rules." Ryan Ivey said, who is the Athletics Director at SFA. Now tell me this... Why didn't the same thing happen to North Carolina or Kansas? Oh wait, we already know that answer: Stephen F. Austin doesn't bring in the same kind of money that those blue blood schools typically do. "The university was found to lack institutional control because it did not adequately monitor and control the athletics eligibility certification process, failed to properly apply academic certification rules and did not involve staff members from outside of athletics in the certification process," the NCAA announced in a press release. Strippers and fake classes are good to go, but don't you dare let the missteps of a previous administration surface or the NCAA will destroy the next 10 years of your future. Congratulations SFA, you were just small enough of a financial blip on the NCAA's radar that they felt comfortable dragging you through the mud.