Binghamton University basketball scandal

The success of Binghamton had been one of the great stories of the 2008–09 basketball season. In just the school's eighth season as a Division I program, Broadus led the Bearcats to a school record-tying 23 wins, a tie for first place in the America East Conference, and the school's first conference tournament title in 63 years. In the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the No. 15-seeded Bearcats played No. 2 seed Duke, losing 86–62. Broadus was named the America East coach of the year, earning a contract extension through the 2013–14 season. However, many were concerned that Binghamton had cut too many corners in its bid for basketball glory, sacrificing its reputation as a strong academic institution in the process. Management professor Dennis Lasser, the school's former faculty athletics representative, helped lead the effort to move Binghamton from Division III to Division I in 2001 but lost his job after Broadus was hired as head coach. Lasser, a vocal critic of the program's direction, was replaced by Sandra McMichael, a close friend of DeFleur's. On March 18, 2009, a day before Binghamton was set to take on Duke in the 2009 NCAA tournament, Elizabeth Williams, a major gifts officer for Binghamton athletics, accused associate athletic director Jason Siegel of grabbing her breast in an elevator. The accusation was amongst larger claims of "egregious acts of sexual misconduct" in the Binghamton athletic department, which included innuendo and sexist comments in the workplace. Williams sued Binghamton in July, alleging that athletic officials called her a sexual "plaything", commanded her to dress provocatively for fundraisers and asked how much money it would cost to have sex with her. Recruitment controversies As an assistant coach at George Washington and Georgetown, Broadus recruited players from Lutheran Christian Academy, a school in Philadelphia widely accused of being a diploma mill. Shortly before Broadus was hired at Binghamton, the NCAA announced it would no longer accept coursework from Lutheran Christian and several other suspected diploma mills. However, Binghamton continued to recruit players with a history at Lutheran Christian, accepting center Theo Davis and guard Devon McBride. Davis, a transfer from Gonzaga University, had a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge on his record. Several players on Binghamton's 2008–09 championship roster had transferred to the team while facing academic problems at their former schools. Guard D.J. Rivera was forced to sit out a semester at Saint Joseph's University due to academic problems. Guard Malik Alvin left the University of Texas at El Paso because of academic concerns and transferred to junior college before coming to Binghamton. Guard Emanuel "Tiki" Mayben initially signed with Syracuse University before he was deemed academically ineligible coming out of high school and also came to Binghamton as a junior college transfer. The assault garnered severe negative media attention and became the subject of an ESPN E:60 special which aired in May 2009. In November 2008, Alvin was arrested for stealing Magnum condoms from a local Walmart even as condoms were available for free on campus. While being chased by security officers, Alvin assaulted a 66-year-old woman, giving her a concussion. He was charged with petty larceny and third-degree assault, but pleaded not guilty. McBride, who would leave the team after an argument with Broadus, told The New York Times that many of his teammates frequently drank alcohol and smoked marijuana, but Broadus made no effort to rein in their off-the-court behavior. The move was believed to be made as a silent protest of Binghamton's recruiting process and the suspicious approval of Rivera's transfer waiver, which allowed him to play without sitting out a season. On September 14, a Binghamton student reported that her debit card was stolen and used illegally to purchase numerous items, including a television set. After questioning player Chretien Lukusa and reviewing store surveillance footage, Binghamton University police identified Rivera, Alvin and Paul Crosby as the culprits. A fourth basketball player, Corey Chandler, confessed to the police about his role in the crime. Rivera stated that he had found the card at a party and used it to make purchases with his teammates. On September 23, Mayben, Binghamton's starting point guard and second-leading scorer, was arrested and charged with possessing and selling crack cocaine. Broadus, saying he'd "done all [he] could" to help Mayben, kicked him off the team the next day. On September 25, Broadus announced that five other players — Rivera, Alvin, Crosby, Chandler and Fine — had been kicked off the team for unspecified violations of team rules, which was later revealed as the debit card incident per the Kaye report. Within 48 hours, Binghamton had lost its three top scorers from the previous season. With only seven scholarship players and no experienced guards, it was widely believed that the Bearcats' 2009-10 season was over before it even started. Lasser said that these dismissals amounted to an "implosion" of the Bearcat program. Although Broadus claimed the decision was his alone, the dismissals came on the same day that SUNY chancellor Nancy Zimpher demanded that DeFleur give her a full accounting of what was being done to address Mayben's arrest and other unspecified incidents. Zimpher was known for having little tolerance for athletic misconduct. While president of the University of Cincinnati, she had forced longtime basketball coach Bob Huggins to resign in 2005. Although Huggins had taken Cincinnati to heights it had not seen since the 1960s, Zimpher had been displeased with the team's poor academic performance and misbehavior off the court. Despite his role in the scandal, he would be inducted into Binghamton's Hall of Fame in 2011. == Investigation and Kaye report ==

Audit announced On October 2, Zimpher announced plans for a full audit of Binghamton's athletic department. Significantly, Zimpher stated that the audit would be overseen by the SUNY board of trustees, and not by Binghamton itself. On the same day, it was announced that Dear had been rehired. The probe was directed by Judith Kaye, the former chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals. Broadus suspended On October 14, Binghamton suspended Broadus indefinitely with pay. In announcing the suspension, acting athletic director Jim Norris cited numerous "incidents of concern." Assistant coach Mark Macon, a former star at Temple, was named interim head coach. The announcement came a week after Broadus publicly apologized to several of his athletic department colleagues for bringing "shame" to Binghamton by not properly controlling his program. Broadus was in the center of another controversy after he admitted to contacting recruits on the first day of the period when coaches are not allowed to speak with prospects that they are scouting. Kaye report and findings On February 11, 2010, Kaye released her findings in a 99-page report. Kaye found that under pressure from Broadus, Binghamton had lowered its standards for admitting basketball players to the NCAA minimum. In bowing to this pressure, Kaye said, DeFleur, Thirer and other officials had significantly compromised Binghamton's academic standards even though Binghamton was not prepared to take in this many academically marginal students. Basketball players had been given credit for courses titled "Theories of Softball" and "Bowling I". According to the report, the mass dismissal of September 25, 2009 had not been Broadus' decision, but was ordered by Thirer. The dismissed players had been involved in several incidents reported to Binghamton University police, including the aforementioned marijuana offenses and the debit card theft, which were made public information for the first time. School officials had been willing to let Broadus handle the raft of discipline problems at first. However, after Mayben's September 23 arrest, Thirer called Broadus into his office and told him that Rivera, Alvin, Chandler, Crosby and Fine all had to go. Rivera, Alvin, Crosby and Chandler were suspected of stealing another student's debit card and using it to buy several items. The report also revealed a text message exchange between Broadus and assistant coach Mark Hsu in which the two discussed coaching the players on what to tell school police during the investigation of the stolen debit card. The police believed that Rivera was taking the fall for the debit card incident to cover for his teammates and told Hsu that the players had lied in their sworn statements. The Kaye report found evidence of potential academic fraud by Broadus and his staff. In a text message exchange between Alvin and Hsu, Alvin asked Hsu to rewrite a paper for him because Alvin had copied it off the Internet. In another, Alvin copied another paper off the Internet, but added a conclusion in his own words on advice from Hsu. Broadus was also accused of having professors change players' grades, which was never proven to be true. Alvin and Hsu also discussed what appeared to reference cash payments. The report revealed that Binghamton men's basketball players had a GPA of 2.15 for the fall 2009 semester and a 2.21 cumulative GPA, but the school was able to sweep this information under the rug by repeatedly stating that the overall cumulative GPA of all Binghamton student-athletes "has exceeded 3.0 in 12 of our 15 semesters in Division I." In a meeting with admissions officials, an athletic official asked, "Why do you care if we take six players who don’t attend classes?" The report also stated that following Binghamton's men's basketball championship in 2009, DeFleur put increased pressure on coaches of other sports to produce championships, stating that the university needed more flexibility in admitting student-athletes with poor academics. After Mayben had been kicked off the team, the report recounted an incident in which Mayben swore to "bring down" the basketball program by going to ESPN and The New York Times with information about Broadus paying for junior college transfers and cell phones. Mayben would later recant the allegations, and all coaches and players denied giving or receiving improper benefits. The report also detailed Binghamton's contentious relationship with the rest of the America East conference. Other schools observed Binghamton players taunting the crowd, using foul language and engaging in on-court shouting matches with assistant coaches during games. During the June 2009 America East meetings, the eight other athletic directors in the conference confronted Thirer about their unhappiness with Binghamton's conduct and Rivera's immediate transfer waiver grant, still frustrated over Thirer's refusal to admit Binghamton had acted inappropriately. The America East's anger at Binghamton escalated again after Broadus' contract extension and Binghamton's acceptance of Chandler, who was admitted to the university 13 days after being kicked off the Rutgers basketball team due to multiple disciplinary violations. By the fall of 2009, several of the conference's athletic directors and presidents mulled the idea of kicking Binghamton out of the America East Conference. Kaye recommended, among other things, that SUNY appoint an "athletic oversight officer" for the entire SUNY system, reporting directly to the chancellor. In a conference call with reporters, Zimpher said, "I am disappointed that a great institution like Binghamton University would, in any way, because of its athletic program, compromise its terrific academic reputation." She also promised sweeping changes. ==Fallout==

Macon was forced to hold tryouts in October to replenish his decimated roster, adding Mikey Horn, Preston Pena, Javon Ralling, and Charlie Fackler to the roster. He also had to deal with two of his assistants, Hsu and Julius Allen, being fired midseason, leaving him with only one assistant coach. Under the circumstances, he kept Binghamton fairly competitive, managing to finish with a .500 record in America East play and 13–18 overall, with seven of their losses by 10 points or less. On March 1, DeFleur announced that the Bearcats would sit out the 2010 conference tournament and were withdrawing from postseason consideration. She said that given the current turmoil in the program, "it is not appropriate that we play in this year's postseason." Brennan, who had been critical of Binghamton's athletic program for multiple years, questioned "At what price glory? Not only have they embarrassed themselves and the university, but they’ve embarrassed the America East as well." Zimpher eventually assigned SUNY’s interim provost, David K. Lavallee, to lead an overall effort for the SUNY system to ensure that academics remain the highest priority; and Charles R. Westgate, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Binghamton, as a special adviser for academics and athletics for the SUNY system: moves some critics of the over-emphasis on athletics decried as insufficient. Zimpher also announced that while Broadus will not return as coach, a permanent replacement will not be hired until the school has a permanent president and athletic director. On March 26, Broadus filed a racial discrimination complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights. Broadus claimed that he was being treated more harshly than other Binghamton coaches whose players had been arrested simply because he was the only minority coach at the school. The Kaye report was forwarded to the NCAA, which could have issued its own sanctions in addition to Binghamton's own decision to pull out of postseason play. On October 18, the NCAA found that Hsu had committed two secondary violations by providing impermissible travel to two players. However, due to lack of cooperation from involved parties, the NCAA was unable to find any major violations. In November 2011, senior Kyrie Sutton, the last remaining player from Binghamton's 2009 champion squad, was dismissed from the team after he was arrested for the misdemeanor of criminal possession of stolen property. It was Sutton's fourth legal incident since joining Binghamton. Nearly a year later, in October 2012, senior Javon Ralling and freshman Jordan Reed were suspended after both were arrested for disorderly conduct. Ralling was also charged with resisting arrest. On April 30, 2012, Mark Macon was fired as head coach of the men's basketball team. Macon's Bearcats began the 2011–12 season with a 0–26 record, the last remaining winless team in Division I, and ended the regular season at 1–28 for the worst season in program history. In three seasons as head coach, Macon went 24–68 in his tenure. In May 2014, Binghamton University became one of four New York universities, and the only SUNY, being investigated for suspected Title IX civil rights violations. Binghamton's basketball program has never recovered from the scandal. From 2010 to 2020, the Bearcats amassed a record of 90–250 (.265), going 42–134 (.239) in America East conference play. ==References==