The NCAA on Tuesday levied stiff penalties including three years of probation against the Fordham men’s basketball program over “impermissible benefits” provided to prospective athletes on official recruiting visits and what the NCAA said was a failure on Fordham’s part to monitor its program.
The ruling from the NCAA called for Fordham to vacate all 41 wins across the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, serve three years of probation and pay a $35,000 fine — plus 2% of the men’s basketball budget. Former Fordham coach Keith Urgo, under whom the improprieties took place, was also hit with a two-year show-cause penalty for “violating ethical conduct rules and head coach responsibility rules.” Urgo was fired by Fordham in March.
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The Rams’ former director of basketball operations, Trevonn Morton, was also served a three-year show-cause for misleading NCAA investigators. Former athletic director Edward Kull was also issued a one-year show-cause.
Fordham in a statement said Tuesday it cooperated with the NCAA Committee on Infractions and self-imposed sanctions prior to the completion of the process.
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Urgo in an interview with the New York Post said he felt the NCAA was “aggressive” in its pursuit of what amounted to minor violations. His charge of violation of head coach responsibility related to a photo shoot Fordham conducted in Times Square for prospective athletes (the NCAA has publicity-before-signing rules that ban this) and the exhaustion of roughly $10,376 in its budget on entertainment expenses during visits that spanned two years.
The expenses also included Jet Ski rentals and tickets to Knicks, Nets and Giants games as well as tickets to the U.S. Open Tennis Championships.
“They were treating me like I was some criminal, literally like I had broken some laws,” Urgo told The Post. “They were just trying to do whatever they could to pin a Level I violation on us and none of it made any sense. We were just all confused, including all the lawyers in the situation, confused as to why they were just being so aggressive and trying to do whatever they could to bury us.”
The investigation spanned nearly three years and was a “dark cloud” over Urgo’s family and his program, he said. The NCAA order to vacate wins from 2021-22 and 2022-23 forces Fordham to vacate its second-winningest season in program history in 2022-23.
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