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Cal’s bowl ban stands

By Greg Beacham The Associated Press
Tuesday November 19, 2002

The NCAA upheld its one-year bowl ban on California’s football team Monday, but restored nine scholarships it revoked in June after an investigation into academic fraud and other infractions. 

The ruling ended the unlikely bowl hopes of the Golden Bears (6-5), whose revival under first-year coach Jeff Tedford has been a remarkable success story in college football this season. 

Three months ago, the bowl ban seemed superfluous for a team that went 1-10 last fall and hasn’t had a winning season since 1993. Now, Cal can earn a winning record Saturday with a victory in the Big Game against Stanford (2-8). 

“We’ve said all along that it was something we couldn’t control,” Tedford said. “This will be the last week that this group of guys gets to be together as a whole. We’re going to prepare as always, but I’m sure it’ll be an emotional week for them.” 

Tedford and his players are being punished for multiple misdeeds committed under previous coach Tom Holmoe’s watch. In restoring the scholarships, the NCAA said its original sanctions were excessive for an array of minor violations. 

“It’s disappointing, but now the Stanford game is our bowl game,” quarterback Kyle Boller said. 

Cal has been under investigation for more than two years by the Pacific-10 Conference and the NCAA. The school already fulfilled its self-imposed conference penalty by forfeiting four scholarships in 2001. 

Cal appealed the NCAA’s ruling and school officials pleaded their case in Indianapolis two weeks ago. The Bears have completed nearly two years of their five-year NCAA probation stemming from the case. 

The NCAA’s appeals committee acknowledged the unfairness of the current players’ predicament, but upheld the bowl ban based on Cal’s status as a repeat violator, university chancellor Robert Berdahl said. A Cal basketball player was paid during the tenure of former coach Todd Bozeman in the mid-1990s. 

Cal’s players, including the seniors who have been in Berkeley through three or four losing seasons, were told the news in a team meeting Monday. 

“The way the team reacted helped me a lot,” said star cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, one of the 15 seniors who start for the Bears. “The team didn’t react as if they were shocked. It didn’t really have an effect on us. We’ve been through so much together, this doesn’t affect us. I’ve never been to a bowl game, anyway.” 

The chief violation cited by the NCAA involved receivers Ronnie Davenport and Michael Ainsworth, who maintained their eligibility in 1999 by receiving credits in a class they didn’t take. The credits were awarded retroactively by a professor who acted without the athletic department’s knowledge. 

“While we are saddened that our student-athletes will be deprived of a possible bowl-game experience, we do find some solace in the fact the NCAA recognized the merits of our appeal and have reduced our penalties,” athletic director Steve Gladstone said.