Wofford basketball gets probation, former coach McAuley given 2-year penalty for overworking players

SPARTANBUG, S.C. — The NCAA has placed Wofford’s men’s basketball on probation for a year after finding it failed to monitor the program when former coach Jay McAuley regularly made players participate in team activities on days off.

Wofford, McAuley and the NCAA reached a negotiated settlement, the details of which were released Friday.

McAuley, who resigned during the 2022-23 season, agreed to a two-year show-cause order. McAuley is currently a high school coach in Georgia. Should he return to the college ranks while the order is in effect, the school would have to suspend him for 15 games in his first season.

Wofford was also fined $5,000 by the NCAA.

Wofford’s president, Nayef H. Samhat, received a letter from players in December 2022 saying they would no longer play for McAuley, who regularly required film study, walk-throughs and individual workouts beyond the NCAA’s 20-hour-a-week limit.

Wofford’s investigation showed McAuley forced players to put in work on days the program told the school’s compliance office were days off.

“Wofford College fully cooperated with the NCAA to reach the public negotiated resolution and respects the outcome,” the school said in a statement.

The NCAA found McAuley committed the violations “most weeks during the championship segment of the playing season” in 2021-22 and 2022-23 until he was placed on leave by the school on Dec. 5, 2022. He resigned later that month in the middle of his third season at Wofford.

The NCAA said after one loss in November 2022, McAuley had the team review video of the next opponent, violating rules against such actions after games. He had one player meet with him past midnight, also in violation of NCAA rules.

The NCAA said Wofford, a school of fewer than 2,000 students, did not have “adequate compliance monitoring systems to deter and detect” the violations.

The NCAA shortened Wofford’s countable preseason practice days for the upcoming season from 30 to 25 and its weekly countable hours for team-related activities from 20 to 18.

Coach Dwight Perry, a former McAuley assistant, will begin his second full season this fall.