NCAA Punishing Fordham Basketball For Giants Tickets, Times Square Photo-Shoots During This NIL Era Is A Joke

The NCAA must have been seriously agitated when it could not go after certain schools for penalties surrounding NIL inducements when it decided to punish the Fordham basketball program for impermissible benefits and major infractions dating back to 2021. 

In a world where schools are now putting together rosters that exceed a $20 million pricetag, the NCAA decided that going after Fordham would be a way to show that the organization still holds some type of power over enforcement. 

The school, located in the Bronx, has been negotiating with the NCAA over rules that are laughed at now by bigger programs. 

No, let's not worry about how a massive chunk of players over the past four years have signed with schools based solely off how much the institutions could pay them, but let's focus on a basketball program providing prospects a chance to attend New York Giants games, or the US Open. 

The NCAA isn’t worried about the collectives across collegiate sports spending $5 million on a basketball player, but a line has to be drawn when a program decides to take some pictures of recruits in Times Square. I mean, that has to be the mindset of an organization looking to hold on to power that is decreasing by the day. 

On Tuesday, it was announced by the NCAA and Fordham that the school would be punished for infractions that dated back to 2021, which were specified as ‘Major Infractions’. What were those infractions? The NCAA summed it up in their final report on the matter. 

"The parties agreed that over the course of two years, the basketball program provided approximately $10,736 in entertainment during official visits for eight men’s basketball prospects and their families, in excess of the allowable entertainment expenses," the summary noted. "Those expenses included: Jet Ski rentals, tickets to New York Knicks games, tickets to the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and suite tickets for a New York Giants game (including an on-field meet-and-greet with high-profile team alumni) and a Brooklyn Nets game.

Fordham Used Times Square Backdrop For Illegal Photo-Shoots 

The audacity of Fordham basketball providing prospects with experiences tied to the city in which they would be playing in. Look, I understand that there were rules broken during this period, but are we seriously going to hammer Fordham basketball, when stuff like this is happening on a larger scale at bigger schools? 

If the NCAA wanted to, it could find violations of impermissible benefits in just about every top-tier program that is currently in the market for a potential recruit. While players are cashing-in right now with NIL, and schools are signing players to contracts that would go into effect when the house settlement is approved, it's Fordham that is catching heat. 

The NCAA Decided To Punish Fordham Basketball For Giants Tickets, Time-Square Photos During The NIL Chaos

We're talking about ‘jet-ski’ rentals? Have you seen some of the cars that are being used to entice players to attend a particular school? But the one infraction that is truly laughable in this ordeal is the 24 photoshoots that occurred in Times Square, involving prospects that were interested in attending Fordham. 

"The parties also agreed that over the course of approximately 18 months, the basketball program violated publicity-before-signing rules when it arranged professional photo shoots in Times Square for prospects and provided team-issued gear for them to wear in the photos," the infractions summary noted. 

This was a violation of the NCAA’s publicity-before-signing rules.

What Penalties Were Levied At Fordham, Along With Coaches? 

Former athletics director Ed Kull admitted to knowing about prospects attending a New York Giants game, while former head coach Ketih Urgo and former Director of Basketball Operations Trevonn Morton were given show-cause penalties for setting up the event, while Morton was said to have lied to the NCAA about the entertainment expenses. 

Former head coach Keith Urgo told the New York Post that he felt as though he was being treated as some sort of criminal during the investigation. 

"They were treating me like I was some criminal, literally like I had broken some laws," Keith Urgo mentioned to the New York Post. "They were just trying to do whatever they could to pin a Level 1 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."

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 4: Head coach Keith Urgo of the Fordham Rams during the first half of a college basketball game against the St. John's Red Storm at Carnesecca Arena on November 4, 2024 in the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Porter Binks/Getty Images)

HERE IS THE ENTIRE SUMMARY FROM THE INFRACTIONS COMMITTEE ON FORDHAM BASKETBALL

The NCAA has also vacated wins from the 2021-22 and 2022–23 seasons, which included Fordham going 25-8 during the 2022-2023 season. 

• Three years of probation.
• • A fine of $35,000 plus 2% of the men’s basketball program budget.
• • Reduction of two men’s basketball official visits during the 2024-25 year (self-imposed).
• • A one-week ban on off-campus recruiting activities during the July 2025 recruiting period.
• • An eight-week ban on recruiting communications with prospects during the 2024-25 year (self-imposed).
• • A 10% reduction in recruiting-person days during the 2023-24 season (self-imposed)

This is also in addition to the show-cause penalties levied against Keith Urgo and Trevonn Morton. 

So, was it all worth it for the NCAA? Does the organization feel better about this negotiated resolution with the school, while the rest of college athletics has been running rampant over the past four years?