The takeaway from the Mississippi State NCAA infractions case is not an original lesson, but clearly is one schools need to re-learn from time to time.
If you have a rules violation, face the problem early and do something about it.
Mississippi State's sanctions stemmed from recruit Will Redmond receiving benefits from a booster. (Rivals)The school was dealt only a light blow by the NCAA Committee on Infractions Friday for impermissible benefits received by a Bulldogs football player. The NCAA accepted the school's self-imposed sanctions, docking the football program two scholarships. Mississippi State also received a two-year probation and some other minor recruiting restrictions. Former assistant coach Angelo Mirando, who was cited for unethical conduct, was given a one-year show-cause penalty, which effectively will keep him out of major-college coaching until 2014 at the earliest.
Since Kentucky's forthright cooperation with the NCAA helped it narrowly avoid the death penalty in basketball in the late 1980s, the game plan has been laid out: Lie and deny at your own risk. Since then, failure to internally investigate, or to fully cooperate with an NCAA investigation, has often led to stiffer sanctions. "
