College Football | NCAA rules Sooners must erase 2005 wins

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma must erase its wins from the 2005 season and will lose two scholarships for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, the NCAA said Wednesday.

The penalties stem from a case involving two players, including the Sooners' starting quarterback, who were kicked off the team last August for being paid for work they had not performed at a Norman car dealership. The NCAA said Oklahoma was guilty of a "failure to monitor" the employment of the players.

Oklahoma president David Boren said the university will appeal the NCAA's "failure to monitor" finding and the ruling Oklahoma must erase the wins from the 2005 season.

The Sooners went 8-4 and beat Oregon in the Holiday Bowl to end the 2005 season. Records from that season involving quarterback Rhett Bomar and offensive lineman J.D. Quinn must be erased, the NCAA said, and coach Bob Stoops' career record will be amended to reflect the erased wins, dropping it from 86-19 in eight seasons to 78-19.

Oklahoma also will have two years of probation added to an earlier penalty, extending the Sooners' probation to May 23, 2010.

Those sanctions are in addition to those already self-imposed by Oklahoma, which has banned athletes from working at the car dealership until at least the 2008-09 academic year and moved to prevent the athletes' supervisor at the dealership, Brad McRae, from being involved with the university's athletics program until at least August 2011.

Oklahoma also will reduce the number of football coaches who are allowed to recruit off campus this fall. The Sooners also dismissed Bomar, Quinn and walk-on Jermaine Hardison from the team.

Both Bomar and Quinn lost a season of eligibility. Both players transferred to Division I-AA schools — Bomar to Sam Houston State and Quinn to Montana — where they can resume their careers this season.

When reached on his cellphone, Quinn said he did not pay any attention to the infractions committee's ruling on Oklahoma, calling it "dumb" and referring to it with an expletive.

"I have no idea," Quinn said. "I don't care."

Notes

• One former Michigan player was convicted Tuesday and another was cleared of charges stemming from an attack on a fellow student.

Christian Richards, a former reserve defensive back, was found guilty of aggravated assault and assault and battery, while Carson Butler, who started seven games at tight end last season, was cleared. Both were charged in a St. Patrick's Day beating in an Ann Arbor, Mich., residence hall and dismissed from the team in March.

• Vanderbilt chancellor Gordon Gee announced he will step down later this month to return to Ohio State as its president, a position he held from 1990-97.

One of Gee's most enduring acts during his reign was the September 2003 dissolution of the athletic department and the elimination of the athletic director position. This past school year, seven Commodores teams ranked in the top 25.

Gee goes from the smallest school in the Southeastern Conference to the largest in the Big Ten, one that has the biggest athletics budget in the nation with revenue of $105 million in 2005-06.

• Florida State AD David Hart Jr., 58, won't have his contract renewed when it expires in 18 months. Hart has been FSU's AD since 1995.