NCAA wraps up sanctions for EMU women's hoops

We can finally wrap up this sordid little tale. The NCAA added onto what Eastern Michigan self-imposed two years ago (here's a refresher if you don't remember) stemming from a discovery that EMU women's basketball exceeded the weekly number of practice hours per week.

The four big points are (emphasis ours):

1) Public reprimand and censure.

Sure.

2) An additional two years of probation effective October 1, 2012. (Eastern initially placed itself on two years of probation at the time of the Sept. 2010 announcement.)

Okay.

3) A limitation to seven official recruiting visits for the 2012-13 academic year. (Eastern had limited itself to 10 official visits in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 academic years - maximum allowed is 12. Eastern averaged seven visits annually during the period of 2008-09 through 2011-12.)

That's rather significant in terms of recruiting, and perhaps the biggest additional penalty handed down.

4) Outside of the 2012-2013 playing season, the team will be limited to a maximum of four hours per week of countable athletically related activities. (Maximum allowed is eight hours.) During the playing season, the team shall not exceed three hours per day in countable athletically related activities and is limited to 18 hours per week. (The maximum allowed is four hours per day and 20 hours per week.) The new limits exceed Eastern's self-imposed limits of 14 hours per week during the fall semester of the 2010-2011 academic year and 15 hours per week in the spring semester of the 2010-2011 academic year. Additionally, Eastern had already self-imposed a mandatory two-days off during the conference season.

So, cuts to practice but they are actually less stringent than what was self-imposed the last two years. Offseason workouts are also cut back a bit.

And there you have it. These are the constraints by which Tory Verdi must operate; AnnMarie Gilbert remains out of the picture and let's see what they do in a post-Tavelyn James world.