TUCSON, AZ — The Arizona Board of Regents held a closed-door legal meeting with University of Arizona's president to discuss the latest developments in the men's basketball team "pay-to-play" scandal.
"We are committed to having the kind of programs that are squeaky clean, and if our program isn't that, we're gonna take the steps necessary to make sure that it is," Regents Chairman Ron Shoopman said.
The meeting comes on the heels of last week's criminal sentencing for former UA Assistant Coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson. Richardson pleaded guilty to bribery and received a three-month prison sentence. Now that related criminal cases are over, the NCAA told ESPN that six college basketball programs will get notices this summer accusing them of serious level 1 violations of college sports rules. UA President Robert Robbins told ABC15 that he had not heard whether the university is among the NCAA's six.
The UA-regents meeting occurred during the executive session portion of the regents regular public meeting in Flagstaff Thursday. Chairman Shoopman said they have been cooperating with the NCAA's college hoops probe.
UA Head Coach Sean Miller remains an on the job with three years left on his multi-million dollar contract. He was never criminally charged, but NCAA rules could make Miller and the university fully accountable for the assistant's violations.
After the executive session, the Board of Regents and UA took no official action related to the basketball team. They also declined to speculate about Miller's future.
"We're gonna let the process play out and will make decisions once we have all the data," Robbins said.
