Former Wofford coach Macauley gets probation for overworked team

SPARTANBURG, SC — The NCAA has placed Wofford men’s basketball on probation for one year after former coach Jay McAuley failed to monitor the program when players participated in regular off-day team activities.

Wofford, McAuley and the NCAA reached a negotiated settlement, details of which were released Friday.

McAuley, who resigned through the 2022-23 season, agreed to a two-year show-cause order. McAuley is currently a high school coach in Georgia. If he returns to the college ranks while the order is in effect, the school must suspend him for 15 games in his first season.

The NCAA fined Wofford $5,000.

President of Wofford, Nayef H. Samhat, in December 2022, received a letter from players saying they would no longer play for McAuley, who regularly required film study, walk-throughs and personal workouts beyond the NCAA’s 20-hour-a-week limit.

Wofford’s investigation found that McAuley forced players to work on days that the program told the school’s compliance office were days off.

“Wofford College has fully cooperated with the NCAA in reaching a public hearing resolution and respects the outcome,” the school said in a statement.

The NCAA found that McAuley committed violations “on most weeks of the championship segment of the playing season” in 2021-22 and 2022-23 until placing him on school leave on Dec. 5, 2022. He resigned later that month Midway through his third season at Wofford.

The NCAA said that after a loss in November 2022, McAuley reviewed video of the next opponent, violating rules against such actions after the game. A player met him in the middle of the night in violation of NCAA rules.

The NCAA said Wofford, a school of fewer than 2,000 students, did not have “adequate compliance monitoring systems in place to prevent and detect” violations.

The NCAA shortened Wofford’s countable preseason practice days from 30 to 25 for the upcoming season and its weekly countable hours for team-related activities from 20 to 18.

Coach Dwight Perry, a former Macauley assistant, will begin his second full season this fall.