(REUTERS) — Coach Jim Harrick will be suspended with pay, and Georgia won’t play in the SEC or NCAA tournaments, because the school is investigating allegations of academic fraud.
University President Michael Adams said Monday that it is unclear whether Harrick will eventually be fired. However, sources told ESPN.com’s Andy Katz that Harrick Sr. expects to be fired, but that it won’t happen until the investigation is complete.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution had reported earlier Monday that Harrick was dismissed.
The decisions were made after Georgia’s findings regarding academic fraud that involved a number of players who were in a physical education class at the university.
Sources also said the class in question was taught by Harrick’s son, Jim Harrick Jr., the Georgia assistant coach fired last week. The allegations originally surfaced in a report by ESPN concerning former Bulldogs player Tony Cole.
Cole accused Harrick Jr. of sending him $300 to pay a phone bill, arranging for someone else to complete Cole’s junior-college correspondence courses, and giving Cole an “A” in the aforementioned physical-education class, which Cole says he neither attended nor completed work for.
A day earlier the elder Harrick told The Associated Press, “I’ve never had a violation. Go ask the NCAA.”
Georgia, ranked 21st in Monday’s AP Top 25, was a lock to receive a third-straight invitation to the NCAA tourney, constituting the longest streak in school history.
The Bulldogs (19-8, 11-5 Southeastern Conference) were to play Arkansas on Thursday in the league tournament in New Orleans.
Katz also reports that Georgia’s absence from the SEC tournament could cause the conference to re-seed the tournament as it did in 1991 when Auburn was declared ineligible. SEC officials were unavailable for comment.
Georgia’s forfeiture would mean the worst team in the SEC, Arkansas, would receive a bye into the quarterfinals. Georgia was the No. 3 seed out of the East playing No. 6 Arkansas out of the West in Thursday’s first round at the Superdome in New Orleans.
Harrick, 64, is 470-235 in 23 seasons as a head coach. He led UCLA to a national championship in 1995 and took Rhode Island to the round of eight in 1998, but NCAA problems have tainted his tenure at both schools.
Harrick is also facing an investigation at Rhode Island, where he coached from 1997-99 before taking the head-coaching position at Georgia.
The Providence Journal reported Saturday that court records from former athletics department employee Christine King’s lawsuit against Rhode Island detail sexual harassment charges and allege that Harrick both changed players’ grades and arranged for players’ term papers to be written by other students.
Before his stint at Rhode Island, Harrick was fired by UCLA for lying on an expense report.
Rhode Island is investigating allegations reported in Harrick’s time with the school and is looking into hiring “a consultant who specializes in NCAA investigations” to help with the probe, according to university spokeswoman Linda Acciardo.
