With a young team coming off a SWAC Championship Game appearance, spring football could be a time for Southern to get even better. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that will happen. Athletic Director Dr. William Broussard says the team will not participate in spring practice due to NCAA violations.
“It’s a three-year-old sanction, so there was no opportunity to appeal it,” Broussard told WAFB. “It’s part of the NCAA APR penalty structure. There’s not an opportunity to appeal it, but it’s not one we’re necessarily interested in appealing. We’ve got bigger proverbial fish to fry.”
Missing spring football is the just the latest in a string of bad luck the football program in particular and Southern athletics in general, have experienced in the past year. Last winter, all Southern teams were banned from participating in postseason play by the NCAA due to violations from previous years. To date, that ban hasn’t been lifted.
The football team experienced issues of its own when as many as eight players were held out of games due to academic eligibility questions. The announcement came hours after Southern announced its 2015 National Signing Day Class.