Georgia Tech can stand fully at ease in its decision to accept its postseason ban for NCAA recruiting violations. The institute was informed late last week by the NCAA's infractions committee that it had met the conditions of the competition penalty (i.e., the postseason ban), a school spokesman confirmed to the AJC.
Tech officials had believed that, by withdrawing from the ACC tournament (which began without the Yellow Jackets) and also informing the NCAA that it was sitting out of the postseason, the team had effectively sat out of the postseason, one of a number of penalties issued by the NCAA last September. However, the cancellation of the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament because of the spread of the coronavirus raised questions about whether the penalty might carry over into next season, on the contention that there was no 2020 postseason to sit out, although the ACC tournament did play two rounds without Tech.
In a teleconference with media March 21, athletic director Todd Stansbury said that he believed that the team had "most definitely" served the penalty.
“There is some type of formality, a box that needs to be checked, and so right now our attorneys are in the process of getting that done with the NCAA,” he said. “But I definitely feel like we’ve fulfilled our obligation based on our not playing in the ACC tournament this year.”
Tech is still appealing two other penalties — an annual reduction of one scholarship for four years and a two-year ban on official visits in conjunction with home basketball games. In a statement made in November when the school lodged its appeal, Stansbury called the penalties "unprecedented" in their severity.
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