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USATSI

The NCAA placed TCU's basketball program on probation for three years because of a former assistant coach's misdeeds that were discovered as part of the FBI's 2017 sting on college basketball. The NCAA announced the punishment Tuesday while also levying a five-year show-cause against former assistant Corey Barker.

The NCAA's infractions report did not mention Barker by name but explained how the former Horned Frogs assistant violated NCAA rules by taking a $6,000 payment to steer players toward a specific management company. Barker also provided "false or misleading information about his actions" and did not cooperate with a university investigation, according to the Division I Committee on Infractions.

TCU opened an investigation in October 2017 following the FBI's crackdown on corruption in the sport, but Barker was not fired until March 2019. That was a month after TCU said it received a federal subpoena for Barker's employment records for use in upcoming trials.

Ultimately, the Committee on Infractions found Barker in violation of Level I-aggravated charges while the school was in violation of Level I-mitigated violations. Barker is currently an assistant coach at New Mexico State, and has pent the past two seasons on the Aggies bench. He played basketball at Prairie View A&M and previously spent time on the staffs at Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech and Bowling Green.

TCU joins the likes of Creighton, USC, South Carolina among programs that have avoided postseason bans in their NCAA punishments for involvement in the federal sting.

Here are TCU's penalties issued by the NCAA:

  • Three years of probation.
  • A $5,000 fine plus 1% of the men's basketball program budget (self-imposed by the university).
  • A five-year show-cause order for the former assistant coach. During that period, any NCAA member school employing him must restrict him from any athletically related duties unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply.