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SCANDAL ALL BUT BEHIND BADGERS UW WILL COME OFF PROBATION FOR THE SHOE BOX AFFAIR TUESDAY.

October 01, 2006 12:00 am  •  ANDY BAGGOT abaggot@madison.com 608-252-6175

For as long as Barry Alvarez has been University of Wisconsin athletic director, the same item has led off his start-of-the-school-year presentation to coaches and staffers.

Alvarez tells them the school is on NCAA probation stemming from the mess known as The Shoe Box affair in 2001.

"That's the first thing we bring up," Alvarez said, "reminding them where we are and that we have to stay on top of things."

UW was placed on NCAA probation for five years on Oct.2, 2001. The punishment stems from rules violations relating to extra benefits, recruiting inducements and the school's failure to monitor the athletic department.

An internal investigation, triggered by a series of stories in the Wisconsin State Journal, found The Shoe Box, a shoe store located 25 miles from Madison in Black Earth, gave impermissible discounts and lines of credit to UW student-athletes from 1993 to 2000.

After self-reporting the violations to the NCAA, UW officials enacted a series of corrective measures, including reprimands for administrators and coaches, reductions in scholarships for football and men's basketball, hiring additional compliance personnel, implementing educational programs and paying a $150,000 fine to the NCAA. In all, 31 UW student-athletes were suspended for varying periods of time.

The NCAA approved those actions, but took more scholarships away and instituted a probationary period of five years because The Shoe Box case was the third instance of major violations at the school in eight years.

As much emphasis as Alvarez has put on that dark period since he took over as AD in 2004 -- he replaced the retiring Pat Richter -- Alvarez said there will be no fuss made Tuesday when the five-year probationary period officially ends.

"To me it's not going to be a red-letter day," Alvarez said last week. "When you really think about it it's a relief that you don't have it hanging over your head. But life goes on and life has gone on. We've lived with it. Now we'll live without it."\

From 2001 to oblivion

To some at UW, the whole scenario seems like yesterday. That includes Katie Smith, a compliance officer with the Athletic Department who cut short her honeymoon to assist then-compliance director Tim Bald.

But many are understandably oblivious. Only eight of the 20 UW head coaches who were on hand in 2001 remain. Alvarez, who was the UW football coach from 1990 to 2005, senior associate athletic director Vince Sweeney and associate AD Terry Gawlik are the only administrative holdovers.

John Wiley was installed as UW chancellor just as The Shoe Box violations were coming to light. Since then he has made a point of meeting with every Badgers team when school starts to tell them of their responsibilities. When he has brought up the "embarrassing" scandal, he has noticed a lot of blank stares.

"Most of them hardly know what The Shoe Box is," Wiley said.

In the process of explaining what happened, Wiley tells student-athletes they have an important obligation.

"Being on probation was painful and expensive and we don't want to be there again," Wiley said. "They all have a responsibility to pay close attention when their coaches talk to them about NCAA rules."

As mandated by the NCAA, The Shoe Box and Rookies, a nearby sports bar also owned by Steve Schmitt, will continue to be off-limits to UW employees and student-athletes through at least 2008.

Two of the most important changes in the Athletic Department brought on by The Shoe Box affair are the expansion of the compliance staff -- four full-time staffers instead of two -- and a comprehensive booster education program.

"What we're left with is a much better compliance system (and) hopefully a much higher level of vigilance," Wiley said.\

In-house cleanup crew

Before Steve Waterfield became the UW assistant athletic director for compliance two years ago, he worked on the compliance staff at Ohio State. He was well aware of the approaching anniversary because he is responsible for filing annual compliance reports with the NCAA.

"I knew it was coming up," Waterfield said of the end date. "But nothing changes in our approach."

Technically, the only thing that will change for UW when its probation ends is it won't be subject to the repeat offenders rules. Waterfield said there are no major NCAA violations on his radar and all provisions outlined by the NCAA five years ago have been addressed.

Alvarez said he takes great comfort from knowing Waterfield and his compliance staff -- Smith, Joel Ott and Benji Wilber -- have things under control.

"He's been unbelievable," Alvarez said of Waterfield. "That's a hard job because coaches think there's a policeman in-house and no one trusts him. But you know what? He's our protector. He's so thorough and good. I think everybody recognizes how valuable he is."

Alvarez said the greatest consequence of The Shoe Box scandal was how it affected the institution.

"You always worry about the reputation of the school," he said. "Selfishly, at the time, you worry about how it affects your recruiting and how you're perceived. What you have done, in a very competitive world, you've given someone an edge on you."

According to the NCAA Web site, UW is one of 19 Division I-A schools on probation. Curiously, three other Big Ten Conference schools are scheduled to have their NCAA probation end in the coming weeks: Illinois (one year, football) and Minnesota (four years, women's basketball; six years, men's basketball) are done Oct. 6; Michigan (four years, men's basketball) is done Nov. 6.

Meanwhile, Ohio State (three years, football, men's basketball, women's basketball) is on probation until March 8, 2009 and the NCAA is investigating potential major violations in the men's swimming program at Iowa.

"No one likes the stigma attached to them that you're on probation, that you're doing things wrong," Alvarez said.

Soon, that won't be the case for UW.

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