Binghamton University basketball scandal
Numerous Binghamton professors admitted to academic fraud, having changed grades for basketball players upon pressure from members of the athletic department.
Binghamton University's president, Lois B. DeFleur, announced her plans to retire when it became public that the report of the findings from an investigation would implicate her as being responsible for the impropriety.
[3] However, many were concerned that Binghamton had cut too many corners in its bid for basketball glory, sacrificing its reputation as a strong academic institution in the process.
[4] Lasser claimed that after the coaching change, Binghamton had lowered its standards for admitting prospective basketball players to the bare minimum required by the NCAA.
The accusation was amongst larger claims of "egregious acts of sexual misconduct" in the Binghamton athletic department, which included innuendo and sexist comments in the workplace.
[6] Williams sued Binghamton in July, alleging that athletic officials called her a sexual "plaything", commanded her to dress provocatively for fundraisers and asked how much money it would cost to have sex with her.
[7] As an assistant coach at George Washington and Georgetown, Broadus recruited players from Lutheran Christian Academy, a school in Philadelphia widely accused of being a diploma mill.
[5] One of those players, Mike Egerson, transferred to Lutheran Christian after earning only a 1.33 grade point average at his Delaware high school and garnering an SAT score in the 600s.
[8] Shortly before Broadus was hired at Binghamton, the NCAA announced it would no longer accept coursework from Lutheran Christian and several other suspected diploma mills.
[9] However, Binghamton continued to recruit players with a history at Lutheran Christian, accepting center Theo Davis and guard Devon McBride.
Guard Malik Alvin left the University of Texas at El Paso because of academic concerns and transferred to junior college before coming to Binghamton.
Guard Emanuel "Tiki" Mayben initially signed with Syracuse University before he was deemed academically ineligible coming out of high school and also came to Binghamton as a junior college transfer.
[5] In May 2008, sophomore center Miladin Kovacevic, who was recruited by Broadus' predecessor Al Walker, beat a fellow student Bryan Steinhauer into a three-month coma and fled to his native Serbia with the help of two Serbian diplomats.
[5] Dear would later reveal in 2019 that an assistant dean suggested that she change the poor grades of the basketball players in her class, with knowledge that other professors at the university were already doing the same.
[5] These concerns led America East commissioner Patrick Nero to talk with school president Lois DeFleur and athletic director Joel Thirer about the team's behavior.
[14][15] The move was believed to be made as a silent protest of Binghamton's recruiting process and the suspicious approval of Rivera's transfer waiver, which allowed him to play without sitting out a season.
[17] On September 14, a Binghamton student reported that her debit card was stolen and used illegally to purchase numerous items, including a television set.
After questioning player Chretien Lukusa and reviewing store surveillance footage, Binghamton University police identified Rivera, Alvin and Paul Crosby as the culprits.
[13][17] The Kaye report would reveal that Lukusa informed the victim of a potential illegal purchase on her debit card and went to the police station on his own accord to identify his teammates on the surveillance footage; in response, Alvin posted on Facebook, "Chretien Lakusa is a Rat" [sic].
[18][19] On September 23, Mayben, Binghamton's starting point guard and second-leading scorer, was arrested and charged with possessing and selling crack cocaine.
[21] Although Broadus claimed the decision was his alone, the dismissals came on the same day that SUNY chancellor Nancy Zimpher demanded that DeFleur give her a full accounting of what was being done to address Mayben's arrest and other unspecified incidents.
However, Dear alleged that she had been fired due to her February interview with The New York Times which brought to light how she was being pressured to give preferential treatment to disruptive basketball players.
[25] The announcement came a week after Broadus publicly apologized to several of his athletic department colleagues for bringing "shame" to Binghamton by not properly controlling his program.
The dismissed players had been involved in several incidents reported to Binghamton University police, including the aforementioned marijuana offenses and the debit card theft, which were made public information for the first time.
[17] The police believed that Rivera was taking the fall for the debit card incident to cover for his teammates and told Hsu that the players had lied in their sworn statements.
Other schools observed Binghamton players taunting the crowd, using foul language and engaging in on-court shouting matches with assistant coaches during games.
[17] In a conference call with reporters, Zimpher said, "I am disappointed that a great institution like Binghamton University would, in any way, because of its athletic program, compromise its terrific academic reputation."
Hours later, the three parties reached a settlement in which Broadus would resign and take a $1.2 million buyout in return for dropping all legal action against Binghamton or SUNY.
[35] In November 2011, senior Kyrie Sutton, the last remaining player from Binghamton's 2009 champion squad, was dismissed from the team after he was arrested for the misdemeanor of criminal possession of stolen property.
