When UW-Madison officials heard the ruling made by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions, there was disappointment with the extension of the length of the probation and the additional loss of scholarships to football and men's basketball.
Including the Shoe Box incident, this marks the third major infraction that the university has faced in the last eight years.
But it could have been worse.
Because these infractions have occurred in a relatively short amount of time, the NCAA considered imposing more sanctions that would have further damaged the two major sports on the campus'football and men's basketball.
'We had a great deal of discussion, not only [about] the level of sanctions, but the actions that the university has taken already in preparing for the committee,' NCAA committee chair and commissioner Thomas E. Yeager said.
These sanctions could include, but are not limited to, the loss of television revenue for both squads and the ineligibility of the men's basketball program in post-season tournaments during the time of these infractions, including the Big Ten Tournament and bowl games competed in by the football team.
The example cited by the committee was the 2000 men's basketball team.
While the information presented to the NCAA could have given the committee the option to strip the 2000 men's basketball team of its trip to the Final Four, they chose not to because unlike an academic ineligibility, these infractions could have been taken care of before the tournament, which would have allowed the team to participate.
'What I think we were looking at was drawing the distinction just because someone might have been ineligible at the time of the championship [and we needed to] really look at the reasons for ineligibility, whether that was an eligibility that could be rectified,' Yeager said. 'In this instance, the situation could have been rectified.'
UW football Head Coach Barry Alvarez feels that the suspensions that were announced hours before the first game against Western Michigan last year were the worst part of the Shoe Box scandal and is glad to be done with it.
'We've dealt with [the suspensions],' Alvarez said. 'The punishment we went through last year and the hoops that we had to jump through last year and the timing we had to deal with this, it's over. It's over.'
Men's basketball Head Coach Bo Ryan refused to allow the sanctions to defeat him.
'We'll just have to set a new precedent,' Ryan said. 'Our stick will be a little bit smaller, we'll just have to swing a little harder.'
