Boise State University announced that it will sanction its tennis programs for committing NCAA rules violations. The women’s tennis program will lose three scholarships, reduce its practice time, vacate wins involving ineligible players and will be fined $5,000 for rules violations.
The men's program, which has been a traditional tennis powerhouse in the Western Athletic Conference and has made the NCAA Sweet 16s, was also sanctioned, but not to the degree that the women’s program was. The Idaho Statesman reported that from June to October 2010, then Boise State women’s coach Mark Tichenor, then assistant coach Tiffany Coll, an unidentified volunteer assistant coach and local boosters provided an unidentified prospective student-athlete with impermissible transportation, cash, lodging, educational expenses and entertainment. The prospective student-athlete was from out of the country and actually played matches for the team without having been admitted to the school. Boise State acknowledged these allegations and fired Tichenor and Coll in November. Both deny that they were aware of what they did was illegal.—Matthew Cronin