RMAC Imposes Penalty On CSU-Pueblo's 2015 Football Season
For Immediate Release
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) has announced that due to a self-reported violation of NCAA Division II eligibility rules, there will be a win-loss nullification penalty applied to all games for CSU-Pueblo’s 2015 football team resulting in the rescinding of the 2015 RMAC Football Championship title.
Two ineligible football student-athletes participated throughout the 2015 season for CSU-Pueblo.
“Administrators at CSU-Pueblo demonstrated great integrity by self-reporting the eligibility violation once it was identified,” said RMAC Commissioner Chris Graham. “This is a terribly unfortunate situation for the student-athletes, one that we wish would never occur. The principles of student-athlete eligibility are paramount to equitable competition and therefore must be enforced.”
The RMAC will impose a win-loss penalty using the NCAA Division II Principles of Nullification policy. The formula reduces the winning percentage by assigning a penalty of 0.023 per contest played, specific to the sport of football.
This results in CSU-Pueblo finishing second overall in the conference, with an adjusted RMAC winning percentage of 0.793 and an overall winning percentage of 0.656. To maintain integrity in the RMAC standings, the ThunderWolves’ win-loss records will remain 9-0 in the RMAC and 10-1 overall. CSU-Pueblo’s 2-1 NCAA post-season playoff record has been removed as a part of the NCAA penalty.
Nullification of the games does not alter the win-loss record for CSU-Pueblo’s opponents. However, the 2015 win-loss record for CSU-Pueblo will not be reflected in historical records for the team and the Head Coach. All individual statistics for all CSU-Pueblo’s players will remain unchanged for the 2015 season.
RMAC Bylaw 8.9 states the conference championship shall be determined on a percentage basis of conference games won, lost and tied. As a result of the nullification action, Colorado Mesa University shall be awarded the 2015 RMAC Championship title after finishing the season with a 0.889 conference winning percentage.