Self-Imposed Sanctions Threaten Arizona’s March Madness Chances

On Wednesday, the much-anticipated decision about the Wildcats program was made. Miller, the head coach at Xavier, won’t be suspended.

Sean Miller, a former coach at Arizona who is currently in his second season as a head coach at Xavier, escaped punishment in his previous school’s long-awaited Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) case verdict. The men’s basketball team for the Wildcats was likewise exempt from severe penalties, as revealed on Wednesday.

While Miller won’t take any punishment himself, Arizona self-imposed a number of sanctions in the aftermath of the controversy:

• Competition ban for the 2020–21 academic year if the men’s basketball team didn’t compete in the NCAA tournament or postseason conference competition (self-imposed)
• $5,000 in fines + 1% of the average men’s basketball budget determined by the sum of the prior three budgets for the men’s basketball program (self-imposed)
• If there is a reduction of one from the maximum of 13 men’s basketball scholarships available for the incoming class of the 2023–24 academic year, or if a scholarship becomes available before the 2022–23 academic year (self-imposed)
• Men’s basketball campus visits were prohibited for two weeks in March 2022. (self-imposed)
• 10% fewer official basketball visits for men’s teams during the 2021–22 academic year (self-imposed)
• a (self-imposed) reduction in recruiting person days of 15 days for the 2021–2022 academic year and an additional decrease in recruiting person days of two days for the 2022–2023 academic year.
• A seven-week restriction on recruitment correspondence (written and verbal) and phone calls for the school year 2022–2023.

Betting AZ expects that the consequences on Arizona Wildcats betting markets following

the sanctions will persist for years to come. The changes are becoming evident as early

as this year, as the team’s odds to win trail far behind its counterparts.

While the Arizona squad has managed to clinch the #1 seed for this year’s playoffs, the team had a disappointing campaign during the 2021 season and only managed to make it to the sweet 16. With a large number of recruits entering their senior years, and subsequently their last year of eligibility, the team’s longevity remains in question.

In addition to these growing problems, it is anticipated that Arizona and Miller will lose 50 victories from the 2016–17 and 2017–18 campaigns due to Alkins being declared retroactively ineligible. The Pac-12 regular-season and playoff tournament titles won by Arizona in those years will no longer be officially recognized in the record books. Additionally, all of Alkins’ collegiate stats will be deleted.

Miller, who served as the head coach of the Arizona Wildcats between 2009 to 2021, now holds the position of head coach at Xavier. While Xavier is not showing the same competitiveness as prior years, it is up in the air what information Miller brings with him to his new program. The question remains to see if his past will catch up with him in March.

Following in the footsteps of NC State, Memphis, and Louisville, the IRP continued its habit of imposing modest penalties in its cases with the fates of Arizona and Miller.

“The Independent Resolution Panel was intentional in not prescribing penalties that would harm current student-athletes,” based on the statement.

Schools or other affected parties cannot appeal judgments through the IARP procedure. The decision issued on Wednesday is conclusive. In 2023, the IARP procedure will be terminated, and the NCAA will resume handling all violation charges.