ACC NCAA finds infractions at Maryland

The penalties are expected to be announced as early as next week.
THE WASHINGTON POST
The NCAA infractions committee is expected to announce as early as next week that the rules violations Maryland reported in February involving a football assistant coach's cash payments totaling $335 to a prospective recruit constitute a major infraction.
After concluding its investigation of an incident involving then-assistant coach Rod Sharpless and defensive end Victor Abiamiri, Maryland officials announced Feb. 20 that it had found no additional improprieties and that it considered the infraction a secondary violation, which do not carry significant penalties such as probation or postseason bans.
Committee disagrees
The infractions committee, which determines whether NCAA rules have been broken and decides on punishment, apparently disagreed. However, the committee can determine a violation to be major and still choose not to impose penalties beyond what the school has levied.
Maryland representatives were in Kansas City on June 13 to meet with the infractions committee. Whether any additional sanctions will be levied is unclear. The chairman of the committee, Colonial Athletic Association Commissioner Thomas Yeager, declined to comment Wednesday. Maryland Athletic Director Debbie Yow does not anticipate additional punishment.
"We have not received a response from the committee," Yow said, "but we have no reason to believe that any significant programatic sanctions would occur regardless of how the committee characterizes its findings concerning the football team."
What happened
In January, one of Abiamiri's high school coaches informed Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen that Sharpless gave Abiamiri, an all-american defensive end at Gilman School in Baltimore, cash several days before Christmas so the player could buy a video game machine, sources said at the time. Maryland investigated the incident and, in the aftermath, forced Sharpless to resign and stopped recruiting Abiamiri, who eventually accepted a scholarship from Notre Dame.
Reached by phone Wednesday and told that the NCAA had found a major violation in the case, Sharpless said, "I don't have an interest or concern."