Georgia Tech's 2009 ACC Championship is being taken away following just announced NCAA violations.
The NCAA says Tech is being punished because $312 worth of clothing was allegedly given to a student athlete from a friend of a sports agency employee. The NCAA says the school should have declared the athlete ineligible after he accepted the gift. When the athletic association tried to investigate, it says the Tech official in charge of NCAA compliance tipped the athlete and refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Tech has been fined $100,000, its football and basketball programs have been put on probation for four years and it was forced to forfeit all football victories between November 24 2009 and the end of the season.
The NCAA vacated the final three games of the football team's 2009 season. Tech lost 30-24 to Georgia November 28 2009, won the ACC title game victory over Clemson 39-34 and lost the Orange Bowl to Iowa 24-14. It was Paul Johnson's first season coaching the Yellow Jackets.
According to the findings by the Division I Committee on Infractions, the university was cited for a lack of cooperation during the investigation, a failure to meet the conditions and obligations of membership and preferential treatment violations.
The men's basketball program was cited for additional violatons related to rules stemming from a non-scholastic basketball tournament conducted on campus.
These penalties mark the second time in five years Tech has been cited by the NCAA. As a result of misapplying the eligibility rule in 2003, Tech was placed on two years' probation and had scholarships cut in 2005 and 2006.