Image via Eastern Michigan Athletics
Here’s an unhelpful report for the Eastern Michigan fans who don’t want to think about the past too much: Long Island doesn’t have to vacate its program-defining upset from the record books.
LIU must, however, suffer some consequences after the NCAA finished its investigation on the school’s player eligibility concerns. LIU self-reported itself to the NCAA in July 2024 after it noticed a history of poor or incomplete compliance work done (or not done) by previous staff members of the school.
The punishments:
Three years probation,
vacation of team and individual records in sports in which ineligible players competed during that time,
$30,000 fine, plus 3% of the budgets for the four highest-budgeted sports programs involved in violations,
and a two-week ban on all recruiting activities for each sport during the first year of probation.
Long Island turned itself in to the NCAA after the school had issues verifying eligibility statuses of its athletes and found gaping holes in its system between teams’ coaches and compliance staff.
The school, in 2019-20 merged two campuses’ athletic programs into one, ‘stronger’ program at the Division I level. Except that reportedly meant one (1) compliance staff worker was responsible for eligibility certification across 35 sports.
The two athletic departments merged, but it was still physically split between its two campuses.
Per the NCAA case summary, “[t]here were no checks and balances on eligibility certifications because no university departments outside of athletics were involved in verifying student-athletes’ eligibility statuses.”
The summary said that 240 total athletes practiced without having their initial eligibility certifications completed. Of them, 176 “competed impermissibly and/or received actual and necessary expenses while ineligible or not certified.”
It also noted 658 more athletes competed and 111 practiced without having completed their required forms.
LIU has had a run of athletic success this past school year, and all of the good, new memories the school has will remain unaffected by the results of this report. The 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years were not up for review; the case covered the four academic years from 2020-21 through 2023-24.
Not only did LIU have its first-ever upset over an FBS opponent with last year’s 28-23 win at EMU, its men’s basketball team reached the NCAA tournament this year, and its softball team just won the Northeast Conference regular season title for its second year in a row.
EMU and Long Island have a future non-conference game scheduled for Week 1 of the 2028 season.
