BYU Basketball: Sanctions may be coming in Nick Emery investigation

According to Athletic Director Tom Holmoe, BYU Basketball could still be hit with sanctions regarding the events surrounding Nick Emery.

If there’s one thing that BYU athletics has done a pretty good job of doing, it’s staying out of trouble with the NCAA.

The only time that the NCAA has sanctioned any Cougar sports came in 2008, when the men’s volleyball team was hit with probation and a reprimand for violations.

Other than that, BYU has been squeaky clean with the NCAA.

But that may change within the next few months.

On Wednesday, Tom Holmoe spoke with a group of fans at Education Week, and dropped this nugget:

That means there’s still a good possibility that the basketball team could be hit with sanctions. If so, it would mean that the NCAA found both the school and the player at fault.

As the tweet says, Nick Emery’s punishment has already been levied, as he’ll miss the first nine games of this upcoming season.

But if the NCAA decides that the school had a part in the process, or willfully ignored the events surrounding Emery, the organization could still find the program at fault.

That doesn’t mean that there will definitely be sanctions, although a cynical person might point out that small things like this have a higher likelihood of drawing the NCAA’s ire than larger issues (ahem…Miami, North Carolina, Baylor…).

But even if the Cougars are hit with sanctions, the likelihood of them being severe is low. There’s very little chance they’ll lose postseason eligibility or have a scholarship reduction.

It’s more likely that they’ll see something similar to what the men’s volleyball team got.

Still, it would be a stain on BYU’s nearly unblemished record.