NCAA lifts postseason ban against EWU football team

CHENEY -- KREM 2 Sports confirmed Tuesday morning that the NCAA has lifted its postseason ban against the Eastern Washington University football team.

In February, the NCAA released its findings on a two-year review of activities involving the EWU football team from 2003-07. The NCAA looked into a series of secondary rule violations, which, taken in total, led to a major infractions case. The violations largely centered on a lack of compliance to participation rules regarding academically non-qualified and ineligible student athletes under then head coach Paul Wulff.

In its report, the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions accepted self-imposed measures the university already implemented, including a loss of scholarships and one assistant coach. In addition, the NCAA levied the postseason ban during the 2009 football season and placed EWU on three years of probation, from 2009-2012.

Eastern Washington quickly appealed the NCAA's decision to prohibit the Eagles from postseason play. The university did not appeal the other self-imposed measures. The NCAA finally made its decision more than eight months later.

"We are pleased with the appeals committee's decision to reverse the 2009 postseason ban penalty," said EWU athletic director Bill Chaves. "We are grateful that our student-athletes, especially our senior class, will have the opportunity to potentially play for a postseason berth."

The Eagles have a lot of work to do to make it to the playoffs. EWU is 5-3 overall; 4-2 in the Big Sky Conference .To qualify for the postseason, EWU must win the conference or earn an at-large bid.

Eastern plays Portland State this weekend at Qwest Field in Seattle. They then close out the year with a non-conference game against Southern Utah and a Big Sky battle on the road against Northern Arizona.

We'll be at EWU football practice today to gather head coach Beau Baldwin's reaction to the news. We'll also talk to several players as well. Keep your eyes peeled to KREM 2 News and the new KREM.com for all the latest.