After ten months of waiting, USF is close to learning what sanction it will face for a violation committed by a former basketball player in August.

The NCAA is expected to announce its decision on whether or not any fines or penalties will be charged against USF for the academic fraud committed by former men’s basketball player Greg Brittian in the next two weeks.

“Both the NCAA staff and the university are asking that it will be a secondary violation,” USF Associate Athletic Director in charge of compliance Steve Horton said. “That means, what you’ve already done is fine, and there are no other penalties.”

In April, Diane Dennis, associate director of infractions for the NCAA, spent a day on campus conducting interviews as part of the investigation. Dennis put together the report that will appear before the infractions committee claiming that USF only committed a secondary violation.

If the committee finds that USF committed a major infraction, then punitive measures against the Bulls are likely to be a loss of scholarship or probation. USF already suspended Brittian for his senior year and placed one athletics department intern on a six-month probation, firing another.

“We did a very good and thorough investigation,” Horton said. “Even the NCAA said that. We just want to clarify some questions, what timing issue questions they have when this happened.”

The incident happened during the fall semester of 2002 when Brittain, a senior at the time, handed in a research paper written by the two interns.

The final punishment for USF will be known once Tom Yeager, the commissioner of the Colonial Athletic Association and head of the infractions committee, reviews the case.

“Hopefully we can send it out to committee, if not next week, then by the week after,” Horton said. “There is no time limit because it will be a conference call.”