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IN-DEPTH: Irish facing major rules violations

© Chuck Bednar

According to a May 5 report by the Associated Press, the Notre Dame football program has a major rules violation case on its hands, and this time not even luck may be able to save the Irish.

Earlier this year, a Notre Dame booster by the name of Kim Dunbar admitted to purchasing gifts and trips for Irish football players she was romantically involved with. Dunbar, who had embezzled $1.4 million from her employers and is now serving jail time for that crime, used much of the money to entertain members of the team. Notre Dame officials had presented the case to the NCAA as a secondary infraction case, hoping to put a quick end to the matter.

But as ESPN first announced, the damage may go far deeper than it first seemed.

"Notre Dame wanted us to accept this case as a secondary infraction investigation, but we would not. We are looking at it as a major violation case," Chuck Smrt, director of enforcement for the NCAA, told the AP on Wednesday. Smrt declined to discuss specifics of the case, but ESPN sources claim that other Irish football players and their girlfriends benefited from the money Dunbar embezzled as well.

According to the network, Dunbar took Notre Dame football players Jarvis Edison, who fathered a child with Dunbar, and Allen Rossum, as well as Rossum's girlfriend, to Las Vegas in 1997. The trip reportedly cost more than $10,000 and included tickets to the Holyfield-Tyson (at $500 per ticket), reservations at a top-notch hotel, and first class airfare.

Dunbar's personal diary also reveals that the former Notre Dame booster purchased several other trips with the embezzled money, including excusions for two Notre Dame football players with whom she had no close personal relationships. According to her entry on Feb. 3, 1995, Dunbar paid for then-boyfriend and Notre Dame star Derrick Mayes to accompany her to Chicago, where they stayed at the Chicago Hilton and visited the Second City Comedy Club. Allegedly, former Irish star Randy Kinder and his girlfriend accompanied Dunbar and Mayes. Dunbar is said to have picked up their expenses as well - despite not having a close relationship with the couple.

In an interview with the Associated Press, a Notre Dame spokesperson did not dispute the details from ESPN sources, saying simply that "all the information on all the trips paid for by Ms. Dunbar involving Notre Dame players was turned over to the NCAA by Notre Dame."

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