Iowa volleyball coach Bond Shymansky put on administrative leave

Iowa head volleyball coach Bond Shymansky has been put on 30-day administrative leave for unspecified NCAA rules violations, the university said on Monday.

Iowa athletic director Gary Barta held a press conference this afternoon and there wasn’t a whole lot more to be said. According to The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman, Iowa expects this to be a ‘Level 1 or 2’ NCAA violation.

Curious what that means? Here’s a chart from the NCAA’s official site:

Dochterman also reported that Associate Head Coach Vicki Brown is the acting head coach and that an outside investigative team was brought in on May 3 to investigate the program. The NCAA was also notified this morning that Iowa had decided to put Shymansky on leave.

A few additional details from a story by the Cedar Rapids Gazette’s Jeff Linder:

• A former student-athlete came forward on May 1 and conversations with the external law firm started in the days following.
• Law enforcement is not involved.
• Barta could not ‘share if the violations are related to recruiting, or money, or anything else.’
• Barta called it both ‘significant’ and ‘serious’

For a volleyball program that was starting to make noise in the Big Ten, this is a massive setback. There’s not telling if Shymansky — whose contract runs through 2022 — will be retained after the 30 days are up.

Shymansky is an Iowa City native and has a career record of 78-84 over his five seasons. He was named head coach on January 31, 2014. According to a release by Iowa on May 10, the Hawkeyes have the 24th-best recruiting class in the nation.

“It’s a difficult day,” Barta said to reporters. “There are a lot of emotions ... anger, sadness.

“(Our motto is) Win, Graduate, Do It Right. Clearly in this case, (Shymansky) came up short in ‘Do It Right.’”