Filed under: USF
TAMPA, Fla. — Myrtice Landers, a former University of South Florida academic adviser, who was fired this month, filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the university Thursday, claiming the school is covering up NCAA violations and using her as a scapegoat.
Landers, 52, an employee with the university for 29 years, filed a formal charge of racial discrimination with the Florida Commission on Human Relations.
An African-American, Landers alleges in the complaint that she was terminated, in part, because she has “knowledge of numerous NCAA violations committed by white employees, including my superiors and employees of the compliance division of the athletic department that were unreported, and in some instances, actually covered up by the department.
“I feel as though I have been singled out as the only non-student African-American athletic department employee and made a scapegoat for ongoing NCAA violations that have been investigated by the NCAA for approximately the past eight months.”
It was eight months ago — on Nov. 18 — FanHouse reported several alleged violations involving the men’s basketball program. Based on FanHouse’s report, the NCAA sent an investigator to the Tampa, Fla., campus, but ultimately let USF “conduct its own inquiry.”
