Florida A&M Tables Basketball Coach's Contract Amid Roster, Volunteering Controversies

Florida A&M University’s Board of Trustees opted earlier this week to put the contract for new head men’s basketball coach Patrick Crarey II on hold amid concerns over his alleged sudden dismissal of 16 players.

As reported by the Tallahassee Democrat, trustees also expressed a desire to learn more about a volunteering agreement between Crarey and the university.

On Monday, the board met to discuss and possibly sign off on a three-year contract worth $150,000 annually that was signed by Crarey on April 17 . 

“At this point, given where we are and the concerns we all have about the process and the need for additional information, I move that we table this discussion until further notice from the chair of the appropriate date, and that can be as soon as our upcoming August retreat or before,” FAMU trustee Kelvin Lawson said.

FAMU hired Crarey as its 15th men’s head basketball coach. Crarey most recently served as head basketball coach at St. Thomas University, a private Catholic university in Miami Gardens. He also was the school’s assistant athletic director.

Crarey was scheduled to officially be under contract at FAMU starting July 1, following the June 30 contract expiration of dismissed Rattlers’ men’s basketball coach Robert McCullum.

But, according to Democrat reporter Gerald Thomas II, Crarey signed an agreement with FAMU in April, which FAMU vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics Tiffani-Dawn Sykes says was “fully executed through the university through the proper channels” for Crarey to “operate and advise [Sykes] in some decision-making as a volunteer.”

Sykes told trustees that the non-paid agreement between Crarey and FAMU has been on file with the university’s human resources department. Sykes added that Crarey hasn’t been on campus every day since his April hiring, but that had traveled to campus “often on his own dime” to advise ordering equipment for the upcoming season.

Trustees expressed concerns about the agreement as potential NCAA or Title IX violations regarding countable coaching rules. 

FAMU's pause on Crarey’s contract approval comes on the heels of a detailed letter from an influential Tallahassee pastor questioning actions taken by Crarey that led to the dismissal of 16 current players, including the minister’s son.

In a letter obtained Sunday by the Democrat, Bethel AME Church’s senior minister, The Rev. Dr. Julius McAllister, wrote to FAMU president Dr. Larry Robinson expressing his discontent of 16 players, including his son, Colin, being notified via telephone on April 27 that they were dismissed from the team by Crarey without allowing them to compete for a spot “as promised by AD Sykes.”

McAllister stated Crarey’s notification was at the beginning of FAMU’s final exams and days before the college basketball’s May 1 transfer portal entry deadline, Thomas reported.

“It is my strong opinion that if Coach Crarey and AD Sykes have made decisions to release players from their scholarships and forced them to transfer two days before the closing of the portal, Mr. Crarey should not be hired as the next coach of the university’s Male Basketball Team and AD Sykes should be required to answer tough questions and thoroughly explain the circumstances surrounding the authorization of the dismissal of an entire basketball team, including questions pertaining to the intolerable treatment of our most precious investments — our young African American men,” McAllister wrote in the letter to Robinson.

“If her answers are inadequate, she too should be released from her contract.”

According to Sykes, when Crarey signed the volunteer agreement, there were 19 FAMU men’s basketball players, including 13 Division I-allowed full scholarship players and six walk-ons. She said three of the scholarship athletes are still on the team while “there’s an opportunity” for three of the six walk-ons or additional walk-ons to be added.

As reported by the Democrat, Sykes told the trustees that three returning scholarship players remain on FAMU’s men’s basketball roster. Sykes said the other 10 departed scholarship athletes either graduated or entered the transfer portal.

“All of the student-athletes were not dismissed. It is not true that all of their scholarships were taken and all 13 people on scholarship were dismissed from the team,” Sykes reiterated.

During the meeting, Sykes mentioned she requested Crarey to downsize the roster from 19 to 16 as a “cost-saving measure for the [athletic] department,” Thomas reported, adding that Sykes said she asked the same from former FAMU coach McCullum before his departure.