SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The NCAA has ordered the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to vacate all the wins from their 2012 and 2013 ftball seasons in an academic misconduct case, it was announced Tuesday.Notre Dame announced it will appeal the decision.?Notre Dame was the national runner-up during the 2012 season, losing to Alabama in the BCS title game and finishing with a 12-1 mark. The Irish went 9-4 in 2013.According to the decision, the agreed-upon violations centered on academic misconduct by a former student athletic trainer and two ftball student-athletes during a three-year period. The student trainer also provided six other ftball players with impermissible academic benefits across 18 courses in two years.The NCAA committee on infractions prescribed a public reprimand and censure of Notre Dame, one year of probation, a two-year show-cause order for the former trainer, a two-year disassociation of the former student trainer, a vacating of all records in which ineligible student-athletes participated while ineligible during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons, and a $5,000 fine.Notre Dame ftball coach Brian Kelly, speaking at a regularly scheduled news conference, said the entire schl has been cperative throughout the investigation, and he thanked it for its support.Its never happened before in the history of the NCAA. The penalty has never been issued in this fashion before, Kelly said. I think that qualifies for being, first of all, it was discretionary. This is a discretionary action by the committee. Thats No. 1. No. 2, student-on-student cheating, nobody implicated. The NCAA agreed across the board with that finding, and it was clearly excessive, so were gonna appeal this, and one of the options or clear reasons for appeal is that the penalty is excessive in its discretion and we believe we have obvious grounds there.Kelly said he bears no culpability for the academic misconduct that occurred under his watch. He said he plans on being back in 2017 for an eighth season, saying criticism from this 4-7 season stems from the Fighting Irishs lack of success and is independent of this NCAA situation.If doing the right thing means youve got to put an asterisk next to these games, Kelly said of games he won that are subject to being vacated, thats fine by me.We still beat Oklahoma. We still beat Wake Forest. We still beat all those teams, so you can put an asterisk next to it. If that makes you feel better, then thats fine with me.Lions receiver?T.J. Jones, a key member of the 2012 and 2013 Notre Dame teams, agreed with his former coachs sentiment.We played the games. We did the practices so to me, theyre not vacated. They can take them away, but those years, those memories, the bld, sweat and tears we shared on the field, you cant take that away from us, Jones said.Technically you can take away the wins but at the end of the day, when we all get together as friends, were going to still talk about those games and those plays and those memories as if the wins were never vacated in the first place.In a statement, Kelly and the Rev. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, both said the university would appeal the decision to vacate the wins because the penalty they have imposed is not justified.We are disappointed in the actions of students who engaged in dishonesty, but we are gratified that the NCAA investigation confirmed the conclusions of our own internal investigation: Notre Dame acted honorably throughout, Jenkins said in the statement. As sn as professional staff suspected academic dishonesty on the part of a student, the matter was reported promptly, investigated aggressively and thoroughly, and adjudicated in accord with our Academic Code of Honor procedures and norms. ...We disagree with the decision of the hearing panel to impose, at its own discretion, a vacation of records penalty. In past academic misconduct cases, the Committee on Infractions has imposed this penalty only when it has found serious institutional misconduct, such as actions with the direct involvement or knowledge of a coach or academic personnel, a failure to monitor or a lack of institutional control. The NCAA enforcement staff and the hearing panel agreed with Notre Dame that no such institutional misconduct occurred in this case. Indeed, the only reason the NCAA reviewed the matter was because the misconduct involved a former fellow student who happened to participate in the Universitys student trainer program -- an activity which involved no responsibility for the academic work of student-athletes.Jenkins said in the statement that everyone involved -- including the ftball program and the universitys compliance office -- did everything that we could have asked of them.Two players were still enrolled when the violations were discovered and the schl sought reinstatement of them through the student-athlete reinstatement process, according to the public infractions decision.The other four players were no longer enrolled when the violations were discovered and therefore were not subject to the schls academic integrity policies. The student trainers conduct was ruled unethical by Notre Dame and the NCAA. The parties agreed the violations are Level II.Additionally, another ftball player committed academic misconduct during two years without the involvement of a schl staff member. The parties agreed these violations were Level II as well.Notre Dame had launched an internal investigation in 2014 once it became aware of potential academic misconduct by one former player and one current player. The schl says it reviewed 95,000 documents. It immediately suspended the involved players from all athletic activities and, at the conclusion of the honor-code process, dismissed four players and imposed retroactive grade changes in the courses affected.We believe that imposition of the vacation of records penalty without serious underlying institutional misconduct will not primarily punish those responsible for the misconduct, but rather will punish coaches, student-athletes and indeed the entire institution who did nothing wrong and, with regard to this case, did everything right, Jenkins said in the release. We are also concerned that establishing this precedent will infringe on universities autonomy in deterring academic dishonesty, for it will discourage the retroactive lowering of grades even when an honor code committee deems this appropriate.As we said at the outset of this investigation, Notre Dame would willingly accept a vacation of records penalty if it were appropriate. It is not in this case. Indeed, should this precedent stand, it could create a perverse incentive that will discourage institutions from investigating so aggressively and imposing the penalties for academic dishonesty that their honesty committees might judge appropriate.ESPNs Michael Rothstein contributed to this report.Custom Jeff Bagwell Jersey .B. -- The Baie-Comeau Drakkar tk over sole possession of first place atop the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Thursday with their sixth straight win. Cheap Astros Jerseys . The Cincinnati Reds remain perfect with their speedy rkie outfielder in the starting lineup. http://www.customastrosjersey.com/custom-jeff-bagwell-jersey-large-76y.html . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. Authentic Custom Astros Jersey .Y. - Rob Manfred was promoted Monday to Major League Baseballs chief operating officer, which may make him a candidate to succeed Bud Selig as commissioner. Wholesale Custom Astros Shirts . The team says the Spain international has a muscle pull in his right leg. Barcelona hosts third-division side Cartagena in the return leg of their round-of-32 tie after winning their first meeting 4-1.RIO DE JANEIRO -- British Open champion Henrik Stenson is close enough to think about adding an Olympic gold medal to his silver claret jug.He just tk a long and wild route to get himself into contention on Friday.Marcus Fraser of Australia got off to a quick start, stretched his lead to four shots at one point, and wound up with a 2-under 69 for the 36-hole lead in the first Olympic golf competition since 1904. He had a one-shot lead over Thomas Pieters of Belgium, a former NCAA champion who closed with three straight birdies.Still, it was the sight of Stenson on the leaderboard that was hard to ignore.Only a month ago, the 40-year-old Swede won his first major and got his name on the claret jug at Royal Trn with the lowest score in major championship history. On Friday, he had a 68 to go into the weekend at Olympic Golf Course just two shots behind and in the final group.But this was hardly a masterpiece.In the wind and a hard rain, Stenson had to hit 4-wd to reach the green on the second hole and made a 60-ft birdie putt. He hit into the water on the next hole and still had a full 4-wd just to reach the front part of the green. Stenson made a par putt from 108 feet.Youre just standing there, praying for a two-putt bogey. Before I know it, it found the bottom of the cup, Stenson said. Thats the longest putt Ive made in my career. First of all, its hard to get a putt that long on any green in the world.He followed by duffing a tee shot and making bogey, and it was a relief to play what he called ordinary golf until another wild finish.Stenson had a three-putt bogey, followed by two birdies, and then a tee shot he missed so badly that it came up 30 yards short and into a bunker for a bogey on the par-3 17th. He finished his round with a delicate pitch from a drop area, but only after his caddie had to ask Brazilian fans in the bleachers around the 18th green to move 20 feet because their shadows were dancing around his golf ball.Three-under is not a bad score out there, especially not with that first five or six holes in those conditions, Stenson said. All in all, happy with that. I didnt play as solid as I did yesterday, but were still in the race and still in gd position halfway through the tournament.Golf hasnt been ppart of the Games in 112 years, so none of these players grew up dreaming about an Olympic medal.ddddddddddddFor someone like Stenson, the highest-ranked player in the 60-man field, his current results are like getting through the preliminary heats in a traditional Olympic sport.Then again, not even he knows what to expect out of his game. No other Olympic sport has so many contenders.Its not like some of the other sports where if you jump a certain distance or swim at a certain time, you can pretty much figure out who is going to win and finish second and third, Stenson said earlier this week. Ours is a bit more down to the form for the week and on any given day.At the halfway point, Olympic golf was starting to take shape.Fraser was at 10-under 132 -- another day, another Olympic record. Of course, given how long the sport has been absent from the Games, new marks are being set every day. The Australian caught only a little of the nasty weather, and it didnt last long before the sun came out. Fraser built a four-shot lead before dropping two shots, including the reachable par-4 16th, where it tk him two chips to reach the green.Playing with Stenson on Saturday could be intimidating, through Fraser saw it differently.Any time you play with Stenson on the weekend, you know youre doing something right.Pieters made up a lot of ground in a hurry by driving just through the green on the 16th for a two-putt birdie from 75 feet, holing a 15-ft birdie on the 17th and then two-putting from just off the green on the par-5 18th.Justin Rose of Britain and Gregory Bourdy of France each shot 69 and were four shots behind.The Americans, the only country with four players, were still lingering. Matt Kuchar had a 70 and was seven shots behind, following by Bubba Watson (67) at 2-under 140 and Patrick Reed (69) nine shots back.Rickie Fowler was still near the bottom. Even with actor Matthew McConaughey following along, Fowler made three bogeys on the back nine and had to settle for a 71, leaving him 14 shots out of the lead. Barring a low round Saturday, he likely will leave Rio with plenty of selfies, but no medals. ' ' '