SBCC Athletics on Probation Until 2026 Following Football Recruitment Violations

This story originally appeared on Santa Barbara City College’s The Channels.

The entire City College athletic department is on probation until Sept. 10, 2026 following the recent discovery that 16 out-of-state football players’ applications were fraudulently manipulated by former assistant football coach Robert Adan, campus officials said.

Adan was initially placed on administrative leave but has since resigned. He had filled out the players’ applications with false addresses and graduation dates, leading students and their families to believe that they would only need to pay in-state tuition to play football at City College, despite being out-of-state residents, Athletic Director LaDeane Hansten said.

“A lot of them didn’t know that [Adan] had done that because he would just take the laptop and say, ‘This is how we do it here,’ unbeknownst to our head coach and me,” Hansten said.

One player on the team, who agreed to speak to The Channels only on condition of anonymity, confirmed this.

“[Adan] lied to the players’ parents and said, ‘Hey, don’t worry about the money, I have it,” the source said. “Which then later came out not to be true.”

Several attempts to contact Adan via phone, text, and email went unanswered as of deadline.

City College’s admissions and records department first noticed an inconsistency with these applications after CCCApply, the online application system for California Community Colleges, flagged them in early September. This was then brought to the attention of the affected players, and eventually Hansten.

“Admissions and records saw the discrepancies before we ever had any idea,” Hansten said.

After the students’ applications were flagged they were benched for the first game of the season against Fullerton College on Sept. 7 while the athletic department “informally investigated” the situation, according to Assistant Superintendent and Vice President of Academic Affairs Maŕia Villagómez. This resulted in a 38-0 loss because 16 key players were benched for that game.

The situation prompted one player’s father to contact Hansten for an explanation. 

The father told Hansten that during the recruitment process, when Head Coach Craig Moropolous walked away, Adan filled out his son’s application and assured them that this was the normal process.

On Sept. 10, the athletic director self-reported the alleged fraud to the California Community College Athletic Association (3C2A). Based on the facts presented, 3C2A then deemed this a violation of its bylaws  2.2.1 and 2.2.2 relating to recruitment of student-athletes and officially declared the 16 players ineligible, according to Southern California Football Association (SCFA) Commissioner Jim Sartoris.

24 Hours to Stay or Go

Once the fraud allegations against Adan were brought to light, Moropoulos, along with Hansten and Student Success Coordinator Michael Gamboa met with the entire football team, including the 16 players directly affected, to explain the situation.

“They didn’t say any names, but we all knew who it was,” the confidential source said. “The players who were involved were really emotional.”

Hansten said that during this meeting, athletes were informed that they had 24 hours to decide whether they were going to drop all of their classes and leave City College, or remain enrolled.

However, a second player who also agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity, said the affected students were given until the end of that same night to decide whether to unenroll from City College or stay. Staying would mean risking ineligibility for the football season and potentially being forced to pay the remaining out-of-state tuition due. 

“Everybody was freaking out because they were like, ‘We don’t know if we’re going to be eligible until minimum tomorrow but I have to drop [classes], I have to make this decision today,’” the second confidential source said. “So everyone was mad about that.”

The first confidential player echoed that comment. 

“Those players got really emotional,” he said. “They were like, ‘We’re 18 years old, you cannot put us in a position to make this decision.’”

As a result of the time-sensitive drop period, two of the 16 players ultimately decided to unenroll from City College, according to Hansten.

She explained that the athletics department had to appeal for the reinstatement of all 16 football players affected. From there, it was decided by the 3C2A appeals board that the students would be eligible for the rest of the season based on the conclusion that they had been misled when filling out their applications.

“We never had any feeling that the students had done this intentionally,” Hansten said. “We knew from the very beginning that they had been led by an adult.”

Though 14 of the 16 players who decided to stay have since been able to return to the field for conference games, the Vaqueros have been suspended from playoffs for two years, according to Hansten.

Villagómez said that due to the 3C2A violations, the college “had to come up with a monitoring plan” to prevent future application discrepancies. In response to this they created The Santa Barbara City College Athletic Department Oversight Plan, which aims to refine the athletic recruiting process by heavily monitoring every step of recruitment from first contact with City College coaches through official enrollment. 

In addition to the suspension from playoffs, the football staff is not allowed to recruit out-of-state athletes for two years. According to the oversight plan, the Vaqueros can only recruit from the Santa Barbara, Allan Hancock, and Ventura County community college districts during the probation period.

Past Recruitment Investigation

This is not the first time Vaquero football’s recruitment practices have been called into question. In 2009, an investigation was opened on Moropolous and his staff regarding inappropriate recruitment practices. 

The allegations included the coaching staff securing apartments for out-of-town players, specifically players from the Los Angeles area. In one incident, according to the Independent, a property manager allegedly evicted existing tenants from their current apartments to provide housing for football recruits. 

Following the confirmation of these allegations, the Vaqueros were stripped of their 2008 American Pacific Conference co-championship title, as well as all six of their conference wins. They were also deemed ineligible for the 2009 post conference games. 

According to Villagómez, Hansten, and Assistant Superintendent and Vice President of Student Affairs Paloma Arnold, the college is treating the most recent recruitment violation as a one-time incident. There is no ongoing investigation to determine whether the fraud occurred in previous years, or over Adan’s five-year tenure as assistant coach.

“This is only my third year here but no, there was no indication ever, from the student athletes, that that had been happening before,” Hansten said.

Still, the second confidential source alleges that this application fraud has persisted for multiple years. He said one teammate, who joined the Vaqueros football team in 2023, who was recruited from out of state, had paid in-state tuition during the 2023-24 school year.

Following the discovery of the fraudulent applications in the 2024-25 cycle, this student is now required to repay two years’ worth of out-of-state tuition, the source said.

The Channels attempted to interview five players for this story, but only two agreed to speak in detail under the conditions of anonymity.

When asked whether players were briefed on how to talk about the situation publicly, Villagómez said it would be illegal for a college official to tell a player what they can and cannot say.

Despite this, the second confidential source asserted that Moropolous instructed him, “Just don’t talk about it at all.”

Moropolous declined a request for an interview, instead referring all questions to Hansten.

Team Struggles to Find Footing

Since Adan’s departure, the football team has not had a recruiting coordinator. According to multiple players, Adan’s absence has left a wide range of responsibilities unfulfilled, resulting in team-wide frustration. 

Aside from recruiting, Adan also helped players secure spots at universities to continue playing collegiate level football. 

“He has connections. He’s the guy who gets everyone out [of City College], so that’s everyone’s main worry,” the second confidential source said. “How are we going to get out? Now, we have to do it ourselves.”

The player also said the team has struggled to maintain momentum since Adan’s resignation, arguing that Adan was the person “truly” running the football program.

“He brought the energy,” the player said. “He ran the team. He did the small stuff, even the day-to-day stuff for everyone.” 

The team’s performance has consequently suffered. In 2022 the Vaqueros were promoted to the SCFA Northern Conference, after securing a co-championship win in the American Pacific League. Their current record this season is 2 wins and 5 losses, with no ability to compete in playoffs regardless of their record.

“We’re trying to fill up what he has left behind, but it’s kind of hard…this really f— us up,” the player said.

Without Adan’s oversight, there have been internal struggles within the team.

“It’s definitely been rough,” the player said. “He was the receivers’ coach, [and] the strength and conditioning coach. Everyone used to work really hard in the weight room, and then once he left, there hasn’t really been that push.”

Beyond the field and weight room, Adan’s resignation affected players’ personal lives as well.

“He would help you with parking tickets,” the source said. “He would take people grocery shopping. He honestly just tried to help everyone, in every way he could. So that’s what sucks. Everyone lost that.”

The sense of stability and leadership Adan provided has been difficult to replace, according to multiple players, adding to the team’s overall frustration since the discovery of problematic recruitment practices this season.

Despite these challenges, 14 of the 16 originally flagged players are currently training and are in the midst of competing in conference games along with the rest of the team. “It’s just a real, true testament to the team that they were before this all happened,” Hansten said. “They’ve stayed and remain strong as a team through it all.”

Read The Channels editorial about this story.