Kansas to 'Fiercely Dispute' Charges in Notice of Allegations
Kansas confirmed it received a notice of allegations from the NCAA on Monday regarding the basketball and football programs, and the university has 90 days to submit a response, the school announced in a release later Monday evening.
News of the allegations was first reported by Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde, Pete Thamel and Dan Wetzel. According to Yahoo, the school was charged with lack of institutional control, three Level 1 violations in the men’s program and a head coach responsibility charge against Bill Self. There are also Level 2 allegations against the football program, including allowing an extra coach to work practice under former head coach David Beaty.
Level 1 violations carry the most severe punishment, including postseason bans and scholarship losses.
In its statement, the university said, "First and foremost, the University emphasizes that it emphatically rejects the assertion that Adidas and Adidas employees and associates were boosters and agents of the University (as defined by NCAA legislation) during the period of the alleged violations and therefore acting on the University’s behalf when they engaged in alleged violations of NCAA bylaws.
"As for the allegations regarding Head Men’s Basketball Coach Bill Self, voluminous evidence demonstrates uncontestably that he did, in fact, promote an atmosphere of compliance and fully monitor his staff. The University firmly and fully supports Coach Self and his staff.
"Regarding the self-reported football violations, the University’s monitoring systems worked to identify the issues, and KU self-reported violations to the NCAA related to the conduct of two members of the previous coaching staff. Those involved in the football violations are no longer associated with the University."
The Kansas City Starreported last week that the NCAA was preparing to issue a notice of allegations against the school. It comes after speculation following a top NCAA official who said the organization would reveal findings against schools that were involved in a pay-for-play recruiting scandal and were investigated by the FBI. Kansas center Silvio de Sousa was suspended for two years as a result of the probe, but his sentence was reduced to one year in May after an appeal. He was deemed eligible to play in the upcoming season after sitting the 2018-19 season due to the violations.
The violations are also tied to the recruitment of Billy Preston, whose mother was implicated in working with veteran adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola in court testimony and documents related to the corruption cases.
Evidence also included Gassnola and Self openly discussing adidas helping Kansas recruit players in texts. Per Yahoo, Self wrote in a text to Gassnola, "I’m happy with Adidas. Just got to get a couple real guys."
In the statement, Self said, "In its haste and attempt to regain control, the enforcement staff has created a false narrative regarding me and our basketball program. The narrative is based on innuendo, half-truths, misimpressions and mischaracterizations. In reality, we all know there is only one version of the truth. The truth is based on verifiable facts, and I am confident the facts we will demonstrate in our case will expose the inaccuracies of the enforcement staff’s narrative."
In June, the NCAA issued a statement saying six schools would be notified of major allegations. NC State received a notice of allegations in July that included two Level 1 violations.
