Findings mirror what university had self-reported
Associated Press
LAWRENCE, Kan. -- The NCAA said Kansas "demonstrated a failure to exert a lack of appropriate institutional control" over a six-year period that led to dozens of violations in football and men's and women's basketball.
Besides that allegation, however, the findings released Friday largely mirrored what the university had reported to the NCAA last June. In the self-report, Kansas had admitted violations in its football and basketball programs and said it was placing its athletic department on two years' probation.
"Since we have worked closely with the NCAA throughout this process, nothing in these pages surprises us," athletic director Lew Perkins told reporters during a news conference.
Perkins said university officials will meet with the NCAA on Aug. 13 to discuss the violations, after which the regulating body will determine whether additional punishment is required.
Perkins ordered the internal review shortly after being named athletic director in June 2003.
Most of the football violations centered around coaching assistants arranging test help for prospective students, which the NCAA termed "academic fraud."
The NCAA agreed three boosters violated rules by providing gifts to men's basketball players who had exhausted their eligibility. University officials said last year that former basketball coach Roy Williams approved the gifts.
The report also added violations surrounding Kansas forward Darnell Jackson, who received thousands of dollars in gifts, cash and other assistance from Don Davis, a booster living in Jackson's hometown of Oklahoma City. The university discovered the violations last summer and agreed to suspend Jackson for the first nine games of last season.
In addition, the women's basketball team was nicked for providing transportation for a prospective student.
The report listed 26 "secondary" violations it says the university did not report to the NCAA. The violations go back to 1997 and mostly involve arranging transportation or meals for prospective students or their families.
The lack of institutional control charge centers on the university allowing the athletic department's compliance auditor position to sit vacant on three occasions between 1997 and 2002; the school's failure to report the secondary violations; and its failure to make sure boosters and coaching staff understand NCAA rules regarding benefits for players.
Rick Evrard, an attorney and former NCAA enforcement officer assisting the university with its response, said he didn't know how the NCAA may handle the institutional control charge.
"Prior to our response, we have to make evaluation as to whether or not additional penalties should be imposed," he said.
He and Perkins noted the university has since hired an assistant athletics director for compliance and plans to bulk up the compliance office's staff by adding two positions next year.
"We're going to turn this thing around, and hopefully we'll never hear the words 'lack of appropriate control' and 'Kansas' [together] again," Perkins said.
