Former Kansas Jayhawks football coach David Beaty removed from KU’s NCAA violations
Former Kansas football coach David Beaty had a violation against him withdrawn as part of KU’s NCAA infractions case, the Independent Accountability Review Process said in a letter he received last week.
Marc T. Quigley, external advocate for the IARP’s Complex Case Unit, sent the letter to Beaty and his attorney on Wednesday, Oct. 6. In that document, Quigley said the case’s independent investigators had elected to withdraw the allegation from KU’s notice of allegations that was ascribed to Beaty.
“Accordingly, you are no longer identified as an involved individual in the proceedings against the University of Kansas,” Quigley wrote.
Beaty was emotional when talking about the development during a press conference with his attorney Michael Lyons on Thursday afternoon.
“Today’s a great day because when you get your name back — and you only get one of those — getting your good name back ... I’m very fortunate, because a lot of times it doesn’t happen,” Beaty said. “And I’m just so thankful to Mike.”
Beaty has not been employed full-time in college football since his 2018 firing at KU — and the subsequent suggestion he was involved with potential NCAA Level II violations. He claimed during a February 2020 deposition that he was offered an analyst position at Texas before the Longhorns’ athletic director, Chris Del Conte, had second thoughts following a phone conversation with Jeff Long, then KU’s athletic director. Long later said under deposition that he told Del Conte that Beaty was “involved with serious violations under investigation by the NCAA.”
Since then, Beaty said he has consulted with a few college football programs and learned a lot. He said the plan now, with this NCAA matter behind him, is to “get back on the sidelines and being able to help young men become better men, one day at a time.”
Lyons called Thursday’s announcement “vindication” for Beaty, his wife, Raynee, and his entire family, saying Beaty had been held back after KU launched what he labeled as a “phony investigation” to try to get out of his $3 million buyout.
“David has been rendered to the sideline for the last three years and has been unable to get a job because of this plot against him,” Lyons said, “and today we announced that David is free from the saga, and that David is able, once again, to work in the coaching ranks, and do what he loves and what he’s so good at.”
Originally, Beaty was cited in the NCAA’s notice of allegations sent to KU in September 2019, as KU self-reported violations following its own investigation while claiming former KU video coordinator Jeff Love participated in “technical and tactical instruction” with players under Beaty’s watch. Specifically, Love met with the quarterbacks six to 10 times and provided instruction, including the sending of educational videos through text messages.
NCAA rules prohibit non-coaching staff members from instructing players; KU declared two Level II violations: one for Love’s involvement, and one for Beaty not properly monitoring his staff. The NCAA classifies violations on three tiers, with Level I being the most severe.
Beaty’s NCAA lawyer Enrique J. Gimenez, in a response to the NCAA sent a few months afterward, immediately claimed that any violations against the program under Beaty’s watch should have been classified as Level III and not Level II.
“To the extent any minor countable coach violations occurred, they were unintentional, more isolated than alleged, and most appropriately classified as Level III,” Gimenez’s response read.
Following the original notice of allegations, the NCAA enforcement staff also added another football violation to KU’s notice after “the institution and enforcement staff discovered a new Level III violation involving the football program and its current staff” during Les Miles’ tenure. That charge — coming after a Kansas City Star article on the topic — said that during spring and fall practices in 2019, two KU non-coaching special teams staff members “occasionally participated in on-field activities and assisted with football drills. Additionally, and on a limited basis, the two special teams analysts participated in on-field practices by providing technical or tactical instruction” to players.
No individuals were named in that allegation, with the amended notice of allegations saying that KU and the NCAA enforcement staff were in agreement about it being a Level III violation.
Long fired Beaty in November 2018, initially promising the coach a $3 million buyout due to him under his contract. The payment was later withheld after Long reclassified Beaty’s firing as “for cause” after KU’s investigation and subsequent claim that Beaty had committed a Level II violation.
Beaty filed a lawsuit against KU Athletics in March 2019 for his $3 million buyout, and 15 months later, the two sides reached a $2.55 million settlement. KU Athletics also spent roughly $500,000 on legal fees regarding the matter, open record requests showed, while unsealed depositions from the lawsuit revealed allegations against Long that he made crass remarks of a sexual nature about an elderly female donor and a female school staffer and — separately — struggled to remember the names of coaching candidates besides Miles that he interviewed to replace Beaty.
KU sent out a release that day on the Beaty settlement, saying, “For the betterment of KU, and driven by a willingness to move forward during a time of uncertainty in college athletics, the University has now put this matter behind us.”
Lyons, meanwhile, called that day a “tremendous victory for David and his family.”
“This is a victory for college coaches like David everywhere,” Lyons said then. “This trend, that is starting to matriculate in college athletics where, ‘We’ll make a promise to pay you if we fire you, and then we trump up something, and come up with something to try to get out of a contract,’ which is what Kansas has done here ... I think this case is a great example of why that’s a bad idea.
“They ultimately damaged their reputation, subjected themselves to more exposure in their athletic department and before the NCAA, and spent more money than they ultimately would have had to had they simply just paid him and honored their commitment.”
KU football has taken at least one step this year to discourage any non-countable coaches from giving instruction. This season, during open portions of practice, analysts and non-countable coaches have been wearing red shirts to make them stand out from other staff members. That potentially would make it easier for KU or the NCAA enforcement staff to determine through practice film whether any lower-level violations have been taking place.
This story was originally published October 14, 2021 at 11:11 AM with the headline "Former Kansas Jayhawks football coach David Beaty removed from KU’s NCAA violations."
