Self, Kansas Jayhawks basketball program avoid serious penalty in NCAA infractions case
The University of Kansas men’s basketball program has avoided major penalties in its six-year infractions case, which has finally been ruled upon by the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Review Process.
In fact, the most significant penalty assessed to KU in Wednesday’s long-awaited ruling by the Independent Accountability Review Process, or IARP — the NCAA’s independent study group that reviews infractions cases, including KU’s — was a three-year probationary period for the program.
The IARP determined that Jayhawks coach Bill Self, initially was charged with a Level I violation, should have that charged reduced to Level III. The IARP’s report said there will be no additional penalties assessed to the KU coach.
Self was suspended for four games last season as part of KU’s self-imposed sanctions. Assistant coach Kurtis Townsend, also suspended for four games last year, had his charges reduced from Level I to Level II and III Like Self, Townsend faces no additional penalties.
Importantly, neither coach was assessed a show-cause order. Also, the team remains eligible for postseason play.
The IARP actually downgraded the severity of KU’s five Level I allegations, making it a Level II case.
The IARP will force KU to vacate 15 victories from the 2017-18 season — games in which Silvio De Sousa, whose guardian was cited in the report as accepting improper benefits, participated. Those victories will be stripped from Self’s career head-coaching record, as well.
That was the season KU won its NCAA-record 14th straight Big 12 regular-season title. The program will now share the record for most consecutive conference titles — 13 — with UCLA teams coached by the late John Wooden.
According to the IARP, “any public references to the vacated records shall be removed from the athletics department stationery and banners displayed in public areas.”
This means the 2018 Final Four banner must be removed from Allen Fieldhouse and KU’s appearance vacated from the record books.
The report goes on to state that, “The hearing panel was intentional in not prescribing penalties that would have a negative impact on current student-athletes. The hearing panel also applied significant weight to Kansas’ self-imposed penalties, especially the men’s basketball recruiting restrictions for the 2022-23 academic year.”
KU’s three-year probation, the report states, “will require all compliance staff and men’s basketball staff to attend NCAA Regional Rules Seminars in each year of the probation period. The compliance staff shall share and disseminate information it learned with other members of the athletics department, including coaching staff.
“Information regarding Regional Rules Seminars attendance and the dissemination of information learned shall be included in the institution’s compliance report. By April 1, 2024, 2025 and 2026, Kansas shall file with the NCAA Office of the Committees on Infractions a plan outlining who will attend the Regional Rules Seminars and how information learned will be distributed to other members of the athletics compliance office.”
Also KU must “Inform all men’s basketball prospective student-athletes in writing that the institution is on probation for three years, detailing violations committed. If a prospective student-athlete takes an official paid visit, information regarding violations, penalties and terms of probation must be provided in advance of the visit; otherwise, the information must be provided before a prospective student-athlete signs a National Letter of Intent.”
KU, which received a notice of five Level I violations in the men’s basketball program on Sept. 23, 2019, previously issued self-imposed sanctions, including the four-game suspensions of Self and assistant Townsend and some recruiting restrictions. Those self-imposed penalties were announced on Nov. 2, 2022.
Self and Townsend were suspended for the first four games of the 2022-23 season. Self and Townsend were also made to stay home during last summer’s June and July “live” recruiting period.
Additionally, KU last November removed three men’s basketball scholarships over three recruiting years. KU also did away with official recruiting visits during the 2022 edition of the program’s annual Late Night in the Phog season-kickoff event and erased four official visits during the 2022-23 and upcoming 2023-24 recruiting years.
Finally, KU put in place a six-week stoppage of recruiting communications, a six-week ban on unofficial visits and a 13-day reduction in the number of permissible recruiting days during the 2022-23 calendar year.
The NCAA investigation into KU hoops started in 2017 after a broad FBI probe into corruption in college hoops. The FBI investigation involved KU, as well as a list of other schools that included Auburn, Oklahoma State, USC, Louisville, Arizona and Miami.
The allegations against KU included a head-coach responsibility charge against Self, as well as a lack of institutional control.
No current players have any connection to the investigations.
KU’s infractions hearing in front of the IARP was held in mid-April.
In the NCAAs case against KU, it was alleged that a guardian of former Jayhawks player Silvio De Sousa received $2,500 from former Adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola. KU held De Sousa out of the 2018-19 season before the NCAA’s February 2019 ruling declared the forward from Angola ineligible for the rest of the season and all of the following season. De Sousa won an appeal and played 18 games in 2019-20.
It also was alleged that former KU player Billy Preston’s mother received money from Gassnola as an enticement to attend KU. Preston never played a game at KU — he was held out by Self at the start of the 2017-18 season and soon after left the program altogether.
Kansas maintained it had done nothing wrong. KU was named as a victim of Adidas in a federal indictment of Adidas officials. The Jayhawks’ first admission of some wrongdoing came via the university’s self-imposed sanctions.
Gassnola testified in federal court that he didn’t believe Self and Townsend knew he was using money from Adidas to pay parents or guardians of high-profile recruits to attend KU. However, some alleged that texts between Self, Townsend and Gassnola indicated the KU coaches knew of Adidas’ involvement with De Sousa’s guardian, who also denied wrongdoing.
There was no specific wording, however, that tied KU to alleged payments.
This story was originally published October 11, 2023 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Self, Kansas Jayhawks basketball program avoid serious penalty in NCAA infractions case."
