Wichita State will not appeal NCAA’s ruling to vacate baseball victories

Wichita State will not appeal the NCAA ruling requiring it to vacate as many as 74 baseball victories from 2012 and 2013, the school announced on Tuesday.

“After a careful review of the issues associated with an appeal of the NCAA Committee on Infractions’ decision in our recently completed baseball case, I have decided that it is not in the best interest of the university to proceed with such an appeal,” WSU president John Bardo said in a statement. “This is not a decision that was made lightly or without proper counsel.”

Former WSU coach Gene Stephenson said that his attorney would make a statement on Wednesday. His attorney informed him of WSU’s decision.

Bardo said, in the statement, that while he disagreed with the punishment, he did not find it appropriate to proceed with the appeal. The NCAA ruling will also affect statistics accumulated by players during those seasons and the 2013 NCAA regional appearance.

“The standards under which such an appeal can be successful are very specific and while I may personally believe that the penalty requiring our baseball program to vacate its wins from the 2012 and 2013 seasons is too harsh for the violations found, I cannot conclude that the Committee on Infractions deviated from its authority or abused its discretion,” he said in the statement. “The Committee has the clear authority to impose such a sanction; I had hoped that it would not choose to do so.”

Earlier this month, Stephenson released a statement in which he supported WSU’s appeal. While the NCAA absolved him of any blame, all affected victories and statistics happened during his tenure.

“I am extremely disappointed the Committee saw fit to order the vacation of two seasons of victories — not so much for myself, but for the players and the university,” Stephenson’s statement said. “At the time, no one — not the players, the coaching staff or the university — was aware the players had received impermissible discounts and were, therefore, ineligible. I can see no facts in its report that justify vacating victories.”

Wichita State has not yet completed an inventory of which games included the ineligible players. The Shockers won 74 games over the 2012 and 2013 seasons, the time period in which the NCAA found that those players improperly received discounts on non-baseball merchandise from the program’s athletic apparel manufacturer. The inventory includes determining when the players in question received the improper discounts.

The NCAA’s ruling also includes one year of probation and a $5,000 fine.

The probation, proposed by WSU, does not affect eligibility for championships or scholarships and expires in January 2016.

Bardo said the university intended to appeal when the penalties were announced in January.

“The student-athletes involved acted without guilty knowledge,” Bardo said in the news release. “It seems unfair to permanently tarnish the records they achieved as a team.”

This story was originally published February 17, 2015 at 7:50 PM with the headline "Wichita State will not appeal NCAA’s ruling to vacate baseball victories."