Wichita State president plans statement on baseball team’s NCAA violations

Wichita State president John Bardo will issue a statement Friday regarding the NCAA’s ruling on Wichita State baseball’s violations for providing improper apparel to athletes, according to athletic director Eric Sexton.

Sexton, coach Todd Butler and former coach Gene Stephenson were in a group that traveled to NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis on Thursday. Sexton declined to provide details of the meeting, instead referring to Bardo’s statement scheduled for Friday.

In late September, Sexton said WSU had received a notice of allegations from the NCAA, signaling the end of the investigation part of the process. Sexton said the NCAA found that no person associated with WSU intentionally violated NCAA rules and no athletes were aware that their actions violated rules.

Last November, Butler discovered that his players received discounts, as much as 50 percent, on Under Armour apparel, through an account administered by former baseball administrative assistant Shelley Wombacher. NCAA rules allow athletes to purchase items related to their sport. Under Armour supplies WSU’s baseball uniforms and other apparel. However, athletes purchased hunting gear and other non-baseball clothing. On Feb. 14, four hours before WSU’s opening game against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, the NCAA suspended eight players from three to nine games. Eight players who purchased less than $100 worth of clothing paid back the money.

The NCAA reduced WSU’s penalty in half because it self-reported the violations, Sexton said in February. The violations occurred from 2011-14.

The hope of the athletic department is that WSU will avoid further penalties, such as scholarship reductions, because it self-reported the violations and imposed a penalty.

“We fully complied with everything we have been asked to comply with,” Sexton said in September. “We identified that mistakes were made. We took action. We held ourselves accountable.”

This story was originally published November 6, 2014 at 8:18 PM with the headline "Wichita State president plans statement on baseball team’s NCAA violations."