Former Wichita State baseball coach Gene Stephenson underlines innocence in NCAA investigation

Former Wichita State baseball coach Gene Stephenson emphasized the NCAA’s absolving him of blame for rules violations that recently landed the program on probation in a statement released Thursday.

“I would have put a stop to it, if I had known about it,” he said in a phone interview. “I had no violations, whatsoever. The whole thing was unintentional and everybody knows it was.”

The NCAA agrees and Stephenson has a letter to prove it. Wichita State, dating to November 2013 when it announced the NCAA investigation, maintained Stephenson was not responsible. The NCAA report praised Stephenson’s record of compliance.

“As set forth in the infractions decision, the (NCAA) panel concluded that (Stephenson) did not commit a violation of NCAA legislation,” wrote NCAA managing director Joel D. McGormley in a letter addressed to Stephenson through his lawyer.

In Stephenson’s mind, reporting from some national media outlets do not reflect that fact, harming his reputation.

“As I told the Committee, and have said elsewhere, I take full moral and administrative responsibility for what happened on my watch,” he said in the statement. “If I had not had serious back problems during that time, I might have seen something that would have led me to inquire further; but there is no way of knowing that. In any event, I am gratified the Committee found that I was not negligent in my monitoring duties and certainly did not turn a “blind eye” to what was going on.”

On Jan. 29, the NCAA released a 21-page report on its decision, in which it hit WSU with one year of probation, a $5,000 fine and required the school to vacate as many as 74 wins from the 2012 and 2013 seasons, statistics and an appearance in the 2013 NCAA regional. On Thursday, WSU associate athletic director Korey Torgerson confirmed via email that it will file an appeal to the NCAA’s order to vacate wins and statistics. Friday is the deadline to appeal.

“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.”

The Shockers won 74 games over the 2012 and 2013 seasons, the time period in which the NCAA found that 21 players improperly received discounts on non-baseball merchandise from the program’s athletic apparel manufacturer. WSU was blamed for failing to educate and monitor the administrative assistant who allowed athletes to buy the apparel. WSU was also blamed for failing to institute recommended changes to the way it handled apparel and equipment in 2011.

The probation, proposed by WSU, does not affect eligibility for championships or scholarships and expires in January 2016. Current coach Todd Butler, hired in June 2013, reported the violations in November 2013 and his coaching staff was not viewed as responsible for the violations.

Stephenson coached WSU from 1978-2013 and compiled a record of 1,837-675-3. Texas’ Augie Garrido is Division I’s winningest coach with 1,920 victories, while Florida State’s Mike Martin is third at 1,813 and former Texas Tech coach Larry Hays is fourth at 1,508.

This story was originally published February 12, 2015 at 5:46 PM with the headline "Former Wichita State baseball coach Gene Stephenson underlines innocence in NCAA investigation."