As the 2022/23 NCAA season officially begins next Monday, resounding information fell this Wednesday at the end of the day: according to The Athletic and ESPNthe Kansas coach Bill Self and his first assistant Kurtis Townsend have indeed been suspended for the first four matches of the season.
A decision taken internally, by the sports department of Kansas, and which can be explained quite simply. Indeed, the program has been accused, for nearly four years, of multiple violations of university regulations by the NCAA, and prefers to impose its own sanctions, hoping that these will be considered sufficient, before the NCAA does not imposes its own, which could be heavier.
In other words: Kansas takes the bull by the horns, offers some kind of agreement that suits it, and crosses its fingers not to leave too many feathers.
Facts
In 2017, the FBI tackled a thorny issue in the United States: accusations of cheating and corruption in academia. After months of investigation, several programs were then targeted by charges, jointly issued by the federal authority and the NCAA.
Among those programs was Kansas, accused of five different violations of university regulations, and which has since remained under investigation, and therefore a verdict.
Without going into the details, which are particularly complex, it should be noted, in summary, that the Lawrence-based program has been accused of having taken advantage of its relationship with Adidas, its equipment supplier, to obtain commitments from certain high school students. Representatives of the brand with the three stripes would therefore have paid high school students to secure their commitment to the Kansas basketball program.
An obviously illegal practice, of which Bill Self, according to the investigation of the FBI and the NCAA, had heard. What the program had denied at the time … before taking a step forward on Wednesday. By choosing to impose a suspension on his coach, the program thus hopes to convince of his good faith in the eyes of the high authorities of the NCAA, by crossing his fingers so that the latter considers their decision as a sufficient “punishment”.
The results
They are diverse, and therefore take the form of penalties “chosen” by the Kansas Athletic Department.
– The suspension for the first four of the season of Bill Self and his first assistant Kurtis Townsend (against Omaha, North Dakota State, Southern Utah and especially Duke).
– The withdrawal of three scholarships (three places in the workforce) over the next three seasons.
– The withdrawal of four official visits to campus for high school students, during the 2023/24 season.
” We hope that these sanctions that we inflict on ourselves will make it possible to find a conclusion to this affair. “said Travis Goff, the sports director at Kansas, on this subject. As for Bill Self, he announced ” accept and support Kansas’s decision to self-impose these sanctions. »
