@hawkfan01 said in NOA response from KU discussion:
@Texas-Hawk-10 I think you have to accept the kids were paid; that seems to be admitted pretty clearly in court and that's not being disputed. My question was more were they paid to attend KU? My perception of the shoe company game is the shoe companies are funneling money to players (or their handlers) and then for them to choose one of their brand's schools. Was there any requirement Preston and DeSousa choose KU especially when you have handlers involved? Or could they have chosen any Adidas school? I'm not familiar with the particulars of NCAA rules, but I think there's a difference. Are KU's coaches coordinating with Adidas reps to steer players to KU? I think if you look at what the courts decided, the answer is clearly no. I think each of the defendants walk if they believed the evidence pointed toward KU coaches and other schools coordinating with them. At that point, it's difficult to prove the defendants defrauded the schools.
So if the evidence proves that KU's coaches were coordinating, then I think KU would and should get hammered, but there's not that kind of evidence. Is there any evidence that KU's coaches told Gassnola or whoever to send $2500 to DeSousa's handler? I don't think so. The evidence against almost every other school was they had coaches involved in the money. KU did not. There's a couple text messages or wire taps that don't sound particularly great, but we don't have the context of the entire conversation and either way, there's no evidence that KU was involved in paying. Look at Townsend's comment about Zion....how many coaches around the country do you think made a similar comment? Probably a lot. Virtually everyone wanted Zion. If KU ends up going the IARP route, I hope due to the backgrounds of those involved, a little higher standard is held than automatically believing conspiracy theories without hard evidence. The KU situation is clearly different than virtually every other school that's been named.
The other thing that has to be considered is how KU handled each situation when allegations arose. Preston never played. DeSousa sat until he was declared eligible. KU never thumbed their nose at the NCAA like Arizona and Ayton, Memphis and Wiseman, etc. Unless you just have a vendetta against KU, KU clearly isn't a renegade program.
Unless I made a typo or autocorrect changed something, I've never said kids weren't paid so I don't know where you're pulling that one from.
I also think it's incredibly naive to think Self, Townsend or any coach, especially ones that have regular communications with "consultants" are fully aware of money changing hands. They're just not dumb enough (usually) to leave a concrete paper trail about those specific issues. This gives coaches enough plausible deniability should something like the FBI and NCAA investigations come up.
I also believe you're argument loses a lot of merit when you say, "I'm not familiar with the particulars of NCAA rules" and start trying to decipher the severity of the penalties. Here is the list of things KU has no arguments for because the following things have happened according to the FBI and/or NCAA.
Silvio DeSousa's guardian received $62,500 ($60,000 from an unnamed Under Armour consultant and $2,500 from Gassnola to cover the costs of an online class Silvio needed in order to graduate early and enroll at KU a semester early) in impermissible benefits with the intent of receiving another $20,000 (from Gassnola/Adidas to payback money received from Under Armour with an agreement for Silvio to attend Maryland). This is why Silvio's suspension was originally for 2 years because the NCAA views it as Silvio or someone representing Silvio received $62,500 in benefits with the intent of another $20,000 in benefits. Rewind back to Josh Selby's case for a minute. Josh Selby was suspended 9 games by the NCAA for a little over $6,000 in impermissible benefits while still committed to Tennessee before he flipped to KU. It does not matter where a player is committed to, all that matters in the eyes of the NCAA is that a player or someone representing that player received impermissible benefits and that player's eligibility is now in jeopardy. The length of a suspension typically depends on how much a player received in benefits.
This is also what the NCAA is alleging happened with Billy Preston and Cheick Diallo who are the other two players in the NCAA's allegations against Kansas Basketball.
KU will receive penalties over those infractions because there isn't a defense KU can make about those. What many people ignore, including you right now, is that the severity of the penalties will hinge entirely on what final ruling of the status of Adidas and TJ Gassnola ends up being.
You claim KU's case is vastly different than every other case out there and it is not. I would highly suggest to you to go look up what NC State is being accused of and what's in Louisville's latest NOA from the NCAA and still claim that there's no other cases like the KU one. In all three cases, the most serious allegations are that Adidas and TJ Gassnola are considered boosters of each program under NCAA bylaw 13.02.15 which deals with representatives of athletics interests.
NCAA bylaw 13.02.15 states "Representative of Athletics Interests. A "representative of the institution's athletics interests" is an individual, independent agency, corporate entity (e.g., apparel or equipment manufacturer) or other organization who is known (or who should have been known) by a member of the institution's executive or athletics administration to: (Revised: 2/16/00, 4/25/18)"
This is the rule NCAA is using to come after KU, Louisville and NC State. How the IARP rules on the application of this bylaw is going to play the single biggest factor in KU's fate at the hands of the NCAA. An IARP decision upholding the NCAA's argument will likely mean that Bill Self will either get a long suspension or show-cause label and KU will be searching for a new head coach, Kurtis Townsend would likely get a show-cause long enough to end his coaching career, a multi-year postseason ban, significant scholarship reductions, vacating games involving DeSousa and Diallo (subsequently vacating the 2018 Final Four banner), a failure to monitor label for the program again because the head coach should aware of what boosters are doing, and a very long probation period.
If the IARP rules against the NCAA's application of bylaw 13.02.15 and determines the NCAA has misapplied the label, then KU probably gets a slap on the wrist compared to the penalties above. Probably the most severe penalties would be vacating games Diallo played in and games DeSousa played in prior to his suspension being overturned.
Because there has yet to be a case that's actually made it to the IARP, Memphis was recommended in the Wiseman case, but the hearing never happened because Wiseman left school, we don't actually know which way the IARP leans in regards to upholding NCAA violation accusations.
NC State was referred to the IARP ahead of KU's, and since their case is pretty similar to KU's, how the IARP rules in that case is going to give us a pretty strong indication of how KU's case is going to go.
If me having hesitation about KU's outlook at the hands of the IARP makes me have a vendetta against KU, I would recommend you read this article from SI in regards to the NC State case. https://www.si.com/college/ncstate/basketball/ncstate-terrified-ncaa-iarp-infractions-process ā
It could very well turn out that going to the IARP could end up being worse for KU than letting the COI rule and then go through the appeals process.
