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Kansas receives notice of allegations

Kansas v Iowa State

AMES, IA - JANUARY 5: Head coach Bill Self of the Kansas Jayhawks coaches from the bench late in the second half of play against the Iowa State Cyclones at Hilton Coliseum on January 5, 2019 in Ames, Iowa. The Iowa State Cyclones won 77-60 over the Kansas Jayhawks. (Photo by David Purdy/Getty Images)

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The Notice of Allegations is in for Kansas, and the program, along with head coach Bill Self, are looking at the full force of the NCAA’s wrath.

Kansas was changed with a lack of institutional control, three Level I violations in men’s basketball and Self was hit with a head coach responsibility charge. You can read the full NOA here. The football program was also dinged for a pair of Level 2 violations.

The violations on the basketball side are a direct result of the recruitments of Billy Preston and Silvio De Sousa and the influence that longtime Adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola had on them. According to testimony and evidence provided at the college basketball corruption trials the last two years, Gassnola helped funnel at least $90,000 to the mother of Preston and $2,500 to the guardian of De Sousa. Preston never played for Kansas while De Sousa sat out the entirety of the 2018-19 season with this hanging over his head.

Kansas released a statement on Monday night responding to the NOA, saying that it “firmly and fully supports Coach Self and his staff.”

“The NCAA has not alleged that Coach Self was involved in or was knowledgeable about any illicit payments to recruits or student-athletes,” a statement from Bill Self’s attorneys, Scott Tompsett and Bill Sullivan, reads. “The NCAA has not alleged that Coach Self or anyone on his staff was involved in or had knowledge of any illicit payments. If illicit payments were made, Coach Self and his staff were completely unaware of them.

“In fact, the undisputed evidence from the SDNY trials is that the illicit payments were deliberately and intentionally concealed from K and Coach Self. Mr. Gassnola testified as a government witness that he deliberately concealed the payments from KU and Coach Self.”

The University also push back on the idea Adidas and the people the company employed “were boosters and agents of the University” while “strongly” disagreeing with the claim that they lack institutional control.