National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- March 1, 1999

Infractions case: Kansas State University

The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has extended Kansas State University's probation by one year for violations of NCAA bylaws governing recruiting inducements and extra benefits involving the university's football program.

The university was in the second year of a two-year probation stemming from violations that occurred in 1994 and 1995. Though the university was subject to provisions of the NCAA's repeat-violator bylaws, the committee decided not to impose any of the penalties and commended Kansas State for the manner in which it responded to the reported violation.

The violation concerned the provision of cash by representatives of the university's athletics interests to a football student-athlete before and after his enrollment at Kansas State. In the first instance, in the fall of 1997, $200 was provided to the prospective student-athlete.

In March 1998, a representative of the institution's athletics interests provided $3,200 to the then enrolled student-athlete to assist in the purchase of an automobile. The money included contributions ranging from $200 to $700 obtained from nine individuals. Another representative of the university's athletics interests who learned of the contributions informed Kansas State approximately 10 days later that money had been given to the student-athlete.

Specifically, violations found by the committee were:

  • During the 1997-98 academic year, representatives of the institution's athletics interests provided a football student-athlete with money for his personal use.

  • There was a secondary violation involving extra benefits.

    On September 27, 1998, representatives of the NCAA enforcement staff and the institution appeared at a hearing before the committee. Before the hearing, the Committee on Infractions had provided notice that enforcement procedures applicable to a major case should be followed.

    The Committee on Infractions accepted as its own this penalty self-imposed by the university:

  • Disassociation of the seven representatives of the institution's athletics interests and the three other individuals involved in the violations as defined in the institution's letters to those representatives.

  • The student-athlete was declared ineligible by the university during the institution's inquiry into the incident. As a condition of eligibility reinstatement, the student-athlete returned the vehicle for a refund and donated the refunded money to a local charity. As an additional condition for restoration of eligibility, the student-athlete was withheld from four contests during the 1998 football season.

    The NCAA also had issued infractions reports regarding sports programs at Kansas State in 1994 and 1997. Because this case is the institution's third major infractions case in five years, the committee imposed the following additional penalty:

  • Extended the university's current period of probation one additional year (May 31, 1999 to May 31, 2000).

    The committee decided it would not impose any of the repeat-violator penalties because the substance of the violations and sports program involved were different from previous cases, there was no lack of institutional control in any of the cases, representatives of the institution's interests reported the violations, and the university worked quickly and cooperatively with the NCAA enforcement staff to take appropriate corrective and disciplinary measures.

    According to the provisions of disassociation, the university will not accept assistance from the individuals or their businesses that would aid in the recruitment of prospective student-athletes or the support of enrolled student-athletes; will not accept financial contributions from the individuals or their businesses for the institution's athletics programs; will not permit enrolled or prospective student-athletes to accept employment from the individuals or their businesses; will not provide or permit to be provided to the individuals or their businesses any athletics benefit or privilege that is not normally available to the general public; and will take other actions it determines to be within its authority to fully disassociate the individuals from its athletics program.

    As required by NCAA legislation for any institution involved in a major infractions case, Kansas State again is subject to the provisions of the NCAA's repeat-violators legislation for a five-year period beginning on the effective date of the penalties of this case, September 27, 1998.

    The members of the Division I Committee on Infractions who heard this case are Yvonne L. (Bonnie) Slatton, chair, department of physical education and sports studies, University of Iowa (acting chair); Alice Gresham Bullock, dean, Howard University School of Law; Richard J. Dunn, professor of English, University of Washington; Jack H. Friedenthal, professor of law, George Washington University; Frederick B. Lacey, attorney and retired judge, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, Newark, New Jersey; James Park Jr., attorney and retired judge, Brown, Todd & Heyburn, Lexington, Kentucky; and Thomas E. Yeager, commissioner, Colonial Athletic Association.