Oklahoma St. penalized in bribery case
Oklahoma State was fined $10,000 and its men’s basketball team was banned from the upcoming postseason Friday after the NCAA found that former assistant coach Lamont Evans accepted up to $22,000 in bribes intended to help steer athletes to certain financial advisers.
The NCAA ruling included three years of probation, the fine self-imposed by the school along with an additional 1 percent from the program budget, recruiting restrictions and a reduction in basketball scholarships.
“In short, the former coach in this case put his interests ahead of the student-athletes,” said Larry Parkinson, the chief hearing officer for the infractions panel that handled the case.
Oklahoma State vowed to appeal the ruling, saying it was “stunned by the severity of the penalties and strongly disagrees with them.” The Cowboys have put together one of the nation’s top recruiting classes for the upcoming season, headlined by oneand-done prospect Cade Cunningham.
“The NCAA agreed with OSU that Lamont Evans acted alone and for his own personal gain,” the school said. “The NCAA appears to have made an arbitrary decision in the sanctions applied to the institution for the egregious actions committed by a former coach that did not result in any benefit for the university.”
While Oklahoma State received a notice of allegations last year, South Carolina said in February that it had received one tied to Evans, who spent four seasons under Frank Martin before joining the Cowboys’ staff in 2016. In other college news:
• Texas State ordered an investigation Friday into a former basketball player’s allegations of racist remarks by coach Danny Kaspar.
Athletic director Larry Teis said the investigation would be handled through the school’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX, adding: “I personally find these allegations deeply troubling.”
Former Bobcats point guard Jaylen Shead posted the allegations on Twitter late Thursday, accusing Kaspar of singling out black players with racist taunts and threatening to have a foreign player deported.
Shead, who transferred to Washington State before last season, did not immediately response to requests for comment Friday, nor did Kaspar, who has coached the Bobcats since 2013.
“I could not turn away from the many racially insensitive things that were said to me and other teammates,” Shead wrote. “I had never seen someone abuse their power in such a way before, especially someone who claimed he ‘cared about us.’ ”
Shead alleged Kaspar told players to run faster in sprint drills by telling them to “chase that chicken.” In another instance, Shead said Kaspar told him he was “running like the cops are behind him” when he was doing a drill faster than his teammates.
Kaspar also had dress code and hairstyle rules and prohibitions that were targeted toward black athletes, such as not allowing players to wear dreadlocks, Shead wrote.
• Florida A&M will become the newest member of the Southwestern
Athletic Conference on July 1, giving the league 11 schools.
According to SWAC commissioner Dr. Charles
McClelland, the league hit the jackpot by bringing in the Rattlers.
“FAMU’s opportunity to join the SWAC was one of those, we hit the lottery,” McClelland told the Chronicle. “FAMU said they were interested in the SWAC, and we said we’re interested in you, and we were successful in winning the lottery.”
McClelland said the SWAC isn’t actively looking to expand again, but is open to adding a 12th team if the fit is right.
The Rattlers are credited with winning 15 black college football national titles and are the only HBCU to win the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as I-AA) national title (1978).
The SWAC will add the Tallahassee school as a full member starting in the 2021-22 academic year. The SWAC is a NCAA Division I conference that plays in the FCS in football.
“For the SWAC, it’s a great move,” TSU athletic director Kevin Granger said. “Anytime you can bring a school with the tradition and history of Florida A&M University to the SWAC, it just adds to our conference and continues to show that our conference is getting stronger and moving in the right direction. It adds value to the conference. Our fan base is excited and other school’s fan bases are excited as well.”
• The University of Kansas announced late Friday it had reached a settlement with former football coach David Beaty, who had filed a lawsuit against the school alleging athletic department officials were trying to circumvent terms of his contract.
The school agreed to pay $2.55 million to end all litigation and disputes.