NMSU cuts ties with assistant
Barker doesn’t appeal NCAA’s show cause order
LAS CRUCES — New Mexico State men’s basketball coach Chris Jans will have a vacancy on his staff to fill.
Athletic director Mario Moccia told the Sun-News that assistant Corey Barker would not appeal a five-year show cause order from the NCAA for his time at Texas Christian.
The school renewed Barker’s contract twice since April in the lead-up to the NCAA’s ruling. Show cause means “any NCAA member school employing him must restrict him from any athletically related duties unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply.”
The second contract extension, agreed to following the NCAA’s ruling on June 29, ends on July 31, at which time Jans will seek a replacement for Barker, who joined the staff in 2019. Barker had through Wednesday to notify the NCAA if he intended to appeal the ruling.
Barker’s salary at New Mexico State was $102,000 per year.
Barker’s name surfaced in an FBI college basketball corruption case while he was an assistant at Texas Christian, when he was accused of taking a bribe to steer players toward a certain agent and then failing to cooperate with the investigation. He was fired from TCU in March 2019.
According to the NCAA, Barker’s “acceptance of money in exchange for his agreement to steer players to the management company established a Level I unethical conduct violation. TCU accepted responsibility for the Level I violation. The assistant coach did not.”
Additional conduct violations occurred during TCU’s review and the NCAA investigation.
Following his termination at TCU, Barker cooperated with NCAA enforcement staff investigation, but during an interview “claimed he did not accept a payment or enter into an agreement with the company, and he also claimed he did not facilitate or arrange meetings with student-athletes.”
It was the third time that Barker committed additional ethical conduct violations, according to the NCAA. The others occurred when Barker provided false or misleading information during TCU’s review in 2017 and when he refused to be interviewed during TCU’s 2019 investigation.