Mike Vernon's KU Hearings series on KANSAS and the IARP

Definitely something every KU fan -- and college sports fans who want to read some truth in sports "journalism" -- instead of some Pat Forde mOOzer (as in missouri loser) comedy of errors and omissions -- should read.
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Part 1 of the series is
Bill Self vs. The NCAA: The Inside Story that Nearly Changed KU Hoops History
Part one of a series looking behind-the-scenes at the NCAA's IARP investigations

The following is a good summation by JayhawkSlant fan JohnDouglas1:

As the article says, NCAA enforcement came after Kansas using a novel theory that was contrary to reality and the language of endorsement contracts. It used 50+ year-old behavior to argue a pattern. It charged lack of institutional control when we held out an athlete from competition once we found out there was a rules issue.

This episode is about an enforcement group that wanted retribution and was pissed when it didn’t get it. It’s also about a bureaucracy that only wanted to serve itself. Finally it’s about media that wanted a result and wasn’t interested in truth or context.

Kansas responded to all of this by fighting for its survival. Its underlying offense was trying to operate in a fun-house amateurism model that no longer exists and that the US Supreme Court called an abusive restraint of trade.

Bill Self and Kansas made some mistakes in dealing with TJ Gassnola and Silvio DeSousa. That’s it.

Anybody who believes differently wanted a result of Kansas being punished to the Stone Age or bought the NCAA’s decades-old myth of amateurism.

More about this from JohnDouglas1:
On Twitter, Dan Wetzel complimented Vernon on the story and Vernon thanked him. Vernon gave him too much deference when (Wetzel) responded (paraphrasing) that “I know you and I don’t see some of this the same way.”

Dan Wetzel is a gossip-columnist cheap-shot artist, who still tweets that “Bill Self skated.” The underlying assumption in that view is that Self did something that was concluded he DIDN’T DO by objective outsiders (the IRP) hired BY THE NCAA.

Wetzel is part of a journalistic failure in this case. He and the other national college sports columnists and reporters wanted a result. That result was based on a rule structure and “amateurism” model that they never bothered to criticize or had the courage to hold to account. It was too easy to tweet cheap shots or repeat them on your podcast.

That's JohnDouglas1's commentary.

Read Vernon's article (linked above) for the details and develop your own based on what Vernon reports.

And I have to ask -- what was the NCAA enforcement staff looking for "retribution" for? To the best of my memory, in past cases KANSAS never really fought the NCAA when the fecal matter hit the air circulation device. So why did the NCAA have it in for KANSAS and deliver the blown up Level I violations that it did?

The details of the IRP decision paper -- the downgrading of ALL the violations to Level II or III, the conclusions that there was no conclusive evidence supporting that KANSAS or the DeSousa family were aware of the $$ passing between Gassnola and Falmagne and court testimony supporting that they were not, the language that these actions led to hurting KANSAS and DeSousa because they led to DeSousa playing while being ineligible (and be furious about that when remembering that he played only because the NCAA cleared him to play, another FAILURE on its part) -- ALL of these are IRP rendered slaps in the face of the NCAA compliance and enforcement staffs!

Reading Vernon's article is a real eye opener, starting with Self being willing to sacrifice himself for the future of KANSAS Men's Basketball, and the NCAA "oversight" people responding they don't do settlements.

Read on...