Bill Self, Kansas Are in Serious Trouble Thanks to NCAA Notice of Allegations
Bill Self and his Kansas basketball program are in some serious trouble. On Monday, the NCAA dropped a notice of allegations on the school that includes the dreaded "lack of institutional control" charge and a "head coach responsibility" charge for Self. This is a massive deal and, if things go sideways, could spell the end of Self's time in Lawrence.
Kansas was hit with three Level I violations in men's basketball. There are also lesser charges against the football program, but those are Level II violations.
Yahoo! has the latest on the story:
"The Level I violations are tied, in part, to the recruitments of Billy Preston and Silvio De Sousa. Court testimony and documents tied to the federal basketball corruption cases over the past two years included details of veteran adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola having “conspired to illicitly funnel approximately at least $90,000” to the mother of Preston. Gassnola also testified in court that he paid De Sousa’s guardian $2,500, although he denied arranging a $20,000 payment that had been discussed on wiretaps."
The charge against Self could be devastating. During the college basketball corruption case, text messages between Self and Gassnola were revealed and included the pair discussing Adidas assisting Kansas in recruiting. If the NCAA has nailed down proof Self and Gassnola were speaking about funneling money to recruits, he has to be done at Kansas.
Self and Kansas are going to be on defense against the NCAA immediately. The Jayhawks have one of the premier basketball programs in the nation and they could be on the verge of suffering serious penalties. Kansas will almost certainly have to consider jettisoning Self for this. Will the university go that far? We'll have to wait and see. But if he was knowingly encouraging recruits to be paid, that is a massive problem for Kansas.
We'll see how this plays out, but it has the potential to be an enormous story over the next few months.