Apparel-Gate Final Resolution - Thursday Jan 29th

[1972Shocker]

Tell the public you are appealing it, then throw $10,000 at it and see what happens. The players deserve that, bare minimum, even if you know you are going to lose because you don't throw a serious sum of money at the problem. But to not even try? I'd like to go on record saying that I am willing to sacrifice the marble columns for concrete ones on the new "Experiential Engineering Building", just so we can say we fought for the students that DIDN'T HAVE A SINGLE THING TO DO WITH THIS MATTER against a terrible NCAA ruling. Is that too much to give up? Marble for concrete?

They did tell the public they are appealing it. Then they changed their minds. If they decline to be transparent about why they changed their minds then they, of course, understand that they have issued an open invitation to speculation, questioning, criticism and second-guessing. @_kai_ may very well be correct in that there may not be anything here and perhaps they were simply premature in declaring they would appeal. Maybe the decision not to appeal is the best one. However, there simply is no way to tell absent more transparency. And as @_kai_ has suggested we probably are not going to get that.

[Shocker85]

There is a really bad odor swirling around all of this - I hope we don't find a corpse in the closet at some later date.

[DUShock]

There is a really bad odor swirling around all of this - I hope we don't find a corpse in the closet at some later date.

Before reading Bardo's statement, I fear(ed) the very same, I do even more so after reading the statement.

[_kai_]

“If the NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee will entertain my appeal, I will pursue it on behalf of my players to the best of my ability,” Stephenson said in a statement to The Eagle. “If my appeal is rejected, I want my former players to know I did everything I could do to protect the record of what they accomplished while at Wichita State University from the NCAA’s ridiculous and unwarranted record-book eraser. And if this penalty is never reversed, to my players: we all know what we did, and we will remain forever proud of it.” - Gene Stephenson

Looks like Gene is going to try and appeal on his own.

http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/article10616270.html

[Kung Wu]

Good on Gene. At least someone cares enough about our students to actually try and support them.

[shockfan89_]

Good on Gene. At least someone cares enough about our students to actually try and support them.

Or his own place in history, but either way it is the right thing to do for the players!

[Kung Wu]

Or his own place in history, but either way it is the right thing to do for the players!

True, I was intentionally taking a passive-aggressive swipe at our alma mater's decision makers for not supporting the innocent athletes, as well as the heavily-handed, persecuted ones. I'll just say what it is: Whether Gene is doing it for selfish reasons or not, he's at least stepping up and doing what he can where our alma mater should be.

Next question at the public open house for the innovation campus: Will you take a stance and support our engineering students when the imminent patent troll comes along and files a patent infringement lawsuit against them for working on projects that you have endorsed, or will you bail on them like you did the innocent baseballs players?

[1972Shocker]

This is really kind of bizarre. No one is really disputing the facts in this case. I think all parties would stipulate that they accept the findings of the violations as previously reported.

Furthermore, the suspensions, the probation and the monetary fines have all been accepted as fair and reasonable. The University even accepts that the committee had the authority to assess these penalties and the penalty to vacate wins.

The only issue being appealed is whether or not the requirement to vacate wins was an arbitrary and excessively harsh penalty imposed by the NCAA in light of the violations involved, the self-reporting and the cooperation of WSU. In fact, I don't believe the NCAA concluded that any intentional wrong-doing occurred. Surely, there is a means of dealing with this in a reasonable and expeditious manner that is not particularly costly. What are the precedents for this kind of violation. Can't use Penn State because those wins were restored.

What the hell is going on here other than the NCAA being an over-bearing, unthinking, self-serving bureaucracy whose interest are in no way aligned with the student athletes they claim to support.

[1972Shocker]

Interesting that Gene filed his appeal last week according to the article in the Eagle.

[1972Shocker]

I had not really followed the Penn State reinstatement that closely. That reinstatement was a result of a out-of-court settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader and the Pennsylvania State Treasurer and not the result of an NCAA appeal.

A lawsuit against the NCAA by the Paterno family is still outstanding.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ncaa-proposes-reinstating-penn-state-football-wins-paterno-record-1421432769

[RoyalShock]

Regarding Penn State's wins being reinstated, I seem to recall hearing about that on the radio one day, and that they were only successful in getting the wins back because they promised to donate some $20 million (that number may be off) to awareness programs, victim-rights charities and the such.


As for our situation, I also think the penalty seems harsh, but aren't there other situations where wins were vacated because it was found out later that one or more players should have been ineligible to play? Didn't the Derrick Rose situation play out like that? I know fraud was involved in that one so the verdict wasn't shocking or surprising.


I'm just curious if there are any previous NCAA rulings that ours can be compared to, where players did something that made them ineligible, without the fraud component.


An interesting tweet I saw today:

Ashley Stephenson @ashleyanne213
Pretty ridiculous how Wichita State is treating my uncle. Let's not forget who gave you a baseball program.. #GeneStephenson

[kstarheel]

F the NCAA. There was NO REASON to take the wins away. Jeezus.... or quit saying that the sport and college is all about the players. Slap a threat, some probation, a fine and move on.

[1972Shocker]

Regarding Penn State's wins being reinstated, I seem to recall hearing about that on the radio one day, and that they were only successful in getting the wins back because they promised to donate some $20 million (that number may be off) to awareness programs, victim-rights charities and the such.

According to the WSJ article I linked to Penn State was to pay $60 million to fight child abuse. Part of the lawsuit against the NCAA was to insure that $60 million was spent in Pennsylvania. The NCAA agreed to that stipulation.

[DUShock]

How about additional payment to the Penn State victims?

[1972Shocker]

How about additional payment to the Penn State victims?

I would guess there are numerous civil lawsuits that PSU has had or will have to deal with that have or will result in substantial monetary damages.