NCAA official: 6 schools could face punishment in wake of basketball investigation

By ADAM ZAGORIA

NCAA punishment appears to be coming for at least a half dozen schools involved in the FBI investigation into college basketball.

Stan Wilcox, vice president of regulatory affairs, told CBSSports.com that six schools will receive a Notice of Allegations for Level 1 violations. Two will receive notices in July, with the other four later this summer. Wilcox did not name the schools involved, but Arizona, Kansas and Louisville are all under NCAA investigation, according to reports and school statements.

“There’s even another group of cases that we’re still working on,” Wilcox said. “The main thing is that we’re up and ready. We’re moving forward and you’ll see consequences.”

In September 2017, 10 men were arrested in the FBI investigation, including four assistant coaches from Auburn, Arizona, USC and Oklahoma State.

Numerous other schools were mentioned during the investigation and subsequent trials, including Creighton, Kansas, Louisville, LSU, Maryland, N.C. State and Oregon.

So far, only former Louisville coach Rick Pitino has lost his job in the wake of the arrests and scandal, and that was only after Pitino had two previous strikes at Louisville. He still hasn’t been directly linked to the Brian Bowen pay-for-play scheme involving Adidas.

Former Arizona assistant Book Richardson and former Oklahoma State and South Carolina assistant Lamont Evans each received three–month prison sentences for their roles in the bribery schemes.

The head coaches at Auburn, Arizona, Kansas, Louisville, Oklahoma State, USC and the other schools have not yet been impacted. But that could change this summer.

NCAA Division I Bylaw 11.1.1.1 states that a head coach is presumed to be responsible for the actions of all staff members who report, directly or indirectly, to the head coach. The head coach will be held accountable for violations in the program unless he or she can rebut the presumption of responsibility.

“It’s a great opportunity for the enforcement staff, the committee on infractions, as well as our whole community to now try to … put things back where they need to be,” Wilcox said.

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