Oklahoma State Basketball: Why penalty for Cowboys is awful in every way

Problem 1 with Oklahoma State Basketball ban: Punishing the Wrong People

This is the primary issue I think anyone would immediately have with the Oklahoma State punishment. A postseason ban affects all the student-athletes on the roster who had nothing to do with the violations. Already four years removed from the Lamont Evans wrongdoing, none of the current players were even on the roster when the violations occurred. Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder was certainly taken aback by the NCAA’s decision. In his statement last Friday, he had this to say:

"I find it almost impossible to reconcile the severe penalties imposed by the NCAA for the violations detailed in today’s report. The NCAA agreed that Lamont Evans acted alone and for his own benefit. The NCAA also agreed that OSU did not benefit in recruiting, commit a recruiting violation, did not play an ineligible player and did not display a lack of institutional control. They said OSU cooperated throughout the entire process. In short, OSU did the right thing."

And Mike Holder is right. If the NCAA is acknowledging that Evans acted alone and for his own benefit, how are they justifying levying punishments on the university? OSU’s AD would go on to make the point that their basketball program was already damaged by Evans’ actions and the NCAA shouldn’t be punishing the victims.

It would be another thing entirely if the NCAA determined that Oklahoma State exhibited a lack of institutional control in allowing an assistant coach to accept bribes on their watch. Such a conclusion was never reached, making it ludicrous to punish a program that was double-crossed and then fully cooperated with the ensuing investigation. Given that Evans acted alone and that the university was not complicit in any wrongdoing, there’s no legitimate reason for the NCAA to punish the OSU players or even the OSU program.