OSU Football: NCAA Rules On Level II Violations

Greg Christopher, the head of the NCAA's Committee of Infractions, announced the committee's decision regarding three Level II violations. The penalties are: one year probation, $8,500 in fines, suspension of the Orange Pride program and university-imposed recruiting restrictions.

Oklahoma State University Public Infractions Decision

The recruiting restrictions include limiting to 30 official visits per year in 2015-16 year and a 10-day reduction of the number of evaluation days for the spring and fall of this coming school year.

Oklahoma State President Burns Hargis released this statement on the ruling: “We respect and accept the decision of the Division I Committee on Infractions and are very thankful for their review of this matter. The Committee agreed with our position that only two of the three allegations were established and those two findings did not warrant significant penalties. While the institution diligently strives to avoid any NCAA infractions, these findings did not result from deliberate actions by institutional personnel to violate NCAA legislation."

The Level II violations were uncovered during the private investigation into allegations made by Sports Illustrated that OSU football was doing everything from paying players, cheating academically, providing sexual favors to recruits and ignoring rampant drug use from 2001-07.

The private investigation, led by former NCAA investigator Chuck Smrt, found that those allegations SI spent weeks publicizing were “fundamentally unfounded.” Smrt and his team discovered three minor violations: five improperly sanctioned drug tests in six years, the Orange Pride hostess group should've worked through the Admissions Office rather than the football office and the final violation was “failure to accurately monitor.”