While he’s almost certainly not going to get it, Mike Boynton wants an apology.
Boynton called out the NCAA on Wednesday after Kansas avoided major penalties from the massive FBI investigation into college basketball in 2017 — something Boynton’s program did not. Oklahoma State was banned from the 2022 NCAA tournament as a result.
“My message was always, with what they are saying now, is that they did the wrong thing to us,” Boynton said Wednesday at the Big 12 media day, . “My only issue at this point is I still haven’t heard anybody call and say, ‘You know what? We screwed up.’ Accountability is a big deal to me. It’s something I preach in our program every day.
“If somebody would call and just say, ‘You know what, Coach? I get it. We did the wrong thing. That shouldn’t have happened. We can’t change it but I want you to at least know we acknowledge that.’ Because that’s all that can be done at this point.”
Several schools were caught up into the FBI’s investigation into college basketball recruiting in 2017, including Oklahoma State. Former assistant coach Lamont Evans was found to have accepted bribes to push players to certain agents and advisers. He was sentenced to three months in prison in 2019 and given a 10-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA as a result.
The NCAA then hit Oklahoma State with a postseason ban, which was implemented during the 2021-22 season after an appeal was denied. The Cowboys went 15-15 that season.
Oklahoma State opted to work with the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Resolution Process when it investigated the matter. Oklahoma State was the only school that was hit with a postseason ban or significant penalty as a result of the scandal. LSU, Louisville, Arizona and NC State were not penalized despite being connected.
Kansas and coach Bill Self were initially hit with several Level I violations, but the IARP announced earlier this month that it had downgraded those and instead gave the program probation. Kansas self-imposed penalties, giving Self a four-game suspension and implementing recruiting limitations. Unlike Oklahoma State, Kansas fought the NCAA on the charges repeatedly throughout the process.
Though it’s certainly not fair, Boynton isn’t upset with the IARP’s decision when it comes to the Jayhawks. Not one bit.
“I don’t want Kansas to be more severely punished,” he said, . “I don’t think the kids on their team deserve to be banned from the postseason, either. They didn’t have anything to do with what happened before, either. Neither did the kids at LSU or Arizona. But none of them have been [banned from the postseason]. We were. That was the unfortunate part.”
The Cowboys will open their season, Boynton’s seventh with the program, on Nov. 6 against Abilene Christian. They went 10-16 last season, and finished in seventh in the Big 12 standings.
