OU Officials Respond to NCAA Findings

NORMAN, Okla. -- The NCAA released its report today of its investigation of the University of Oklahoma's athletics program, affirming the university's self-imposed penalties and adding no new sanctions.

The Committee on Infractions cited OU for a “failure to monitor” rather than the more serious charge of “lack of institutional control.”

University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren said, “The NCAA response underlines our belief that the majority of our athletics programs, staff, coaches and student-athletes are committed to the highest standards and that the occurrences cited were in limited areas of our overall athletics program.

"From the onset of the inquiry, we cooperated fully with the NCAA. We appreciate the process they have in place, and we will continue to strive to maintain a program of compliance that can serve as a national model.”

Athletics Director Joe Castiglione cited the university's response as a key in the process.

“While this outcome is as positive as we might have hoped for, we view it as a challenge to us to continue our efforts to improve our compliance program,” Castiglione said. “It will continue to be our policy to do everything we can to find shortcomings and to take the initiative to correct them ourselves.

“We are pleased that the committee agreed with our position that lack of institutional control' was not the appropriate charge. We certainly realize that we had a flaw in our monitoring system for phone calls in men's basketball, but we have a healthy overall compliance environment that reinforces a strong commitment to rules compliance and accountability,”
Castiglione continued.

“We have corrected the flaws and have continued to significantly enhance our comprehensive compliance program. We have used this experience to create some new programs in an effort to adopt industry best practices.' We remain committed to becoming a model program that operates within the framework of all NCAA rules.

“The NCAA has reached a fair and just conclusion as it relates to the University of Oklahoma,” Castiglione said. “From the time we learned of the violations, many of which were uncovered and reported by our compliance staff, we focused on a response marked by cooperation and integrity. The outcome demonstrates the value of partnering with the NCAA in a spirit of cooperation.

"We accepted full responsibility for our actions and responded in kind by penalizing ourselves in a manner consistent with the violations. We are pleased to see the committee acknowledge the significance of our approach by affirming our response, our penalties and our positions on the appropriate charges.

“We appreciate the difficulty of an investigation. It is difficult for the school, the NCAA and the committee on infractions. In this case, the three groups worked together and reached an outcome that accurately addresses the violations that were committed.”

New OU head basketball coach Jeff Capel, who was not involved in any portion of the investigation, said he was pleased to have the matter closed.

"I think that the hearings and rulings were fair,” he said. “Obviously we're happy that the situation is resolved. We are eager to move forward with recruiting and with our program in general, and it is encouraging to us that there are no new sanctions that will inhibit our ability to grow this program."

The university will not appeal any part of the committee's decision.

NCAA penalties that remain for the University of Oklahoma:

Reduction of one (1) scholarship during the 2006-07 academic year which ends May 2007
Reduction in the permitted number of telephone calls which ends July 31, 2007
Reduction in the number of days of recruiting from 130 to 98 during the 2006-07 academic year which ends May 2007

The two-year period of probation (consistent with the period self imposed by the University of Oklahoma) begins May 25, 2006 and ends May 25, 2008 consistent with NCAA procedures. The probation does not carry with it any of the other separate penalties. Those sanctions already imposed by OU were accepted. Several of those have already been carried out.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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