Kansas basketball: Bill Self, Kansas vindicated after long-awaited IARP ruling

The wait is finally over as the Kansas basketball program and Bill Self have finally received its punishment stemming from an FBI investigation dating back to 2017.

The Independent Resolution Panel of the soon-to-be disbanded Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) issued its ruling today which included two Level II violations and two Level III violations for the school, one Level II violation and one Level III violation for assistant coach Kurtis Townsend, and one Level III violation for head coach Bill Self after initially charging KU with five Level I violations – including a lack of institutional control – back in September 2019.

The panel concluded that Adidas “was a representative of Kansas’ athletics interests” beginning in August 2017, resulting in multiple Level II and Level III violations, but found “no credible and persuasive information” to suggest that KU or the coaching staff knew anything about the money that was exchanged.

However, the program was placed on a three-year probation and will have to vacate the 2018 Final Four and all 15 games that former player Silvio De Sousa played in. KU’s 2018 NCAA Tournament appearance is also vacated, which means KU no longer holds the longest active streak for NCAA Tournament appearances after previously sitting at 33 years.

Another streak that will be impacted because of today’s ruling is KU’s (previous) NCAA-record 14 consecutive conference championship streak. KU set that record in March 2018 after winning the Big 12 for the 14th year in a row, beating UCLA’s previous record of 13 consecutive conference titles. The NCAA record books will now show KU and UCLA tied at 13.

KU’s all-time wins count will be lessened because of the news today as well. It will now put the Jayhawks seven games back of Kentucky on the all-time wins list (2,370 vs. 2,377).

Self’s win total at KU will also be deducted.

Heading into this upcoming season, he trailed legendary coach Phog Allen by just 10 on KU’s all-time wins list according to sports-reference.com, and was likely to surpass him by the time conference play rolled around. Now, it may be later in the year or perhaps next year when that celebratory milestone occurs.

Regardless, the punishment could easily have been much worse than it turned out to be for Self and KU.

Self and Townsend don’t have to serve any suspension time after the school self-imposed a four-game suspension for the pair last November. This year’s team won’t be punished in the form of a postseason ban. Recruiting also won’t be restricted going forward.

Those were (likely) the top three things the school was hoping to avoid from today’s ruling and KU was able to avoid all three.

In a press conference following the news, Self said he is glad this process is over and agreed with the rulings that were presented.

“I’m certainly happy with the end result,” Self said. “And at the same time, don’t feel like a celebration mode because this is exactly what we thought the end result would be and it’s taken such a long period of time to get here. But I am pleased with the findings because the findings are accurate.

When asked if he thought the vacated wins and vacated 2018 Final Four was fair, Self said he indeed thought that was a fair result because of the rules that come with playing an ineligible player.

“I actually did feel like it was fair … by the rule, we had a player participate while ineligible due to an illicit payment that we knew nothing about,” Self conceded. “But he was still ineligible while participating.”

Even though this investigation and ruling has been hanging over the program for the past six years, it clearly hasn’t slowed down the success.

KU has won four Big 12 conference titles, appeared in two Final Fours (one now vacated), and won a national championship in the past six years. Imagine what they’ll be able to accomplish now that this is over and they have NIL and the transfer portal at their disposal.

Finally, KU can now close the chapter in this book and set their sights on reaching another Final Four and winning a national championship with the 2023-24 preseason No. 1 team in the country. The season kicks off Nov. 6 at home against North Carolina Central.