Social media users had a lot to say about the punishment the Kansas men’s basketball program received from yesterday’s IARP ruling.
The Kansas Jayhawks walked away from the six-year-long investigation into their program relatively unscathed. In the final case for the IARP (Independent Accountability Resolution Process) before its disbandment, they lessened KU’s offenses from five Level I violations to two Level II and III violations.
When the news initially came out in 2018 that Silvio de Sousa’s mother had taken $2,500 from a third party to have him commit to Kansas, there were fears of postseason bans and even harsher punishments. However, the NCAA decided to give Kansas a ‘slap on the wrist’ penalty, giving the Jayhawks three years of probation and letting head coach Bill Self off the hook.
Perhaps the most severe outcome from the ruling is that Kansas was forced to surrender 15 victories and the Final Four appearance since de Sousa appeared in 20 of the team’s final 23 games during the 2017-18 season. That effectively crowns Kentucky as the winningest college basketball program until further notice. KU’s all-time record of 14 consecutive regular season conference titles has also been erased.
Considering how things could have gone down, Kansas basketball fans were generally pleased with the IARP ruling. Some of the Jayhawk faithful took to X (formerly Twitter) their thoughts about the situation.
Kansas men’s basketball fans react to IARP ruling
Rival fanbases react on social media
Outside the Kansas fanbase, the consensus is that KU was penalized with practically nothing. As you might imagine, several fanbases are sensitive to this topic. The NCAA issued Oklahoma State a postseason ban for far less egregious violations during the 2020-21 season. Schools like LSU, Arizona, and now Kansas have gotten away with it, so to speak.
People on social media were NOT happy.
Let’s look at some reactions from non-Jayhawk fans on X. We’re going to see a lot of negative comments here…
https://twitter.com/notZac_Smith25/status/1712182761220419937