[bigboydan]

At least Sampson didn't get off scott free over this mess.

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- Oklahoma escaped major sanctions Thursday from an NCAA inquiry into nearly 600 improper recruiting telephone calls it deemed a result of former men's basketball coach Kelvin Sampson's "decision to consciously ignore certain recruiting rules."

The NCAA Committee on Infractions extended Oklahoma's self-imposed probation for an additional 11 months and issued a public reprimand and censure but otherwise accepted the university's self-imposed sanctions, which included reductions in scholarships, recruiting calls and trips and visits to the school by prospective recruits.



The infractions committee instituted a two-year probation ending on May 24, 2008. The university's self-imposed probation was to end on June 30, 2007.

The university was able to avoid a severe "lack of institutional control" finding that could have resulted in a ban from postseason play. NCAA enforcement staff had recommended such a finding but the infractions committee instead found Oklahoma guilty of a lesser "failure in monitoring" finding.

The Committee on Infractions strayed from the enforcement staff's recommendation, saying "though seriously flawed, a system for monitoring the phone calls did exist."

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said the university would not appeal any of the infractions committee's findings.

In an infractions report, the committee outlined how Oklahoma's coaches met on Sunday nights to review their recruiting calls then recorded them on forms different than those supplied by the compliance office and filed them in a cabinet in the basketball office instead of turning them in.

The committee noted that the logs were never cross-checked against institutional phone records and "the coaches were taken at their word when even a cursory review of men's basketball office, cell phone and calling card bills would have revealed the myriad of impermissible calls being made by multiple coaches over a period of years."

Former Oklahoma assistant Ray Lopes, who last month was given a three-year "show cause" penalty requiring him to appear before the infractions committee before seeking employment with another NCAA school because of violations while he was the head coach at Fresno State, received a second "show cause" order to run concurrently.

Toby Baldwin, an attorney for Lopes, said he was considering an appeal.

The NCAA accepted penalties Washington imposed against former Oklahoma assistant Jim Shaw, who made 107 of the calls.

Former assistant Bob Hoffman, who was not retained by new Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel, made only 28 calls after joining the staff in 2004 and the infractions committee decided not to keep an individual record of his violations.

Sampson made 233 of the 577 impermissible calls.

In response to the NCAA inquiry, Oklahoma has added compliance staff and started a new telephone monitoring system.

The Committee on Infractions also found Oklahoma guilty of nine secondary violations by the men's basketball program, two by the men's gymnastics team and two by the softball team.

Oklahoma's last major infraction came in December 1988, when the NCAA determined the football program broke recruiting rules and provided extra benefits. There were also findings of unethical conduct and the institutional control violation.

[Illusion]

How he landed the Indiana job is beyond me.

[kalmikrazy]

I would say a real desperation for "W's"