https://oklahoman.com/article/56654...ketball-penalties-unjustifiable-and-excessive
In the letter the attorney general wrote that, despite the university’s full cooperation throughout the investigation, the NCAA didn’t provide sufficient explanation for such a harsh penalty, even when it admitted that the incident involved one corrupt assistant coach who was working independently and without the university’s knowledge.
Hunter said harshly punishing universities that cooperate or self-report incidents could cause universities to stonewall future investigations, rather than cooperate.
“The punishment by the NCAA to the OSU men’s basketball program is excessive, is completely unfair and only hurts the student athletes, who have worked their entire lives to play basketball at this level,” Hunter said. “In its findings, the NCAA admits that the university had no knowledge or connection to the corrupt act of a lone wolf, and his actions were of no benefit whatsoever to the university. The NCAA’s punishment is unjustifiable, illogical and needs to be re-assessed.”
The letter explains that the NCAA admitted it found Evans began accepting bribes to steer student-athletes to two financial advisers before he was employed by OSU.
The attorney general also found “worrisome” that some aspects of the decision appear to have been copied and pasted from other decisions from the NCAA. He cited an example on page 18 of the investigation, where the NCAA mistakenly labeled the former basketball coach the “head track coach.”