We can blame the NCAA

What is holding up the clearing of all our players. This is absolutely ridiculous!!!! What kind of accident did Preston have that takes months to investigate when no one else was involved?????? Can someone please explain this travesty to me!!! I am so frustrated with this team. Is anyone else playing with a team of six!!!!!!!

I am with you mom. I know it is not right but I feel if it were UNC they would have already been cleared to play.

The holdup has been due to Kansas, and not the NCAA. The problem is not the accident but that the car he accident in was not the one he told the compliance office he was bringing to campus. Who owns that car Preston was driving took a long time to figure out. Once Kansas figured it all out, they submitted everything to NCAA right before the holidays. My bet is that the car was not legit and that Kansas has proposed the games he has missed as appropriate punishment for the crime.

The de Sousa came on his amateur standing could not be started until de Sousa arrived on campus. And he arrived during the holiday break. That was only recently submitted to the NCAA.

Although I'm no fan of the NCAA rules enforcement people, I don't think the deal is their fault in this case.

I like Governors choice for a defense of Preston. Other students have cars that they don't own so it is not just athletes. Therefor it can't be an impermissible benefit since it is not just athletes. If it worked for UNC on fake classes it could work here. (this is tongue in cheek by the way).

I understand that the NCAA just got the information before the Holiday break and with Silvio his amateur status is just very hard to determine. My point is just personally I feel if it were UNC the NCAA would have found a way to have cleared them to play by now. It is not a logical argument but it is how I feel. When you see what the NCAA has done with our players whether it is Cliff, Cheick or Joel they just drag things along and look far and wide for reasons not to let them play but for other schools they seem to be quicker to let them play. It is something I should just get over but I think I am allowed to whine when I want.

agree 100% hairyhawk - in that if this was some other school timing would benefit the program. While it seems like KU got their information into the NCAA late, I also wonder how many similar instances across the country are going on, i.e. players sitting on the bench waiting for NCAA clearance; therefore, why can't the NCAA speed up/prioritize. I would hope they would do that for any program that is in the middle of an active season. It's only fair to the student athlete...

Come on everyone. I keep reading "don't blame the kid", "if I was him Mom I'd sue", "the NCAA is to blame". Let's not be naive to say this is just a kid borrowing someone's car to go get a burger, just like I did with my frat brothers awesome toyota corolla. If there wasn't some serious issue here, KU would not have immediately sat him for 15 games until a NCAA ruling was issued.

I'm frustrated by the NCAA too, but I place blame squarely on players and family who are warned of the rules and consequences, but seem above it, or just oblivious. Preston did something that made KU take notice, undergo an internal month long review, and then submit the facts to the NCAA for a ruling. The NCAA did not come investigating.

I hope this turns out OK, but my acceptance of any player or family that tarnishes KU's reputation is ZERO at this point.

AZhawk97, I think you misunderstand the frustration to some degree. I do not have a problem with the NCAA saying they are not eligible. The issue to me is the long delays we have had with multiple players where the NCAA has been very slow to give an answer. In their defense they do not want to say he is not eligible and then be sued when it is proven they should have been or the reverse happens and they say he can play and then later find out they should not have been allowed. Since the debacle on rules with UNC I am very skeptical of the NCAA even though I understand it is a tough job..

Hairy, I too am frustrated by how long the NCAA takes on many cases. However, in Preston's case, people are blaming the NCAA for not making a decision in a couple days, when in fact it took KU almost two months to gather the facts and deliver them to the NCAA. Obviously this is not just a kid borrowing a friend's car for a drive. KU is presenting its best possible case, and it's reasonable for the NCAA - who did not start this mess or demand an investigation - to take time to make sure it has what it needs to confirm KU's findings.

I'm just getting annoyed with the Mom sending a scathing email to lay off her son, and many posters (on other sites as well) defending her and Billy, and blaming everything on the NCAA. Billy is not a little boy, and should be accountable for his actions. Billy and Mom need to take responsibility, and we need to hold them accountable, when they do things that threaten the eligibility of our entire team, or damage the roster and our on court success. I'm not convicting him, but I'm fairly comfortable in saying that his - or his mom's - actions are not as innocent as most want to believe. Let's hold those who don a KU uniform to a standard of compliance, at a minimum, and respect for all of us KU folks who care about the university and its reputation.

And one more thought. If I was the NCAA, and KU had a kid that did something that resulted in the school deciding itself to keep him out of games, then conducting a two month investigation, then dumping the report on my desk the day before Christmas break, and then the KU fans started railing on me as the person acting wrongfully for delaying the decision, I might just slow play the whole thing too. This whole situation, and KU's timing of completing its report and sending it to the NCAA, just seems very odd.

Didn't mean to single out Billy although I did ask what the problem was and nobody answered that question.

I was talking about the other guys also. Like someone pointed out, if we were Puke or Kenyucky, these guys would be cleared in a few days

I can't wait to see what this team can do with a full roster. Hopefully before we have to play the better of the league

No can of worms, Mom. The Preston thing has been pretty unclear from the get go (partially by the mediocre reporting on the topic). Over the entire time, it's been unclear where the delay was, and now we learn that it was KU pulling together the report.

Obviously, Kansas wants him eligible, so there's no reason to think that KU was taking their time on this. To me, the fact that it took until December 20th to get the report compiled tells me a.) that it's a lot more complicated than somebody borrowing their buddy's car to go get a late night snack, and b.) that there was probably a lot of back and forth between Billy, Billy's mom. and the compliance office.

So it's clearly not an "open and shut case". The fact that it IS fishy enough for it to take this long tells me that Billy (and/or his mom) need to take a little ownership on this for putting Billy and KU in a situation that was sketchy.

Finally, regarding other students having borrowed cars, that's not an apples to apples comparison. Billy is subject to NCAA rules (i.e. a non-athlete can take steroids and doesn't need to maintain a specific GPA) and he's getting a full ride scholarship. In exchange for their scholarships and the PRIVILEGE to play D1 athletics, student-athletes are subject to additional rules and scrutiny than your random business major.