DeSousa's family took money

So it looks like we've got a problem, Houston.

The FBI probe is now saying that a KU recruit who signed on August 30th 2017 had a family member accept $90,000 to have him attend KU.

The only guy who committed on August 30th was DeSousa.Worse, he played half a season with us, so it could get ugly fast.

KU supposedly didn't know about it, and it'll be hard to say what Silvio knew about it, or how ignorant of the rules his family back in Angola might have been of the rules. Apparently they already had a deal with Nike and part of the money that Addidas gave him was to get out of his commitment to Nike.

Feeling pretty sick to my stomach right about now.

From KU Sports:
“Earlier today, we learned that the University of Kansas is named as a victim in a federal indictment," the statement from Joe Monaco, KU's director of strategic communications, read. "The indictment does not suggest any wrongdoing by the university, its coaches or its staff. We will cooperate fully with investigators in this matter. Because this is an active investigation, it is not appropriate for us to comment further at this time.”

Doesn't seem fair at all that KU would get penalized. That's like me going to jail because my son stole something that I had no involvement but then because he brought into my house I'm responsible. Maybe that is the law, I don't know. Haha. Anyway this sucks. Makes me almost not want to pay attention to college sports because you never know if a championship or league titles will be taken away for. Othig the coaches or University did...

Someone needs to call Chapel Hill and find out how to bypass any possible NCAA sanctions or penalties. They probably have an upcoming class during the impending summer session on the topic.......of course you don't have to show up, it is a fake class, but you will still receive full credit on the transcript AND never have to worry about being responsible for anything. It's the Carolina way.

www2.kusports.com/news/2018/apr/10/bill-...federal-indictment-/

This turns my stomach. In the glaring spotlight of FBI criminal indictments last season, KU ends up with a kid - MID SEASON - whose family supposedly got $90,000.

There has to be an overhaul of the entire system. This is getting insanely ridiculous.

I wonder if we are considering litigation against our corporate overlord. Intentional tort, contract breach?

In simple terms they appear to have damaged the " KU brand" in a misguided attempt to enhance theirs.

This will get ugly. Count on it.

Fortunately there are no national titles to vacate. There is the matter of a certain record that at least one school in California is most certainly interested in. The other more pressing matter to us as KU fans is who actually will be the Big 12 17-18 Champ? My feeling is that there will be a group of nine schools who have a particular opinion of that.

The machine is broken. If a school like KU is so driven to put its reputation on the line for a kid who’s educational background WILL be questioned (thank you Chiek), will only play half a season, and will probably only play one more full season then something is wrong. The pressure on ALL coaches to get THE kid is too much. Did we or did we not just see a team (emphasis on team) win two out of three national championchips with one Mickey Ds player? My point is not that KU should exclude all foreign players. They also shouldn’t exclude kids who might need a second chance. But what I see is a real reluctance to look in your own backyard for a Frank Mason or Devonte Graham. Who’s the last kid we took from Iowa? Do we recuit at all in Colorado, Nebraska or Arkansas? I do believe our coaches read the “trades”. I do believe they watch ESPN. What I am not so sure of is are they really “looking”. I have NO factual basis for this, its just my opinion. What I am pretty sure of is that nobody offered Tyrel Reed a check to play at KU. Nobody offered Ron Baker a car ro play at WSU. And certainly no one offered Dean Wade a night with an “escort” to play for Bruce.

None of us knows how this will shake out. But I hope for the kids’ sake, someone will make the adults in this mess responsible for what they have done. I don’t just mean coaches. Boosters, shoe reps, shoe companies, AAU coaches, agents....they all need some remedial classes on playing fair and doing the right thing. Lets get this thing under control so we see more teams like this years Loyala and less teams like this years Oklahoma.

Hawknmo I may be reading your response incorrectly but it comes across as if KU did something wrong here. De Sousa was the 40th ranked player from this years class. Not a highly touted recruit that in my opinion KU would have needed help in convincing to come play at KU. Who do you go after if you don't go after the best players that fit your needs? Freaking Fred Van Vleet was named by the FBI as well. It's everywhere for everyone and it's just tainting the college game. I am really tired of all of this actually but I don't think KU has any blame in this in the least. They went after a player they thought would make them better.

I tend to look at this mostly as a big nothingburger unless someone is lying. If KU is completely uninvolved, it will be hard to punish the University. If Silvio knew about the money and lied to KU, again, I don't know what culpability KU could possibly have. If KU did not do due diligence in asking the right questions then I could see a small slap on the wrist. But as long as no one from KU had any knowledge whatsoever, I don't see much coming from it other than an endless string of persiflage from the twittersphere and so forth. Perhaps I am ignorant to the way things work in the NCAA world logic would dictate that innocence should result in no consequences. It seems to me that, as Self has said, at this point KU is more of a victim than a complicit party. Cam Newton was rendered innocent because he did not have constructive knowledge of the payment his father received. The same should be true that KU should be innocent if they had no knowledge of the payment.

some thoughts as info becomes more available:

What happens to us is largely about how the rule is written and enforced:
- Option 1: Silvio made himself ineligible the minute he or his family took money. Once you're ineligible, you're ineligible and if you play in a game the rules are broken and the game is nullified.

-Option 2: Silvio became ineligible by taking money, but after KU did it's due diligence, Silvio's family lied about taking the money, and therefore KU can't be held liable because we were given false information.

-Option 3: Silvio was ineligible and someone at KU knew he took the money and either went out of their way to remain 'officially ignorant' of the fact, or actually helped cover it up.

Of those 3 options only #2 works in our favor, #1 is a possibility that's out of our control and up to NCAA interpretation, and #3 would nuke the program.

I like the idea of suing Addidas, but perhaps that's a can of worms that we'd rather leaved sealed. If you're Addidas, what would your defense be? If it were me, I'd be saying that it's been a long-standing thing KU has known about forever (and could point to other players that were named, and maybe even come up with others who haven't yet been named). In that case, we're looking at the #3 option (nuked program) that could possibly go back and negate more than just this year's season.

Seems like the most optimistic option is that nothing happens and the blame game stops with Silvio's family and spreads no further. Realistically, I think we're looking at giving back trophy #14 and not hanging a variety of banners commemorating this season in the rafters. If we get off with less than that, I'll consider us very lucky.

One final thought: the Billy Preston thing actually HELPS us. After his car accident, somebody in the program smelled a rat and we kept him out in an attempt to resolve things when we really could have used him. Sitting Billy seriously and negatively impacted our team, yet KU did the RIGHT thing and benched him. At least that shows that WHEN we become aware of a problem, we react appropriately and conservatively. Not sure if that helps our case, but it certainly can't hurt it.

My real point is I am not sure getting another kid from IMG has to be the answer. I believe there are answers within a drivable distance from Lawrence.

As for “KU did something wrong here”. I will agree with a certain sports radio talk show host and the movie Casino.....”if you didn’t know you were being scammed you were too ____ dumb to keep this job, if you did know you were in on it.” If I have to buy this one that means I have to buy Cam Newton. Just not sure thats in me.

Don’t we think the NCAA might be busy with the schools whose coaches were actually complicit before they get to us? Seems to me they’ll have a lot going on for awhile. If we are indeed completely a victim, then I’d think we are at the bottom of their list right now. And didn’t they vet and approve de Sousa? And I agree that our actions with Preston should go far in our favor of bowing careful when we think somethings not right. Fingers crossed. The only thing I really don’t want to lose is #14!