The Oklahoma State football program was handed a one-year probation by the NCAA Friday for knowingly allowing players who had failed drug tests to play in games from 2008 to 2012. The Cowboys were fined $8,500 and will have a reduction in in-person recruiting evaluation days for football coaches and a reduction in the number of official visits allowed to the Stillwater campus. The all-female Orange Pride hosting group has been banned for four years.
The investigation stemmed from a Sports Illustrated story that ran in 2013 alleging widespread corruption in the Oklahoma State football program. The article accused the Cowboys’ of making cash payments to players, allowing academic misconduct, permitting players who failed drug tests to play in games, and allowing for some for the school’s recruiting hostesses to have sex with recruits from 2001 to 2010, spanning the tenures of former head coach Les Miles and current head coach Mike Gundy.
Oklahoma State did not follow drug testing policy, committed recruiting violations, resulting in 1 year probation: http://t.co/R0xnkz8IZy
— NCAA (@NCAA) April 24, 2015
Oklahoma State performed an internal investigation late last summer and found that the failed drug test issue was the only one that could be substantiated. Five players were found to have played in a total of seven games from 2008-2012, when they had failed drug tests and were supposed to have been benched or suspended. The school self-reported to the NCAA infractions committee and self-imposed the recruiting and evaluation penalties upon itself at that time.
In the release of its report today, the NCAA said Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder was under the impression he had latitude in following the school’s drug policy and thus left the decision on whether or not to play those specific players to head coach Mike Gundy. In its report Friday, the NCAA said it found the school was not derelict in its monitoring of the football program. The NCAA’s chief hearing officer, Greg Christopher, said the school had appropriate monitoring systems in place, but that they were in effective.
The Orange Pride hostess program was found to be operating under the management of the football program instead of the admissions department so any of the hosting duties the young women took part in were impermissible. The committee report also said the NCAA had previously advised all schools that the use of such groups for athletics recruiting was impermissible. None the less, the group is only banned from football related activities for four years.
The school will not have to forfeit any of the games that the players who failed the drug tests played in. The Cowboys will also not lose any scholarships or face a postseason ban. Their official visits will be reduced from 56 to 30 for the coming year and the number of coaches allowed to participate in off-campus evaluations will be reduced from ten to eight over the next 12 months.
Christopher lauded Oklahoma State’s role in the investigation, saying, “This was really one of the most cooperative investigations in recent history.”
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