Though the NCAA described the presence of Kansas football coach Les Miles when alleged impermissible coaching infractions took place as "troublesome," it stood firm on the assertion that Miles' program only should receive a single, lowest-severity Level III charge for those transgressions.
The NCAA, in its response to KU Athletics on Thursday, also reaffirmed its stance that a pair of alleged Level II violations under former coach David Beaty were properly classified while saying there were only scant similarities in the actions that occurred under Beaty and Miles.
The portion discussing KU football's three alleged football violations was relatively brief; just 19 of 92 pages went over the NCAA's stance as it related to the football team's transgressions.
As part of that section, though, the NCAA spelled out a timeline of events that occurred with KU football immediately following The Kansas City Star's September report that revealed impermissible coaching violations appeared to be taking place by special teams analyst Tony Coaxum under Miles' supervision.
Immediately after the story's publication, the NCAA said it worked "collaboratively" with KU to investigate the situation. The NCAA stated that initially, KU and the Big 12 Conference reviewed the video clips attached to the article and determined no violations had taken place in those instances.
The NCAA said its enforcement staff requested KU conduct a review of all practice videos from the spring and fall of 2019 under Miles. In researching 80 hours of video, KU said in addition to Coaxum, it discovered examples of another KU special teams analyst _ Devin Ducote _ providing on-field coaching in violation of NCAA rules. KU determined there were five combined instances of violations with Coaxum and Ducote and suspended both for two weeks.
On Oct. 10, KU sent the NCAA enforcement staff a 43-minute video file of KU's special teams practices, which included 29 occurrences KU flagged as "questionable practice activities with student-athletes." KU said it did not believe violations had occurred in every situation there, except for the five instances it had previously marked.
The NCAA enforcement staff, upon review, found that 18 of the 29 clips violated NCAA rules, with Coaxum or Ducote giving technical or tactical instruction with "each lasting no more than two to 10 seconds." Because the video had no sound, the NCAA looked for nonverbal communication that indicated instruction was taking place.
KU and the NCAA interviewed Coaxum, Ducote, then-special teams coach Mike Ekeler, Miles and two KU athletes, whose names were redacted in the NCAA response. Coaxum and Ducote confirmed athlete instruction on limited occasions, while Miles said he was present for many of those instances, though he only witnessed Coaxum and Ducote communicating with Ekeler in practice.
Ekeler reported to the NCAA he was not aware Ducote or Coaxum were committing violations, while the two athletes said Ducote and Coaxum did not provide technical or tactical instruction in practices or meetings.
The NCAA said its final conclusion was that the violations be deemed Level III "because of their limited nature and less-than-minimal competitive advantage."
The NCAA didn't completely absolve Miles, though, stating he "should have recognized the violations and stopped the activity, even if it was Level III in nature."
Miles escaped a potential head coach responsibility violation, the NCAA said, because a "coach control" charge is reserved strictly for more severe Level I and Level II violations.
The NCAA's response, however, did not back off Level II violations under Beaty, even after the former coach questioned their classification in his own response to the NCAA.
The amended notice of allegations detail these infractions, claiming former KU video coordinator Jeff Love participated in "technical and tactical instruction" with players. Specifically, Love met with the quarterbacks six to 10 times in meeting to provide instruction, sent educational videos through text messages and gave occasional instruction during KU practices.
In addition, the NCAA levied a Level II "coach control" charge against Beaty, saying he did not properly monitor his staff while Love's violations took place.
In its response Thursday, the NCAA claimed Beaty "had knowledge that Love engaged in violations" while citing quarterback interviews that took place with KU officials. The NCAA also stated Beaty "did not identify the red flags, took no steps to ask pointed questions of Love or to refer the matter to the compliance staff."
The NCAA explained it believed there were "distinctions" between the violations committed by Love and Coaxum/Ducote that led to the different punishment levels. The NCAA claims there is information Love "planned and purposely carried out his quarterback room meetings in private" while conducting as many as 10 sessions that were 45 minutes to an hour.
"Those actions alone constitute Level II violations," the NCAA said, "and secured more than a minimal competitive advantage for the program, especially considering that while Love engaged in at least some of the impermissible activities, the rest of the coaches were available to travel for recruiting in January."
The NCAA also stated Love's texting an athlete also gave him a "more substantive role" compared to Coaxum and Ducote when it came to coaching athletes. It went on to say that if Love had only given instruction during KU practices, his charge would have been labeled as Level III.
The organization later compared Coaxum and Ducote's involvement to a 2018 NCAA case vs. Oregon, which levied a Level III violation against the men's basketball team's assistant strength coach after he participated in impermissible on-court basketball activities during practice on eight occasions and took part in athletes' voluntary workouts 12 times; the NCAA found that to be a Level III infraction because it was "more limited in scope and provided no more than a minimal competitive advantage."
In contrast, the NCAA found Love's issues "more akin" to that of an Oregon women's assistant strength coach and men's director of basketball of operations in the same Oregon case, as both were accused of Level II sanctions because their impermissible activities spanned over the course of one year and four years, respectively.
Beaty's lawyer Enrique J. Gimenez previously argued in a response to the NCAA that KU's infractions under Beaty _ if they occurred at all _ were more appropriately labeled as Level III.
"To the extent any minor countable coach violations occurred, they were unintentional, more isolated than alleged, and most appropriately classified as Level III," Gimenez said.
KU did not update its statement regarding the football violations Thursday, though an original response to the NCAA's amended notice of allegations to the school said: "All of the football allegations were discovered and self-reported by the University, and the University accepts responsibility for the violations. The most severe football-related Level II allegations took place under the former head coach and his staff."
Thursday's NCAA response completes another step in the NCAA process, as a hearing date should be scheduled soon with the Committee on Infractions or through the NCAA's new Independent Accountability Resolution Process. At that point, Beaty and KU are both allowed to present their case, with a ruling _ one that could take several months to reach _ coming after that.
