Report details OU inquiry: Hundreds of pages released

Opinion letter supporting OU's decision

OU athletics
Fallout from NCAA report
Secondary violations
Documentation obtained in an open-records request showed that Oklahoma self-reported several NCAA Level II secondary violations to the Big 12 Conference that occurred during the time period of Feb. 1 through April 30, 2006.

Level II violations are defined by the NCAA as "inadvertent, isolated violations." Level II violations are considered minor and are fairly routine. Many are regularly reported by schools. OU has already taken corrective action on the listed violations.

Football: Violations included an unarranged, inadvertent impermissible on-campus contact with a recruit by a member of the football staff; an impermissible off-campus contact with a prospective student athlete by a graduate assistant; a recruit engaged in two telephone conversations with a former player; several players wore soft, foam padding during a noncontact practice; during an official visit, a recruit briefly tried out exercise equipment (this was deemed an impermissible tryout).

Men's basketball: Coach Jeff Capel allowed his wife to accompany him on an in-home visit to Scottie Reynolds, a recruit who had signed a letter of intent with OU. Capel's wife picked him up at the airport and drove him to the recruit's home. The coach had the wife accompany him into the house rather than stay in the vehicle. Action taken was rules education for the head coach and his staff.

Women's basketball: Due to misplaced paperwork, two male student practice players had not been certified. Action taken was the institution of a "male practice player e-mail request process/roster" to ensure proper paperwork has been completed. Also, rules education was provided to all staff members.

Baseball: An assistant coach had inadvertent, improper off-campus contact with a prospective student athlete. A letter of admonishment was issued to the assistant, who also underwent a rules refresher. Also, an OU player received a voucher to purchase a $34 mathematical device from a university bookstore while not on a book scholarship. The player and OU's director of academic services were given rules education. The player repaid $34 to charity.

By Justin Harper

/> The players interviewed denied receiving extra benefits of any type.

A rough timeline
Despite heavy redaction, the documents revealed a rough timeline of both the time period focused on by OU's investigators - summer 2004 through April 2006 - and of the investigation itself.

In the preliminary report to the NCAA, OU wrote that the investigation began last February. Although the remainder of the sentence was redacted, it was then that the compliance department reviewed the aborted purchase of a used, late-model Lexus by star running back Adrian Peterson. The school determined no rules violation had occurred.

The preliminary report also revealed the March 3 e-mail to Boren - which was addressed to David Price, the NCAA's vice president for enforcement - caused OU to widen the scope of its inquiry into Big Red.

The preliminary report said the "majority of the information" contained in the e-mail "was either not substantiated or was determined to be incorrect" by OU's investigation.

The e-mail sender's address was redacted, as were two names of OU football players. In it, he alleged the players "were supposed to work in the detail department washing cars, moving cars around the lot and cleaning up."

The sender alleged a Big Red payroll clerk had told the sender "none of the players had to do anything to receive their money," and that she had clocked players in and out "so that it would appear that they had actually worked."

Stephanie Wells, the payroll clerk named in the e-mail, could not be reached Tuesday for comment. However, in a written statement dated April 6, Wells said she had "never clocked in or out nor been asked to clock in or out any student athletic (sic) for the length of my employment. I believe to the best of my knowledge that the student athletes were paid for the hours they were here working. ... I was not aware of anyone being paid without actually working."

Wells reiterated that during an interview conducted June 21 by OU's compliance department with the aid of an outside attorney, Mark Jones from the firm of Ice Miller of Indianapolis, Ind.

According to the report to the NCAA, OU confirmed the NCAA rules violations in late July after receiving time-card reports for several players. The investigation noted inconsistencies regarding the number of hours worked when compared to W-2 statements and the times worked when compared to "class schedules, summer workouts, practice schedules and other time commitments."

"There is no evidence that other student-athletes participated in this scheme where they were clocked in and paid for working during practice or class times," the report stated.

According to the report, OU officials continued their investigation after the Aug. 2 dismissals of Bomar and Quinn, interviewing two more football players - their identities were redacted - but finding "no evidence of additional violations."

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