Bill Self agrees with Kansas losing 2018 Final Four, wins after IARP case conclusion

The NCAA finally came down with a ruling on the Kansas basketball program in their infractions case. Bill Self doesn’t have any issues with the final call, though, as he fully agrees with the punishment that the Jayhawks were given.

Self spoke alongside AD Travis Goff at a press conference on Wednesday to address the findings of the IARP’s case. In the end, he feels as if it was fair because, by the letter of the law, they broke rules by playing an ineligible player, Silvio De Sousa, during the back half of the 2017-2018 campaign.

“I actually do feel like it was fair. I actually felt like it should have been done,” Self said.

“By the rule, we had a player participate while ineligible due to an illicit payment that we knew nothing about. He was still ineligible while participating,” said Self. “The 15 wins that occurred while Silvio participated in the 2018 spring semester, I believe, are warranted to be taken away. That is the rule. And, if you take away the wins, you naturally take away the banner. Because the banner wouldn’t exist without the wins.”

This case has been a mess over the past few years with the NCAA finding several major violations. However, with a ton of time passed, Kansas actually came away pretty good. Self had a Level I violation lowered to a Level III and Kurtis Townsend’s Level I violations dropped to Level IIs and IIIs.

Where the Jayhawks were hurt the most was with the vacated wins. The 15 lost wins from ’17-’18 ended up costing them the sport’s all-time wins lead over Kentucky. With those gone, it also took away a Big 12 Championship as well as a Final Four appearance.

Even so, Self clearly has no argument to the judgment from the NCAA. After six years, it’s no longer hanging over them in Lawrence and, in his opinion, Self understands why it had to be done.

Self shares emotions of the conclusion of infractions case

At long last, the NCAA has come down with its final ruling on violations within the Kansas Jayhawks basketball program. For head coach Bill Self, the end of this long and stressful process is emotional.

Ultimately, it was reported that the NCAA’s IARP found that five Level I allegations that were levied against the program didn’t meet the standard. That outcome was huge for the Jayhawks and Self is happy with that conclusion.

“I’m very happy that it’s over,” Bill Self said. “I’m certainly happy with the end result. At the same time, I don’t feel like a celebration mode because this is exactly what we thought the end result would be years ago. It has taken such a long period of time to get here.”

“But I am pleased with the findings because the findings are accurate,” Bill Self concluded.