Bill Self shares emotions of IARP infractions case concluding

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 Independent Accountability Review Process (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 and at the same time, don’t feel like a celebration mode because this is exactly what we thought the end result would be years ago, and it’s taken such a long period of time to get here.”

The investigation into Kansas took six years to conclude. For everyone involved it was a long and drawn out process that loomed over the program during that time. At the same time, Self feels strongly that the findings were accurate.

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

Kansas is still facing punishments for the infractions. However, they’re not nearly as severe as they could have been had the infraction remained Level I violations. Both Bill Self and assistant coach Kurtis Townsend avoided show-cause penalties, both of whom previously served self-imposed four-game suspensions. The program will also be on probation for three seasons, but the Jayhawks aren’t facing any sort of postseason ban.

The Jayhawks also self-imposed several recruiting penalties. That included taking Self and Townsend off the recruiting trail for four months and removing four official visits between 2022 and 2024 and three scholarships over the next three seasons. On top of that, Kansas implemented a six-week ban on recruiting communications during the 2022-23 season.

Thanks to the investigation, Kansas will need to vacate 15 wins from the 2017-18 season that Silvio De Sousa played in. The program also needs to no longer recognize its Final Four, while a Big 12 Championship and NCAA Tournament wins were vacated.

Bill Self on the 2023-24 Kansas roster

Kansas is one of the favorites in the Big 12 and even nationally to win a title. It makes sense, given the talented roster that has Bill Self excited for the season.

“I think that, in some situations, you could have too much. In some situations, you could have not enough. If you’re ever going to have one of the two, you want more than not enough,” Self said.

“But I actually like where we’re at from a roster standpoint. I like where we’re at because I think everybody could be contest, at least maybe not with the actual number of minutes, but at least in the role they’ll play considering we have less guys on our team.”