Mark Stoops on NCAA Ruling: "I'm really worried about right now"

by:Nick Roush•08/10/24•

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Can Kentucky Run The Ball

Kentucky football opened fall camp with some news that shook the program. It wasn’t Earth-shattering injury news changing the trajectory of the 2024 season, but an announcement from the NCAA erasing the 2021 season from record.

The NCAA shared last Friday that the Kentucky Football and Swimming programs had been placed on two years of probation for Level II violations, for which Kentucky agreed to vacate all 10 wins from the 2021 football season and pay a fine. As for the football program, 11 players were paid for work that they did not complete for UK Hospital. Eight of those players played in the fall of 2021, forcing the Cats to vacate all ten wins.

When the news broke, we heard from Mitch Barnhart and Eli Capilouto. Today was our first opportunity to hear from Mark Stoops.

“I really can’t say much. I’m not trying to dodge it. But I mean, you’re disappointed because people did a lot of hard work to get to that place. And obviously, three years ago to now, things have changed dramatically. But it still doesn’t make it OK,” Stoops said Saturday afternoon.

“Mitch and Dr. Capilouto have commented on that. The NCAA has asked me not to say anything about it. I’m not dodging it. Heck, it was three years ago. I’m really worried about right now, you know what I mean?”

Kentucky will not lose any scholarships or receive a bowl ban. Even though the bowl victory was vacated, the Wildcats can keep the Citrus Bowl Trophy.

The irony of these violations does not go over Stoops’ head. Even though almost a dozen players broke the rules in 2021, those rules no longer exist.

“We work tirelessly to educate our kids and to make sure they’re doing things right,” he said. “We’ve worked really hard. We’re far from perfect, but we work at it. We try to do the best we can. I know the compliance in general at this university is very diligent. We work at it. We’re not perfect.

“Certainly in today’s world, we wouldn’t be having these conversations. You can just flat give it to them — well, I shouldn’t say that. You gotta send a tweet to get a million dollars — if you call that work,” he said with a laugh. “So it’s a little different.”