Violations that KU said justified withholding Beaty’s $3M pay are ongoing, experts say
The University of Kansas says it withheld a $3 million buyout from former football coach David Beaty because of lower-level NCAA rules violations. A spokesperson for athletic director Jeff Long said the violations alone would represent a breach of contract.
But video reviewed by The Star and two former compliance directors this week show the NCAA infractions may still be occurring under new coach Les Miles.
On Monday, KU pointed to the previous self-reported violations under Beaty as an example of its compliance system working correctly. But at the same time, KU plans to vigorously defend men’s basketball coach Bill Self and his program, which faces five Level I violations, the most serious the NCAA can allege.
This week, The Star found five instances of KU football analysts — prohibited from giving on-field instruction by NCAA bylaw 11.7.3 — appearing to coach players over the last five months. The game and practice video reviewed included multiple examples of a special teams analyst giving directions during drills on April 9 and Aug. 9 and also in KU’s 29-24 home loss to West Virginia on Saturday.
The Star sent video of the two practices to KU athletic department, which responded that it reviewed the clips and gave them to the Big 12 Conference compliance office for additional review. In a statement, KU Athletics said “it was determined that the actions in these videos do not constitute a violation.”
David Ridpath, associate professor of sports management at Ohio University and a former compliance director for both Weber State and Marshall, also viewed the video clips and told The Star that these are impermissible actions by a football analyst.
“Anybody can look at that and say that he is conducting coaching activities,” he said.
In the April 9 video, special teams senior analyst Tony Coaxum is seen on the field standing to the right of KU player Kyle Thompson and uses his left hand to point to the right. Coaxum backs out of the play, then the special teams unit practices a fake punt to the right side of the field. Miles also appears on the field following the punt drill.
In the Aug. 9 video, Coaxum appears on the field several times. In one instance, he stands next to a player during a kickoff drill, pointing and nodding his head.
“He’s yelling at players right there,” Ridpath said, while watching film The Star provided. “I mean, look, there’s nobody in their right mind that can say he’s not doing some coaching there.”
On the ESPN+ broadcast of the KU-West Virginia game, Coaxum is shown speaking for several seconds on the sideline with Thompson following a punt on special teams.
Another person who previously worked in NCAA compliance also confirmed to The Star, after watching the snippets, that the actions would be considered minor NCAA violations.
KU disagrees.
“After reviewing the videos, we immediately shared them with the compliance leadership at the Big 12 Conference for additional review, and it was determined that the actions in these videos do not constitute a violation,” KU Athletics said in a statement provided by Dan Beckler, an associate AD for public relations.
“A member of our compliance staff is in attendance for every practice to monitor the rules set forth by the NCAA. We take great measures in educating our employees, staff and coaches and take matters like this very seriously.”
Beckler did not answer a follow-up question asking to specify why the actions in the videos were not determined a violation, instead referring to the original statement.
The Big 12 initially didn’t respond to requests for comment. After this article was first published, the Big 12 confirmed it reviewed the video but provided only an advisory opinion to KU.
“It is up to the institution to determine its compliance with NCAA rules,” read a statement from Bob Burda, senior associate Big 12 commissioner.
NCAA bylaw 11.7.3 limits to 11 the number of head and assistant football coaches allowed to provide direct instruction to players. Having any other paid staff instruct players, which was alleged this week by the NCAA as a Level II violation under Beaty’s watch, is seen as a fairly common practice among college football programs that is difficult to police, according to multiple sources who spoke with The Star.
“It does go on. It goes on very much,” Ridpath said.
Often, if caught in lower quantities, these are self-reported as Level III violations to the NCAA, the lowest of the three-tier scale. Even more likely is that the school self-penalizes the specific coach when it discovers this type of transgression.
As for the potential belief that the KU analyst’s actions did not constitute a violation, Ridpath said: “I can tell you that the NCAA has said many times over the years that people who have done less count as a countable coach.”
When Ridpath was a compliance director, he said he advised all non-countable coaches to remain on the sideline so nothing was left to chance.
“They can sit in the stands and watch if that’s the case,” Ridpath said, “but once they go on the field, there’s just no way that anybody with any horse sense can tell me that they’re not going to do something.”
Ridpath was a compliance director for Marshall University from 1997 until 2001, when he claimed in a lawsuit that the university scapegoated him after he reported rules violations to the NCAA that led to sanctions against some of its sports programs.
Marshall later settled Ridpath’s lawsuit, paying him $200,000, according to reports.
He said programs look at violations differently based on a coach’s circumstances.
“NCAA rules,” Ridpath said, “can be manipulated to benefit you in certain ways.
“At the end of the day, it’s gamesmanship, and it needs to be exposed.”
Beaty, who was originally fired without cause and expected to receive the remainder of his contract, is suing KU because he claims the athletic department sought to concoct a reason to fire him for cause. His attorney, Michael Lyons, wrote in a statement Monday that the two “continue to believe KU’s internal football ‘investigation’ was engineered to attempt to avoid paying David under his contract as promised.
“We will have no comment on the basketball allegations included in the (NCAA notice of allegations), nor on the clear discrepancy in the administration’s treatment of the head coaches in the two involved programs,” Lyons’ statement said. “KU is going to be forced to address those issues on their own.”
Monday’s release of the NCAA notice revealed the reason to fire Beaty for cause was that video coordinator Jeff Love provided on-field instruction to KU quarterbacks on two or three occasions in March 2018, including tips and adjustments to reading coverages.
The NCAA also alleged Love met with KU quarterbacks six to 10 times in a meeting room at the football offices where they went over quarterback reads, defensive fronts and other concepts, and Love sent quarterbacks text messages containing instructional videos.
Included with KU’s release of the NCAA notice Monday was a statement from Miles.
“I am confident in the university’s process leading to the self-reported violations arising from the previous football staff. Our entire focus is on the current season and the culture that we are building here at KU. The future is bright for Kansas football,” Miles said.
Long also addressed the Level II football violations under Beaty in a statement Monday.
“We fully met the requirements and our responsibility to the NCAA by self-reporting the violations when our compliance procedures uncovered the issues,” Long said. “I am confident in our process to respond to the allegations and look forward to resolving this matter.”
KU’s investigation of Beaty was initiated as the NCAA probed serious improprieties in the KU men’s basketball program. His lawsuit is ongoing; a judge rejected KU’s motion to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds earlier this year.
Long and KU chancellor Doug Girod have steadfastly supported Self, whose program faces five major charges, including a Level I lack of institutional control and a Level I head coach responsibility violation.
“We strongly disagree with the allegations regarding men’s basketball,” Long said. “We fully support Coach Self and his staff, and we will vigorously defend the allegations against him and our university.”
Added Girod: “We stand firmly behind Coach Self and our men’s basketball program, and we will continue to work diligently to do what is right.”
Ridpath believes inconsistencies like this within athletic departments should be brought to light.
“The whole thing, it just kind of shows you the pettiness, the vindictiveness and the kind of the cover-your-ass of college athletics,” Ridpath said. “But, you know, if I’m at Kansas — I’ve been through things like this many times — I’m like, ‘We’ve got really, really big problems. David Beaty’s actually a small one we can fix. Yeah, let’s fix that.’”
This story was originally published September 27, 2019 at 7:10 AM with the headline "Violations that KU said justified withholding Beaty’s $3M pay are ongoing, experts say."