Long pressed on NCAA violations under Beaty, Miles in deposition; KU pushes back
During a Feb. 27 deposition that spanned over eight hours — and was the basis of a 432-page transcript — Kansas athletic director Jeff Long was pressed repeatedly on his treatment of former football coach David Beaty compared to current KU football coach Les Miles … and briefly men’s basketball coach Bill Self as well.
In particular, Beaty’s lawyer Michael Lyons attempted to argue that Long had used different methods when it came to the investigation and reporting of violations within the football program — depending on who the coach was at the time.
Non-allowed coaches instructed players during Beaty’s and Miles’ tenures. The two violations on Beaty’s watch — self-reported by KU as Level II, the middle of the NCAA’s three-tier system — involved former video coordinator Jeff Love instructing quarterbacks in a meeting room six to 10 times and Beaty failing to properly monitor his program as a result of that taking place.
The violation in Miles’ tenure — self-reported by KU as Level III, the least serious — came about after it was discovered two special teams analysts participated in on-field practices while providing instruction to players.
Kansas Athletics, meanwhile, argued that the infractions under Miles were different than what occurred under Beaty. In a court filing on Wednesday, lawyers representing Kansas Athletics said evidence “suggests” Beaty knew about and allowed an analyst to coach quarterbacks while Miles’ analysts provided “inadvertent” on-field instruction.
Beaty’s lawyers don’t concede that their client knew about impermissible coaching, noting in an earlier filing that the NCAA does not allege that Beaty was directly involved in any prohibited activity.
Lyons referenced NCAA rules during questioning of Long in his deposition, in particular citing the bylaw used to give Beaty his coach control charge. It states, ultimately, that the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions determines whether a coach compliance issue has occurred.
That process has not been completed, with KU’s infractions case expected to be settled by the NCAA in late 2020.
Long fired Beaty in November 2018, initially promising the coach $3 million due to him under his contract, but the payment was later withheld when KU Athletics reclassified Beaty’s firing as “for cause” after the football violations under Beaty were turned into the NCAA. The deposition of Long was conducted as part of Beaty’s lawsuit against KU seeking his $3 million buyout.
Also providing sworn testimony in the case was former Williams Education Fund director Matt Baty, a transcript of which was unsealed this week. Baty alleged that Long had planned Beaty’s firing for months, and also accused long of making crass sexual remarks about a donor and a staffer in separate incidents.
Kansas Athletics pushed back on those allegations through a legal filing submitted to the court on Wednesday, saying that Long asked Baty to resign his position and had motive to get back at Kansas Athletics. They call Baty a “disgruntled ex-employee.”
Kansas Athletics also dismissed Beaty’s attempts to contrast its treatment of Self and former Jayhawks football coach Mark Mangino, arguing that it’s “completely disparate circumstances” and in Mangino’s case involved an entirely separate administration.
Long spoke with Texas AD about Beaty
In essence, Lyons argued, Long made a judgment on Beaty before the NCAA did — and also before Beaty could state his own case before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions.
Long later said that he came to a more harsh conclusion regarding Beaty than the NCAA Committee on Enforcement did in its Notice of Allegations against KU, believing his actions were more serious than the document alleged. Long also said he spoke to Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte about Beaty, recalling that he told him that “David Beaty is involved with serious violations under investigation by the NCAA.”
Long said to Lyons that claiming to others like Del Conte that Beaty was being charged with a willful violation of NCAA rules “could be damaging to his career.”
Lyons challenged Long about that point.
“So if I’m understanding what you’re saying, you’re saying that you’ve formed the opinion that David Beaty willfully violated NCAA rules, but the NCAA charging instrument doesn’t contain that, correct?” Lyons asked.
“Correct,” Long answered.
NCAA or Big 12?
Long, when questioned by Lyons, also said he used different processes with the Beaty and Miles matters. With Beaty’s case, KU directly contacted the NCAA office about the transgressions; with Miles — after an initial report from The Star pointed out potential violations — KU contacted the Big 12 compliance office for consultation, with Long claiming that the conference confirmed the school’s stance that the videos did not constitute a violation.
Lyons told Long that he’d checked with both KU and the conference office, and he had received no documents as evidence of the claim that the Big 12 and KU communicated on the matter.
Long, when asked why he went to the Big 12 with the videos instead of turning them into the NCAA, said often with lower-level concerns, KU sends the matters to the Big 12 first before the NCAA.
Lyons continued to prod Long later when going over game video clips of potential KU football violations. When discussing one clip — a snippet of KU analyst Tony Coaxum talking with punter Kyle Thompson during the West Virginia game that was originally reported in The Star’s story — Long said Coaxum “could be” providing impermissible tactical instruction and said he would “share it with the compliance office.”
Lyons started an exchange with Long, asking why he wouldn’t get involved.
Long: “Because that’s not what an athletic director does.”
Lyons: “I see. But an athletic director does weigh the evidence in the case of David Beaty and make a determination that he violated NCAA rules, correct?”
Long: “Yes.”
Lyons: “But not Les Miles?”
Long: “No. If I had information, I would do it with Les Miles as well.
Lyons: “This is information, is it not?”
Long: “This is information.”
Lyons: “All right.”
Long also said, while he believed Miles was on the field when the non-countable coaching violations occurred, he did not believe that Miles had knowledge of them.
Lyons asked him his reasoning for that opinion.
“Based it on the observation and listening to those who investigated it,” Long said.
Miles on verge of ‘coach control’ charge?
One of Lyons’ exhibits also indicated that Miles perhaps came close to getting a coach control charge similar to Beaty’s.
In a “confidential” Jan. 13 email sent from KU Athletics assistant AD for public relations Dan Beckler to Long, one hypothetical KU fan question posed by Beckler was, “But now Les Miles is charged with lack of head coach control. Why is that?”
Long was asked where that talking point came from.
“I don’t know,” Long said. “They must have been speculating that we were going to have a severe determination by the NCAA.”
Lyons asked Long if KU’s lawyers ever attempted to lessen or lower the penalties against Miles’ football program.
“We have — we have ongoing — we have ongoing conversations with the NCAA, part of their process, prior to the Notice of Allegations coming out.”
Long said he’d heard from the NCAA that the infraction could include a coach control violation for Miles. When asked if he was concerned about that, Long said, “Certainly.”
Lyons then asked, had there been a head coach control charge against Miles like there was against Beaty, would Long have moved to fire Miles.
Long said no, “because hypothetically, it didn’t rise to the level of termination.”
Lyons followed later with this question to Long relating to KU’s proposed message to donors: “But on the one hand, we’re going — we’re going to fight whatever the NCAA levies against Les Miles regardless of what the basis of that is, and on the other hand, we’re agreeing with what the NCAA says with respect to Coach Beaty; is that right?”
“Yes,” Long responded.
What KU Athletics wanted shared with donors
Beckler’s email also appeared to share other talking points that KU administration was preparing to communicate with donors regarding the difference between Beaty’s and Miles’ violations.
One proposed response to fans was: “The infractions Coach Beaty committed are entirely different and more severe than those potentially committed by our two current analysts.”
Another hypothetical KU fan question posed by Beckler was, “New head coach and same problem with non-coaches being involved in coaching activities. Why does this keep happening?”
The proposed response: “I understand it may seem that way on the outside, but the specifics are completely different than the situation under Coach Beaty. In this matter, there were a handful of examples of the practice film reviewed that we sent to the NCAA as possible instances where two analysts provided coaching instruction.”
Lyons, while noting the internal memo only spoke of KU investigating practice film, asked if Long ever considered looking into game film as well for potential violations.
“No, it never crossed my mind,” Long said.
Another email — one that Long sent to his fundraising staff members in March — related other speaking points the athletic director wanted to make to donors following the filing of Beaty’s $3 million lawsuit against KU Athletics.
One statement read: “Very serious allegations of NCAA rule-breaking have been made against David Beaty. These allegations also included members of Coach Beaty’s staff.”
KU basketball violations ‘extremely serious’? ‘No.’
“Very serious” was not a term that Long used in the deposition regarding Self and his program’s infractions.
When asked about the five Level I violations that the men’s basketball team faces, Long agreed the charges were “serious.” When asked if he would say they were “extremely serious,” Long said no.
Long was then asked if the allegations against men’s basketball were more serious than those levied against Beaty.
“I guess I’d have to try to define those different ones,” Long said, “but I guess you would consider basketball more serious.”
Long later said KU disagreed with the enforcement staff’s findings related to KU basketball violations, and the athletic department believes it has evidence to back that up.
Lyons followed with this shortly after: “So in Coach Self’s case, he’s going to get the benefit of the Committee on Infractions getting to hear what — what Kansas’ lawyers that they’ve paid for, both their inside and outside counsel, the arguments that they’re going to make, but Jeff Long doesn’t need to hear that information from David’s lawyer, correct?”
“No,” Long said. “I made the decision based on the information I had from the interviews of Coach Beaty, Coach Love, the student-athletes and the staff.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 6:51 AM.
