FanPost

Some Thoughts on the Ticket Scandal

Glad to have Bensa weigh in on this.  I think the important point thus far is that the current report was done under an investigation with no power of subpoena.  I'm not a lawyer, but I understand that means we have a high likelihood of learning more as a "real" investigation occurs.  Thanks to Bensa and TB from Bring on the Cats weighs in in the comments section.  Once again, take of the Crimson and Blue glasses for a moment and he's correct, you have to consider all possibilities at this point.

- Denver

 Ku_ticket_presser_008_cropped_t650_medium

 

Obviously, this is not a good situation for KU.  The report KU released today, along with the press conference, left me with a few thoughts that I thought I would put together here in a fan post.

First, I think it's important to remember what is and what isn't at stake in all this.  I don't believe there is any significant chance that this will result in an NCAA investigation or (less likely still) sanctions.  While there was certainly some corruption in the ticket office, there doesn't appear to any connection to players or recruits.  Perhaps more will come out with the connection to the Pump twins, but I tend to doubt we'll find any direct link to recruiting. 

Now, what is at stake is, of course, a great deal of embarrassment for the Athletics Department, as well as a lot of unnecessary expense and distraction investigating what actually occurred.  Of course, because the investigation did not include any subpoena power (unlike what the FBI will be able to use in its investigation), the investigation only revealed what the former employees told KU's lawyers.  I suspect not all of them cooperated, especially Jones.  In summary, while KU is likely not at risk of any NCAA violations, the net result so far appears to be limited to a bunch of bad press.

What will be interesting moving forward is to find out how far this spreads beyond KU.  My suspicion is that KU can't possibly be the only school at which something like this has happened.  If the FBI hasn't already expanded its investigation beyond KU, they certainly will now.  From a strictly legal standpoint, this could end up being a really interesting case, depending on what evidence investigators are able to uncover.  We'll see how it all plays out, but it's certainly unfortunate that it happened here.