Open records request provides further details on University of Kentucky’s NCAA violations

By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today

A week ago, Kentucky announced a settlement agreement with the NCAA regarding violations within the football and swimming programs.

Through an open records request, the Lexington Herald Leader unveiled more details about the agreement between the Kentucky athletics department and the NCAA. According to an article published by the Herald Leader on its online edition on Friday, 11 players received payment from the University of Kentucky Hospital for transport jobs not worked. The payments ranged from $254 to $13,631 per player totaling approximately $48,940.

The names of the 11 payers involved weren’t published, but former running back Chris Rodriguez and Jordan Wright didn’t play in some games due to eligibility concerns in 2022. The school vacated any wins in which the ineligible players participated, which totaled 10 games. Rodriguez was stripped of his rushing records that season and finished his career 10th on the all-time rushing list. Ten wins were removed from football coach Mark Stoops’ career record, which fell from 73-65 to 63-65 going into the season-opener against Southern Mississippi on Aug. 31.

As part of the agreement with UK, the hospital suspended and terminated the employment of athletes and athletes are no longer allowed to work within the UK Healthcare system unless it’s for academic purposes. The supervisor of the transport jobs at the time was fired.

The university paid a self-imposed fine of $5,000 in addition to 10 percent of the gross pay the school received from the Southeastern Conference for its participation in the 2022 Citrus Bowl. The school received $8.6 million and the fine resulted in $860,042.80.

Also as terms of the agreement, UK must:

• Continue to develop and implement a comprehensive educational program on NCAA legislation for coaches, faculty athletics representatives and all athletics department personnel and university staff members responsible for recruiting and certification legislation.

• Submit a preliminary report to the committee on infractions outlining a schedule for establishing the compliance and educational program.

• File annual compliance reports with the committee on infractions indicating progress made with the educational program.

• Inform all football and swimming and diving recruits in writing that the institution is on probation for two years and detail the violations committed. That information must be provided before any prospect takes a paid official visit to campus. If a prospect does not take an official visit to UK, the information must be provided before the prospect signs a National Letter of Intent.

• Publicize the specific information concerning the nature of infractions. That publication must include at least a statement outlining the types of violations and the affected programs through a “direct, conspicuous link” to the infractions decision on the athletic department’s main website. It must also be included in the media guides for the football and swimming and diving programs.

• After the receipt of the final compliance report prior to the conclusion of probation, the university president must provide a letter to the committee of infractions affirming UK’s current athletics policies and practices “conform to all requirements of NCAA regulations.”

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