Oklahoma State might have some issues on the field this season, but at least it doesn't have to deal with an NCAA cloud hanging over its head anymore.
The school and NCAA enforcement staff released a joint statement Tuesday that cleared the football program of any charges related to an expose published by Sports Illustrated last September.
"After a thorough review by the NCAA Enforcement Staff and an outside consultant hired by Oklahoma State University, allegations of misconduct in the Oklahoma State football program as reported by the media in September 2013 were fundamentally unfounded," the statement said. "Although a few individuals outside the university refused to cooperate, investigators reviewed approximately 50,000 emails and interviewed nearly 100 individuals involved with Oklahoma State's football program, including current and former coaches, administrators, student-athletes, students and prospects."
While the program's outside consultant and the NCAA concluded most of the allegations related to the media reports were "unfounded," the Cowboys are not out of hot water completely. The statement indicated that as a result of the investigation, a notice of allegations will be provided to the school that details three Level II violations.
In the NCAA's new penalty structure, Level II violations include but are not limited to failure to monitor, recruiting/eligibility violations and/or a significant number of Level III violations. It is essentially the middle ground between lack of institutional control charges and lower-level violations that normally wouldn't draw a ton of increased attention.
"In the aftermath of the Sports Illustrated series, the right thing to do was examine the program," head coach Mike Gundy said in the prepared statement. "I have attempted to operate our program with integrity and have reinforced to our coaching staff the importance of compliance with NCAA rules. If we had any shortfalls, I wanted to know. While I am pleased, but not surprised, that the claims in Sports Illustrated were fundamentally unfounded, we continue to work with the athletics administration to ensure a clear understanding and application of our policies."
The Cowboys are coming off their second loss of the season, at TCU last week, and will host West Virginia on Saturday in Big 12 play.
You can follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.
