The University of Kentucky reportedly paid a hefty price as part of settlement with the NCAA over violations within the school's football and swimming programs.
The Lexington Herald Leader, which obtained details of the agreement through an open records request, discovered that along with vacating 10 football wins from the 2021 season, 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.
The agreement with the NCAA was related to impermissible benefits that occurred in the football program and rules violations involving countable athletically related activities that occurred within the swimming program, as well as the appropriate penalties for those violations.
The agreed-upon violations within the football program involved at least 11 football student-athletes receiving payment for work not performed between spring 2021 and March 2022. Eight of the student-athletes went on to compete and receive actual and necessary expenses while ineligible. The enforcement staff and school agreed that no staff member in the athletics department knew or reasonably should have known about the payment for work not performed, and thus the violations involving the football program did not provide additional support for the agreed-upon failure-to-monitor violation.
“We respect the decision, and we are going to uphold the integrity that has marked UK Athletics for decades,” said UK president Eli Capilouto.
UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart told WKYT, that the school's processes worked and their compliance office has been working towards a solution for years now.
“We have been supremely focused on putting rings on fingers and diplomas in hands,” said Barnhart. “This does not diminish any of that”
