Oklahoma State Football: Part 5 of the Scandal

Jul 22, 2013; Dallas, TX, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy speaks to the media during the Big 12 media days at the Omni Dallas Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

It is done.

The fifth and final part of a five-part series released by Sports Illustrated accusing Oklahoma State University of numerous improprieties has been released. The allegations range from 2001 to 2011. The first part was about money, second part academic fraud, third part drugs, fourth part sex, and now the final installment… “The Fallout”.

Sports Illustrated alleged that Oklahoma State failed many recruits, that many of them were abysmal students in high school, that some were criminals and needed the most academic support they could possibly get.

The report also stated that 43.5% of Oklahoma State’s recruits between the years of 2002 and 2010 left the school before exhausting their eligibility, and that OSU offered “an assortment of vague explanations for a premature exit”, usually for “undisclosed reasons”, a “violation of team rules”, that the player was “in search of playing time elsewhere”, or simply “left for personal reasons”.

Kevin White, who was in the Cowboys 2005 recruiting class, told Sports Illustrated that coach Mike Gundy mocked him and called him out at team meetings, saying, “you talk just as much as my four-year-old son, and that’s not a lot.” Gundy would allegedly kick White off of the team after an incident in which White was a passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over and searched, resulting in the police finding marijuana. White was the only person in the incident that was not charged, and says he pleaded to take a drug test to save his spot on the team, only for Gundy to decline his request.

This fifth portion of the report focuses a lot on recruits, and accuses OSU coaches of “turning a blind eye”, blaming the University for former players now being “damaged and downtrodden.”

Here is a Link to Part 5 of the report.