OKLAHOMA CITY ? A day after Gene Stephenson reneged on a deal to become Oklahoma coach, school officials downplayed the coach’s concerns about “unresolvable” scholarship issues with the baseball program.

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said Tuesday in a statement that the Sooners baseball team had no problems complying with NCAA guidelines and expected none in the future.

The NCAA allows schools to offer 11.7 scholarships each year to baseball players, and they can be divided in any way. Exceeding that number is a violation of NCAA rules.

In his statement, Castiglione acknowledged that Oklahoma had 15.7 scholarships spoken for Monday, but he said the number had dropped to 14.5 by Tuesday. He said the drop illustrates “how quickly and how dramatically the number can move.”

Monday, Stephenson backed out on OU and decided to remain at Wichita State, just hours after a news conference to introduce him as the Sooners’ new coach.

In a statement released by Wichita State, Stephenson claimed he and his staff decided not to take the Oklahoma job because of scholarship issues at the school that were “unresolvable to our satisfaction.”

“As we assessed the Oklahoma baseball scholarship situation, we would be too limited in our ability to take the program in the direction that we think it should go,” he said in the statement.

Castiglione said financial awards in baseball were evaluated each semester

“A snapshot taken at any point prior to the second semester might show a projection higher than the NCAA limit in those awards, but … we have never had difficulty adhering to the NCAA maximums prior to the start of the season,” Castiglione said.

“And this is not something that is unique to Oklahoma.”