KU Athletic Director Lew Perkins was the last to leave a press conference at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics on Thursday May 26, 2010. He and other KU officials and investigators talks about alleged violations in KU's ticket office that led to the diversion of million or more from the university. Six employees were blamed and are no longer with the university.

Kansas University officials and their attorney face a crowd of media as they discuss the findings of an investigation commissioned by KU into alleged misconduct in its ticket operations.

Attorney Jack Focht of Wichita law firm Foulston Siefkin explains a report on missing tickets his law firm generated at the request of KU. In the report, released Thursday May 26, 2010 at the Dole Institute of Politics, thousands of misdirected tickets and more than a million dollars diverted from KU.

Lew Perkins, KU Athletic Director, prepares to take questions from members of the media after a report detailing improprieties in its ticket office was released to the public Wednesday afternoon. In the report, six employees of Kansas Athletics are described as taking part in a scheme to divert tickets and funds to their own benefit and away from KU.

When a scandal hits an athletics department at a major university, its impact is wide-ranging and can affect many different stakeholders of a university, observers say.

Kansas University officials on Wednesday unveiled a report that detailed the illicit distribution of more than $1 million in tickets to KU athletic events.

While members of the higher education community around the country said they were not familiar with the details of the relatively unusual KU situation, turmoil in college athletics is certainly nothing new.

John Thelin, a professor in educational policy studies at the University of Kentucky, has researched major college athletics scandals and has written a book on the topic, “Games Colleges Play.”

“Many people, they don’t understand this, but I do, because I’m here at the University of Kentucky,” he said. “These things are important.”

Like Kansas, Kentucky has a top-flight college basketball team that is constantly on the minds of its supporters.

“These teams, they really are central to the life and pulse of the community,” he said.

The impact scandals have on top university officials can vary widely from school to school, Thelin said, depending on their involvement with athletics.

“Some will try to distance themselves from it, while others seem to revel in it and embrace it,” Thelin said.

T.K. Wetherell, a former president at Florida State University, was in charge during an NCAA investigation into academic fraud at the athletics department.

When there’s turmoil in the athletics department at a major school, that can have all sorts of implications, he said, calling the athletics department a school’s “window to the world.”

On Saturday afternoons, he said millions of people are exposed to Florida State for four hours during football games, and the things said during a telecast can shape people’s opinions of the school.

“While you may do well on the academic side, you don’t have that opportunity to showcase it,” Wetherell said.

When things go wrong, it’s important to identify the issue and move forward, Wetherell said.

“I think for the donors and your boosters and fans, even if you make a mistake, it’s about how you go about rectifying that mistake,” that will restore trust, Wetherell said.

One area in which it will almost guaranteed to have an effect, Wetherell said, is in recruiting of top-flight athletes.

Coaches at other schools, Wetherell said, will sometimes exaggerate a scandal’s impact on impressionable 18-year-old minds, telling them that if they go to a troubled school, for example, they may not have a chance to play in a tournament or bowl game.

“That’s the kind of thing that probably haunts you more long-term than the rest,” Wetherell said.

Members of the Kansas Board of Regents — who oversee the state’s university presidents and chancellors — made it clear Wednesday that the issue is an important one to them, too.

Board chairwoman Jill Docking issued a strongly worded statement that said the board wanted a report on the issue in June from KU’s chancellor detailing how the university would respond to the report and its allegations.

Gary Sherrer, regents vice chairman, said that he had received KU’s internal investigation report on Wednesday morning. He said KU should be sure to pay attention to what the report says should be done, but added the chancellor “certainly isn’t limited” to the report’s recommended remedies.

“We expect these recommendations to be dealt with along with others that may be necessary,” Sherrer said.

He said he was “confident” that Gray-Little and KU would address the issue and do it right — so the focus could return to other pressing issues facing higher education institutions in the state.