photo by: Journal-World

Allen Fieldhouse as seen from above during the first half of KU's home game with George Mason on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022.

The long-awaited ruling from the Independent Accountability Resolution Process, which could hand out penalties for NCAA infractions initially alleged four years ago against the Kansas men’s basketball team, is expected to arrive Wednesday, according to a report from Sports Illustrated.

KU has been charged with a lack of institutional control and a violation of head coach responsibility, along with three additional Level I violations, the highest level of severity. The case essentially centers on whether apparel company Adidas was functioning as a booster — a representative of the interests of KU Athletics — when its agents committed recruiting infractions in the cases of eventual KU athletes Silvio De Sousa and Billy Preston, as well as several other prospective athletes.

While Preston never played for KU, De Sousa participated in 20 games as a freshman, including 15 wins that the NCAA could potentially require the Jayhawks to vacate.

As the Journal-World has previously reported, the NCAA also included in May 2020 documentation a suggestion that a third former KU player, Cheick Diallo, may have received illicit payments even earlier in the 2010s, but it’s not clear to what extent that could factor into the IARP’s ruling.

Some of the charges implicate head coach Bill Self and assistant coach Kurtis Townsend. KU gave Self a lifetime contract in 2021 but later imposed four-game suspensions on Self and Townsend, as well as recruiting restrictions, ahead of the 2022-23 season. The IARP, which considers “mitigating factors” in rendering its decisions, has taken self-imposed penalties into account in several of its rulings.

KU’s is the last case the IARP will rule on it before it is disbanded. The NCAA referred KU’s case to the IARP in July 2020. SI reported that KU had its IARP hearing in April. However, the body has taken six months since as opposed to turning around a result on its usual four-month timeline. Ultimately, the case stems back to the late-2017 arrests that kickstarted the federal inquiry into corruption into college basketball.