The NCAA had a chance to do the right thing on Friday and, in a stunning turn of events, completely missed the mark.

Who saw that one coming?

The punishment that the Committee on Infractions handed down to Oklahoma State on Friday, a one-year postseason ban to go along with scholarship reductions and myriad recruiting sanctions, was wrong and should be utterly terrifying for the other programs that found themselves caught up in the FBI’s investigation into college basketball corruption.

Oklahoma State faced a single Level I violation. It was an unethical conduct charge levied at former assistant coach Lamont Evans, who accepted at least $18,150 in bribes from financial advisors in exchange for peddling influence over one player from Oklahoma State and one player from South Carolina, where Evans was coaching before accepting a job on Brad Underwood’s staff in the spring of 2016. Evans was also accused of giving Jeffery Carroll $300.

That’s it.

Evans provided no competitive advantage for Oklahoma State, unless you consider the $300 he paid to Carroll — who was already on the roster and suspended for three games as a result — a competitive advantage. Evans was lining his pockets. He was not doing this to benefit the basketball program. Technically speaking, the players Evans claimed to have the power of persuasion over were the victims of the crimes that got him sentenced to three months in prison on federal bribery charges. He steered them to financial advisors that were willing to shell out bribe money. He knew nothing about the people that he was telling these players to invest their money with. One of the men Evans accepted bribes from was Marty Blazer, who sparked this entire investigation to try and avoid prison when he was caught by the SEC embezzling millions of dollars from clients.

That’s where Evans was guiding players who trusted him.

The players were the victims.

Despite that, Oklahoma State was still hit with a one-year postseason ban. Evans has been gone for three years. Carroll has been gone for two. Neither the current head coach — Mike Boynton — or the head coach the violations were committed under — Brad Underwood — were mentioned in the Notice of Allegations.

“There were no recruiting or other major violations on the part of the institution,” Oklahoma State said in a statement in November. “There are no allegations involving current student-athletes or coaching staff.”

None of that mattered to the Committee on Infractions.

They dropped the hammer on Oklahoma State, effectively neutering what was the most anticipated OSU season since Marcus Smart returned for his sophomore year. So much for seeing Cade Cunningham play in the NCAA tournament. Hell, we may not see Cunningham play for Oklahoma State, period. He was offered the chance to join the G League prospect pathway program, reportedly for as much money as Jalen Green. If he’s not going to play meaningful games at Oklahoma State, maybe he reconsiders the offer.

“Whatever the best option is for him we’re going to support 100 percent without any reservations,” Boynton said.

This gets to the core of the problem when it comes to NCAA enforcement: They far too often punish players and coaches for violations that they took no part in. What did Cunningham, or anyone else on Oklahoma State’s roster, have to do with Lamont Evans accepting bribes from a white collar felon that had been flipped by the FBI? How was anyone associated with the Oklahoma State athletic department supposed to prevent one assistant coach from accepting those bribes?

“A postseason ban for a bunch of kids that were 15, 16 years old when a lot of this was going on? It’s completely, completely out of bounds,” Boynton said.

He’s not wrong.

A postseason ban is total overkill.

That is the most infuriating part is that the NCAA was actually able to punish the man responsible. That’s not usually the case. Evans received a 10-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA in addition to a three month jail sentence for pleading guilty. His coaching career is effectively over. He’ll never be a Division I head coach. He’ll never coach at a level where he is able to earn a couple hundred grand as an assistant. The person entirely at fault for this situation had his life blown up.

And Oklahoma State still got a postseason ban despite the fact that, as Larry Parkinson of the Committee on Infractions said, “the institution fully cooperated from the moment they learned about the circumstances.”

That should be a major red flag for everyone else caught up in this investigation.

USC, Arizona and Auburn all had an assistant coach plead guilty to similar charges as Evans. Louisville committed their violations while they were on probation from the last scandal the program was embroiled in. Oklahoma State faced one Level I violation. Kansas faces five, and they’ve made quite clear they aren’t going to be as cooperative.

If the Committee on Infractions has set the bar here, everyone else better be ready to catch the book that gets thrown at them.

STILLWATER, Okla. —

An NCAA infractions committee on Friday announced penalties against Oklahoma State men’s basketball team stemming from the corruption case involving the team’s former assistant basketball coach, Lamont Evans.

The committee ruled that Evans violated NCAA ethical conduct rules when he accepted between $18,150 and $22,000 in bribes from two financial advisors to influence student-athletes, according to a decision released by the Division I Committee on Infractions.

Evans is one of four coaches charged across the country in 2017, accused of accepting bribes from consultants and agents in exchange for access to the best players. Ten people have been charged across the country.

KOCO 5 reported in 2019 that a lawyer said Evans would plead guilty to a conspiracy bribery charge in New York Federal court.

Click here to read the full news release from NCAA regarding the case.

The committee also announced a list of penalties against the university’s men’s basketball program, including a one-year postseason ban for the team next season. Here’s a full list of penalties:

• Three years of probation.
• A 2020-21 postseason ban for the men’s basketball team.
• A $10,000 fine plus 1% of the men’s basketball program budget (self-imposed by the university).
• A reduction of men’s basketball scholarships by a total of three during the 2020-21 through 2022-23 academic years.
• A reduction of men’s basketball official visits to 25 during the 2018-19/2019-20 rolling two-year period and to 18 during the 2019-20/2020-21 rolling two-year period (self-imposed by the university).
• A prohibition of men’s basketball unofficial visits for two weeks during the fall of 2020 and two weeks during the fall of 2021 (self-imposed by the university). The university also must prohibit unofficial visits for three additional weeks during the fall of 2020, 2021 and/or 2022.
• A prohibition of men’s basketball telephone recruiting for a one-week period during the 2020-21 academic year (self-imposed by the university). The university also must prohibit telephone recruiting for six additional weeks during the probation period.
• A reduction in the number of men’s basketball recruiting person days by 12 during the 2019-20 academic year (self-imposed by the university). The university also must reduce the number of recruiting person days by five during the 2020-21 academic year.
• A 10-year show-cause order for the former associate head coach. During that period, any NCAA member school employing him must restrict him from any athletically related duties unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply.
• A prohibition of the men’s basketball staff from participating in off-campus evaluations for three consecutive days during the summer evaluation periods in 2020 (self-imposed by the university).

The Oklahoma State University Department of Athletics has since released a statement, saying it will file an immediate appeal of the NCAA penalties assessed to the men’s basketball program on Friday.

The deadline for filing the appeal is June 20. It will be heard by the Infractions Appeal Committee, the final step in the NCAA infractions process, according to OSU:

“The University is stunned by the severity of the penalties and strongly disagrees with them. The penalties do not align with the facts and are unfair and unjust.

“The NCAA agreed with OSU that Lamont Evans acted alone and for his own personal gain. Evans was terminated by OSU on Sept. 28, 2017, within 72 hours of learning of allegations against him.

“The NCAA also agreed that OSU did not benefit in recruiting, commit a recruiting violation, did not play an ineligible player, and did not display a lack of institutional control. As the report documents, OSU cooperated throughout the process, which lasted two years.

“The NCAA appears to have made an arbitrary decision in the sanctions applied to the institution for the egregious actions committed by a former coach that did not result in any benefit for the University.”

Former Oklahoma running back and current Calgary Stampeders player Roy Finch was arrested early Sunday morning for allegedly assaulting a police officer, the Norman Transcript reported.

Police were called to an apartment complex in Norman, Okla., because of a suspicious-looking car that had been running for over an hour

Finch, who played at Oklahoma from 2010-13, was in the car. Police smelled marijuana, and when they tried to handcuff Finch he began trying to punch the officers. He ran through the complex trying to elude police, but a perimeter was set up and he was caught.

Finch continued to be combative towards officer and eventually police used a Taser on him. However, he continued to fight while on the ground and it took several attempts with a stun gun to subdue him.

The melee caused Finch to cut his face and he needed medical attention.

Afterward, he was charged with assault and battery on an officer, resisting, and possession of marijuana. Records indicate he has not been released from jail yet.

Finch was already in the Lincoln County system — he appeared in court on March 12 on one count of possession of a controlled dangerous substance and reckless driving. He was due back in court Monday.

Finch rushed for 1,412 yards and six touchdowns in four years at Oklahoma.

BIXBY, Okla. — Four ex-football players at an Oklahoma high school have been charged with the sexual assault of a teammate that prosecutors say wasn’t promptly reported.

Special prosecutor Matt Ballard on Thursday filed a second-degree rape by instrumentation charge against the Bixby High School students. Three are 17 years old and one is 16.

They each face up to 15 years in prison.

Prosecutors are still investigating whether school officials took too long to tell police about the accusation. They say school leadership waited eight days to report what was first deemed hazing after a 16-year-old said a teammate in September assaulted him with a pool cue while others restrained him.

The superintendent of the Tulsa-area school district resigned in December amid the fallout.

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This story corrects the ages of the four accused juveniles.