So…What Now?: The Implications Behind OSU’s Postseason Ban

Mike Boynton’s job has never been harder than it will be this year.

Oklahoma State travels to Morgantown on a Tuesday and turns around to Waco on a Saturday in the middle of January. That time of year it’ll be cold, dark, unfamiliar and most of all --- tiring. What keeps a team going during those times?

Typically, there’s no light brighter than that of the NCAA tournament. But for Oklahoma State, that light won’t be shining. Not this season.

Just put yourself into Isaac Likekele’s shoes for a second. This is his final season at Oklahoma State. But his biggest goal is locked up with the key thrown away. It takes some serious leadership and maturity to play through that. Everyone on the roster is going to have to do that this year. Easier said than done.

“They’re hurting,” Boynton said. “We had some guys crying, for sure.”

“I won’t really deal with any other emotion, other than making sure that they’re good and they feel comfortable that we have their back.”

The timing of this ruling couldn’t be any worse either. Because the season starts in less than a week, there’s basically nothing the players could do to transfer even if they wanted to.

Most every roster is full now, so there would be nowhere to go as a transfer at this current time. I’m not implying that any players are considering leaving, but even if they were, they really can’t.

Boynton said today that he met with the appeals committee back in February. Actually on the same day that OSU played KU in Lawrence. If the hearing was that long ago, why the wait? Oklahoma State waited this long just to get a hammer dropped at the worst time possible.

So now Boynton has to find a way to work through that and also get his team prepared for a season. That’s not easy either.

"I invite members of the NCAA enforcement staff, it's Committee on Infractions, and appeals panel involved in our case to meet with my team,” Boynton said. “To look each of them in their eyes and explain why illicit conduct committed by a rogue assistant coach five years ago – conduct which led to no competitive advantage for our program, and for which the coach was fired immediately upon discovery by our administration – should serve as a basis for denying them the opportunity to experience postseason tournament play. This is the greatest disappointment in my career as a head coach."

Boynton added: “[The NCAA] feels good about the work they did, while I explained to 17 kids that their dreams of playing in the NCAA Tournament this year couldn’t be realized. That’s shameful. And there’s no wonder that nobody trusts them because they get to hide behind letters”

On top of the emotional aspect and what it means to this year’s players and coaches, the postseason ban is going to cost the Cowboys some money.

NCAA tournament payouts to conferences happen on a 6-year rolling window. That means that every six years, conferences receive payouts for the past 6 tournaments. The 2020 tournament cancellation made things more tricky with the payout window, but conferences and teams received money last year. So the next payment is set for 2027. Over those windows, each NCAA tournament game appearance per team in each conference is worth a unit. A unit changes in value each year with the market, but last tournament it was around $337,000. So the more teams per conference and the farther they go, the more money a conference and its teams receive.

To give a feel for how much money that can be over 6 years, the Big 12 earned $20 million dollars in 2013. That was 10 years ago when a unit was worth just over $200,000. That’s a lot more today.

The conferences then pay-out that money in whatever way they choose. Some divide it equally, some pay based on who had the most success. It just depends. No matter how the Big 12 splits it, not having OSU in the NCAA tournament this year will cost the university as well as the conference as a whole, at least to an extent.

A few hours ago, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said that as it stands right now Oklahoma State cannot participate in the Big 12 tournament this February either. However, they will review OSU’s situation and decide whether that remains true.

Ultimately, the ruling is terrible and you can’t help but feel awful for the guys getting punished for something they didn’t do. The reoccurring theme today amongst Oklahoma State and the sports world is that the NCAA and its system are unfair, rigged and broken beyond repair. Could this possibly be the beginning of a revolt against the NCAA’s rule on college sports? Only time will tell, but maybe we’re on that track.

As for Boynton, he now has to rally his team. Not around the goal of a trophy, instead around each other.

“For me, it’s that they still have each other,” Boynton said. “There’s some things that this team had talked about being able to achieve that realistically aren’t possible at this point, playing in the tournament, getting further than we did last year, possibly Final Four, national championship. These guys have talked about those things. Kind of got to reset a little bit, that thought process because there are other things that we still can accomplish.”