Oklahoma State HC Mike Boynton 'appalled' by appeal rejection, postseason ban

The Oklahoma State Cowboys will be banned from the 2022 men's basketball postseason after having their appeal of the one-year penalty officially rejected by the NCAA on Wednesday, ESPN reported. 

"I'm disappointed, disgusted, appalled, frustrated -- but somewhere in Indianapolis, there's a group of people celebrating," Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton said Wednesday, referencing the NCAA's headquarters. "They won. Our players don't deserve and shouldn't have to deal with this..."

Oklahoma State was originally given the one-year ban in June 2020 as the result of an FBI investigation into former associate head coach Lamont Evans, who "was sentenced in June 2019 to three months in prison for accepting between $18,150 and $22,000 in bribes to steer players from South Carolina and Oklahoma State to certain agents and financial advisers," ESPN reported at the time of the ban. 

Evans was fired immediately in 2017 after the school learned of the allegations. He was sentenced to three months in prison in 2019 and was issued a 10-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA.

Oklahoma State athletic director Chad Weiberg chided the NCAA's infractions process on Wednesday, saying the players are being punished for something they didn't take part in.

"The student-athletes have to be the ones at the center of the decisions that we make," Weiberg said. "If we want to get serious about playing on a level playing field, let's monitor and punish the ones that knowingly break the rules that we have in place, and not student-athletes that were seventh-graders when it happened."

The Cowboys were allowed to play in the 2020 postseason while the appeal process was first underway. They finished 21-9 and set the platform for star point guard Cade Cunningham, who was drafted first overall in 2021 by the Detroit Pistons.