Oklahoma State University and top booster T. Boone Pickens have launched PR blitzes to address and push back against a Sports Illustrated expose on the school's football program.
With a debate raging over whether college athletes should be paid – Time magazine put the issue on its Sept. 16 cover -- SI this week published the first installment of a series about how OSU allegedly skirted prohibitions on compensation for players, used sex to entice recruits, and ignored rampant drug use. The piece, which followed 10 months of reporting, claims dozens of football players took payments and engaged in academic misconduct over the past decade in an effort coordinated with university athletic personnel. The magazine stressed that the charged do not involve any current coaches or players.
Oklahoma State on Sept. 10 created a web page, response.okstate.edu, to coordinate its response to the article.
"Oklahoma State University is deeply troubled by these claims. We will investigate the accuracy of the allegations and take all appropriate action," said university president Burns Hargis. He said SI notified the university of the series on Aug. 28 and that senior writer George Dohrmann and executive editor B.J. Schechter went to the school on Sept. 2 to provide details.
The university's page includes supportive social media comments and a video released by its biggest booster, Pickens.
SI noted in its piece that the billionaire Pickens was not implicated in any improprieties by the magazine's sources.
Pickens, through the public affairs unit of his hedge fund BP Capital, said he was disappointed in SI's reporting, noting "many of the sensational allegations go back a decade ago." The former corporate raider said there have been "wholesale changes" at the school in recent years, adding that he has given more than $500M to the university. "Have I gotten my money's worth? You bet."
SI has four more articles on the alleged payments and improprieties in the football program. "The Academics" is slated to be released Sept. 11, followed by "The Drugs" on Sept. 12 and "The Sex" on Sept. 13.
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