Kentucky releases report on athletes filing inaccurate timecards at UK Health. Read it here
LEXINGTON — The University of Kentucky self-reported an NCAA violation involving several student-athletes who “received compensation for work not performed” as part-time employees at the UK hospital, according to a document released Saturday.
The six-page redacted document, a letter to the NCAA's director of student-athlete reinstatement, does not indicate what sport or sports the athletes play, but the Lexington Herald-Leader reported Saturday, based on emails obtained from UK, that Kentucky football players were investigated.
Sports Illustrated had previously reported the NCAA was conducting a multi-player eligibility inquiry of the Kentucky football program that included running back Chris Rodriguez.
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Rodriguez has not played this season. UK announced Monday he will return for the school’s Oct. 1 game against Ole Miss, the Wildcats’ fifth game of the season.
An email releasing the reinstatement report said UK "will have no further comment on this report at this time, while a review continues."
According to UK’s request for reinstatement of the athletes, sent Sept. 3 to the NCAA and released to reporters Saturday, “The violation was isolated and limited in time and scope to a small number of student-athletes who concealed their use of a clock-in/clock-out system at the Hospital that resulted in the receipt of compensation for work not performed in the spring of 2021 thru March 2022.”
READ THE REPORT: Follow this link to check out the document
The Herald-Leader reported UK football players have worked as patient transporters at Albert B. Chandler Hospital since 2017, part of a program started by former Kentucky kicker J.J. Housley, who then worked for UK HealthCare.
UK’s report to the NCAA concluded that the violation was “compounded by the lax supervision of a former Hospital employee.”
UK became aware of the prospective violation in “early February” of this year, according to the document, and conducted an interview with the supervisor of the hospital’s patient-transport department Feb. 28.
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The supervisor — who no longer is employed by UK — “denied having any knowledge that student-athletes employed in patient transport were recording hours that had not been worked,” according to the document.
But shortly after that interview, according to the document, an anonymous source sent information via the institution’s “Comply Cats” reporting system indicating that student-athletes were “clocking in, leaving and then returning to clock out several hours later.”
On July 13, following an investigation that took part over multiple months, UK Internal Audit submitted a report that concluded some but not all hours worked by athletes had been recorded but not worked. That investigation was based on a “comprehensive review of time records and wages received for multiple student-athletes” that included “video evidence” of athletes clocking in, leaving and returning to clock out, according to the document.
UK Athletics Compliance determined violations had occurred and declared some student-athletes ineligible. The number is redacted in the document.
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According to the document, UK athletes were “advised by Hospital staff that it was permissible for them to leave after they clocked in.”
UK’s internal investigation “did not reveal information indicating that this violation occurred from a lack of rules education or monitoring,” according to the document submitted to the NCAA.
According to that document, the involved former hospital supervisor received “18 different employment education touchpoints,” in writing and by telephone, and Athletics Compliance conducted six spot checks of the athletes’ employment.
The UK hospital “suspended and terminated the employment of all student-athletes in the patient transport department” with no eligibility to re-hire them, according to the document. The involved supervisor was “terminated for inappropriate or unsuitable job performance and/or gross negligence of oversight” on May 26, according to the document.
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UK self-imposed penalties for the involved student-athletes. Those penalties were redacted before the eligibility reinstatement request was released to the media, as are the names of all athletes involved.
Prior to the Wildcats' season opener, Stoops said he expected "a few (players) to have multiple-game suspensions.” Rodriguez and linebacker Jordan Wright were unavailable for that game, but Stoops did not confirm any individual players who had been suspended.
At a UK Board of Trustees athletics committee meeting Thursday, Barnhart confirmed to the Herald-Leader that there had been an investigation into Rodriguez’s eligibility, but said UK would “honor his student rights” in not commenting further.
Wright returned for last week’s game at Florida.
Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brett Dawson and bdawson@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @BDawsonWrites.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: UK football responds to university report over UK Healthcare timecards
