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NCAA says Independent Accountability Resolution Process to handle LSU infractions case

The NCAA announced on Wednesday that the infractions case involving LSU will be adjudicated through the Independent Accountability Resolution Process.

A school spokesman referred ESPN to the NCAA when asked whether the IARP case involves both the LSU men's basketball and football programs.

Last month, LSU released documents to ESPN in which the NCAA enforcement staff indicated that it received information that basketball coach Will Wade "arranged for, offered and/or provided impermissible payments, including cash payments, to at least 11 men's basketball prospective student-athletes, their family members, individuals associated with the prospects and/or nonscholastic coaches in exchange for the prospects' enrollment at LSU."

The allegations were included in the NCAA enforcement staff's request that its infractions case involving the LSU men's basketball program be adjudicated through the IARP, which was created to handle complex cases. The IARP is also handling infractions cases involving men's basketball programs at Kansas, Memphis and NC State.

In a 10-page letter to the Infractions Referral Committee, LSU's attorneys did not object to the basketball matter being adjudicated by the IARP, as long as three allegations involving the school's football program weren't included in the case.

In the referral letter to the IRC, NCAA vice president of enforcement Jonathan Duncan argued that the basketball and football investigations should be adjudicated together.

"The potential football allegations share certain patterns with the basketball investigation, including booster involvement in NCAA violations," Duncan wrote. "The behaviors related to football also could inform on general institutional allegations, such as potential failure to monitor, and applicable aggravating or mitigating factors."

The most serious allegation related to LSU's football program involves booster John Paul Funes, a former CEO of a hospital foundation whom the enforcement staff accused of "providing funds to the families of current and former student-athletes, arranging for members of the institution's football staff to use a private plane and offering internships to football student-athletes."

The enforcement staff confirmed that Funes "arranged employment beginning in 2012 for the parents of a then football student-athlete and paid the father $180,000 during 2012-17 for a no-show job."