NCAA's Kansas ruling makes Kentucky the winningest men's basketball program
Kansas was forced to vacate 15 wins from the 2017-18 season
The NCAA officially considers Kentucky the winningest program in men’s college basketball history again.
The Wildcats jumped back into the top spot thanks to a Wednesday ruling from the NCAA against Kansas. While the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Review Process didn’t levy harsh penalties on the Jayhawks and coach Bill Self after a yearslong investigation, it did force the Jayhawks to vacate 15 wins from the 2017-18 season.
That means Kentucky officially takes back the top spot atop the school wins list with 2,377 wins while Kansas drops to second with 2,370 wins. The NCAA has long used the process of erasing wins from official records as part of punishments for schools that commit violations. Louisville, for example, was forced to vacate over 100 wins across four seasons in 2011-15 as part of the escort scandal surrounding the program.
In this case, Kansas is forced to vacate 15 wins because the NCAA deemed that Silvio De Sousa was ineligible during the 2017-18 season. De Sousa — a player implicated as part of the federal college basketball corruption investigation because of a payment from an Adidas consultant to his guardian — played in 20 games that season, including all five of the Jayhawks’ NCAA tournament games.
The Jayhawks officially overtook Kentucky as the winningest program in men’s college basketball history with an NCAA tournament win in 2022. Kansas scored its 2,354th win when it beat Providence in the Sweet 16 while Kentucky had been eliminated by St. Peter’s in one of the most shocking NCAA tournament upsets of all-time. Kansas’ run to the 2022 NCAA tournament title broke Kentucky’s streak of 26 years as the winningest school.
Kentucky’s streak atop the wins list may not last 26 weeks this time. Kansas is widely considered to be one of the best teams in the country ahead of the 2023-24 season. The Jayhawks are the betting favorites for the national title at +1000 and the clear favorites to win the Big 12. While Kentucky is the No. 4 national title favorite at +1600, the Wildcats are the No. 3 favorites to win the SEC behind Tennessee and Texas A&M.
