Kansas, UCLA deny having lender deals

0 Comments | USA TODAY, August, 2007 | by Steve Wieberg

Colleges say they were blindsided Wednesday by an announcement their athletic departments are the new focus of an ongoing New York state investigation into possible illegal kickbacks from student loan companies.

Athletics officials at Kansas and UCLA, two of the 40 schools targeted by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, denied improper dealings -- or any relationship at all -- with a Florida-based loan provider at the center of the probe.

"If they think they've got something, they're going to be sorely disappointed. Sorely disappointed," Kansas associate athletics director Jim Marchiony said. "If they had done some homework ... they could have figured this out before throwing subpoenas out."

At UCLA, spokesman Marc Dellins said, "This athletic...