O’Boyle reflects on audit, NCAA investigation

Former CSC Head Football Coach Bill O’Boyle gave two interviews to The Eagle during the past week in which he contrasted his joy at the state audit’s release and the emotional toil the ongoing NCAA investigation was taking on him and those around him.

After the Nebraska Auditor of Public Account’s Office released its annual audit of the Nebraska State College System Feb. 28, O’Boyle said he was happy with the results.

“I was happy, extremely happy that some of the truth came out so far,” O’Boyle said in a Friday telephone interview.

O’Boyle said he was pleased with the APA’s audit and believed that the results were unbiased.

“There’s a guy [APA Mike Foley] that wasn’t paid for by the college and let out all the information, instead of just the parts that BKD did,” he said.

Speaking about the personal effect the investigation has had on him, O’Boyle said the emotional stress is tremendous.

“Obviously, I’m crushed over what happened, and how it happened. I don’t think people really see the whole story yet,” O’Boyle said. “This has affected not only me, but my wife, my daughter, the coaches around me, our families, the coaches’ families.”

O’Boyle said he couldn’t say who was ultimately responsible for the decisions that led to his contract’s non-renewal.

“Who is responsible for it? I don’t know. I know somebody had an agenda. Obviously it was carried out. Like I’ve said before, [Chadron] was a place where Coach Auer and myself probably would have ended our careers. We wanted to stay there, it wasn’t like we ever wanted to leave. Somebody else thought differently,” O’Boyle said Wednesday afternoon.

O’Boyle said lack of communication was one of the primary causes of the potential violations and subsequent investigation.

“Obviously communication was never there. That was a big part of it. I think there was an agenda long before this ever happened. It just gave them an excuse. That was something that’s probably been in the works,” he said.

CSC’s administration disagrees.

“I know of no agenda,” Park said.

According to O’Boyle, the terms of his contract’s non-renewal are still a mystery.

“To be honest, I never have got a solid answer of why they didn’t renew my contract. It seems as though they tried to blame it on the NCAA, they tried to blame it on having outside accounts, they tried to blame it on a tax deal. It just seems like a crap-shoot kind of deal. To be honest, I never got a true explanation of why they didn’t renew my contract,” O’Boyle said.

Park declined to comment on why O’Boyle’s contract was not renewed, citing personnel issues. She also declined to confirm if an explanation was given to O’Boyle due to the same reason.

O’Boyle said he acknowledged the possibility of legal recourse against the college.

“I’m definitely not quitting anything,” he said. “I think there are some things in the future that I’m going to look into once this is all done. On my side, I’m definitely leaving some doors open. It’s something you can’t just turn your back on and forget about – they definitely didn’t try that with me.”