Jeff Cornish denounced the NCAA’s report and The Post-Standard’s reporting in a statement received by The Daily Orange from his lawyer, Scott Bielicki, on Tuesday morning.

“Beyond fundamentally disagreeing with the various characterizations of my actions that have appeared in the press and the NCAA report, I choose not to dignify them with any further comment,” he said in the statement. “… Both last week and last November The Syracuse Post-Standard suggested, quite erroneously, that I ‘misappropriated’ or ‘diverted’ from the Oneida YMCA ‘close to $350,000’ for my ‘own benefit.’ That suggestion is patently false.”

In November, The Post-Standard, citing a 2008 lawsuit, reported that Cornish “diverted as much as $338,462 to his own benefit” from the Oneida YMCA. The case was dropped by the Oneida YMCA when its allegations were found to be “entirely groundless,” Cornish said in the statement.

“We are considering all of our options,” Bielicki said via text, when asked if he and Cornish were considering legal action against The Post-Standard.

Cornish is the former Oneida YMCA sports director and Syracuse booster referred to as “the representative” in the NCAA’s report on SU’s violations and sanctions. He worked with SU athletes and coaches starting in the mid-1990s and ending when the university formally cut ties with him in 2007 and self-reported violations to the NCAA, according to the report.  He paid three football and two men’s basketball players from a bank account titled “AAU-DCCT” a total of $8,335 and used the tax ID number of the Tri-Valley YMCA, where he worked, to do so, according to the report.

From May 2004 to July 2005, Cornish deposited more than $300,000 into the account and paid SU players, athletics staffers and a basketball staffer’s rent for a month, according to the report. He also paid for local children to attend SU basketball staff members’ camps.

He had access to the SU men’s basketball team’s practices, locker room and weight room as early as 2002, according to the NCAA report.

SU head coach Jim Boeheim, in a statement released Friday, called Cornish’s actions “rogue and secretive.” Cornish received a more-than-allowed number of complimentary tickets for the SU basketball program, according to the NCAA report. Boeheim said, according to the report, that he never directly gave Cornish tickets but that he did review the list of complimentary tickets. The NCAA considered this direct knowledge of a violation.

Former Orange quarterback Perry Patterson admitted that he was one of the players who assisted in events at the Y and was paid by the Oneida YMCA. The NCAA report’s description of “student-athlete 1” closely matches that of former SU point guard Billy Edelin.

“I am eager to put what happened almost a decade ago where it belongs — in the past,” he said in the statement. “I also remain a supporter of the YMCA and its mission and will continue to be an advocate for youth and disadvantaged members of my community.”

Below is Cornish’s full statement  as provided to The Daily Orange by Bielicki.

Published on March 10, 2015 at 11:56 am

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_