DETROIT – Northern Illinois athletic director Jeff Compher said he was surprised by former NIU basketball player Sean Kowal’s statement to a St. Louis TV station that he felt NIU’s decision to not release him from his scholarship was made out of vengeance.
“I’m not sure where that’s coming from,” Compher said at Friday’s Mid-American Conference Football Media Preview at Ford Field. “I guess he feels that he looks at it as a vengeful decision on our part and I don’t feel that way. He’s made his decision. We’ve made our decision. Neither one of us, I think, feels good about it.”
Kowal, a 6-foot-11 center who graduated from NIU but has one year of eligibility remaining, was denied release from his scholarship at an appeal hearing this month after seeking transfer to another school to finish his master’s degree in theology, which is not offered at NIU.
Kowal did not return a phone call for this story.
“I prefer not to spend the next 20, 25 years of my life paying off student loans,” Kowal told KSDK-TV of St. Louis. “Most schools that offer theology, they’re not cheap schools. Like an NCAA representative told me, NIU has me handcuffed. And like I said, ‘Well for what reason?’ And the only reason I can think of is vengeance.”
Kowal was the fourth player the Huskies and coach Ricardo Patton lost from last season’s roster because of reasons other than graduation.
The Huskies lost guards Jake Anderson (transfer to Iowa State) and Mike DuNunno (transfer to Eastern Kentucky) and walk-on center Michael Fukuade.
As a junior, Kowal was NIU’s third leading scoerer (10.5 ppg) and leading rebounder (6.4 rpg).
Patton said in a statement this month that Kowal’s decision not to return “was definitely unexpected and we’re disappointed he won’t be back.”
Kowal played with Patton for a season at Colorado before transferring to NIU when Patton took the position with the Huskies.
He told KSDK he had a positive relationship with Patton and Compher before asking for his release.
Compher said the NIU administration is unlikely to budge on its stance at this point.
“It’s something that obviously this has been an evolving situation for us,” Compher said. “It certainly didn’t start out the way it is now, so I can understand his frustration with the process. But I also believe that with the information we had, we made a decision that was warranted, and I stand by that."
