Bryant: `I Just Panicked Because I Was Scared'

Oklahoma State has asked the NCAA to consider what it calls "unique circumstances" and hand down a lighter punishment to receiver Dez Bryant.

The All-American has been ruled ineligible for lying to the NCAA about a meeting with former NFL player Deion Sanders.

According to a reinstatement request from the university released Tuesday following an open records request by The Associated Press, Bryant sent the NCAA a written apology stating that he "panicked because I was scared and afraid that I was in some kind of trouble."

Bryant writes he lied to the NCAA when he denied he had met with Sanders or visited a Texas athletics center called Fieldhouse USA.

He asks that he be allowed to finish the season with the Cowboys.