The South Beach pandemic rolls on. While the latest news has it that Alabama defensive end Marcell Dareus is getting to be on the good side of this scandal, it’s looking worse for North Carolina defensive tackle Marvin Austin, who seems to have been the point man to bring other players to Miami. There seem to be several weekends involved, not just the Memorial Day weekend.
And now Georgia is getting the investigative eye from the NCAA.
Several days ago, the Internet intelligentsia said that if you’re getting your yuks from a certain program being looked at, your school will be next. Bulldog fans probably saw Bama and Carolina and Florida potentially on the block and considered themselves lucky. Until now. There were rumors that star wide receiver A.J. Green went to the party, but he told a UGA compliance official that’s not the case. And, of course, no one’s talking yet, so it’ll be a day or two until we find out who the NCAA is talking to or to whom they wish to talk.
The NCAA, in the midst of a crackdown on improper dealings between college football players and agents, informed the University of Georgia late Wednesday afternoon that it will send investigators to campus to conduct an “inquiry.”
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Former Georgia wide receiver Michael Moore, Green’s teammate the past two seasons, said Wednesday night on Twitter: “Hahaha. This talk about A.J. is hilarious. That country boy ain’t never been to Miami!!! You can put those rumors to rest.”
It is not clear whether the NCAA informed Georgia which player or players it plans to interview.
NCAA rules prohibit college players from signing contracts with, or accepting benefits from, agents. If a player is found to have done so, he could face loss of college eligibility. If the NCAA finds that the school knew, or should have known, about the matter, the institution also could be penalized.
The penalties handed down to Southern Cal by the NCAA regarding the Trojans’ football, men’s basketball and women’s tennis programs are pretty intense. The story broke late Wednesday night, and officially announced Thursday. By now, you know the main bullet points — football gets a two-year postseason ban, docked 30 scholarships over three years and four years probation. Maybe you recall the last time this happened, to Alabama in 2002. In Dennis Franchione‘s second year, the Crimson Tide were hit with something similar, though the transgressions weren’t as bad — it was more because Bama received its first sanctions a few years earlier.
The hits on football do go beyond what’s on the ESPN crawl. Southern Cal and Reggie Bush cannot be involved again. Ever. No celebration of the Heisman Trophy, no bringing out the ball before the game, no nothing. For those of you keeping score, one Trojan running back allegedly committed double murder, making him persona non grata on campus, and another committed violations so egregiously that the college athletics’ governing body banned him from his alma mater.
What Bush did, and who he did it with, is simply incredible. He accepted about $30,000 cash from an agent who, with his partner, got together with Bush and Bush’s parents. The agents provided the family with a rent-free house in a nice neighborhood, put up most of the money for a $19,000 used 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS, and tricked it out. Additionally, there were thousands of dollars worth of loans, hotel rooms, plane tickets and other such things given to Bush. This is old-school, Auburn-style violations. And when Bush tried to back out of signing on with these guys, they allegedly employed the intimidating services of none other than Suge Knight. Actor/comedian Faizon Love got mixed up in it. It’s really quite a tale.
With all the actors and agents hanging around the players, the NCAA stepped in and banned that, too. College football’s version of “Showtime” got put in front of a firing squad and dispatched. Tacked on is the vacating of all wins from the 2005 Orange Bowl through the following 2005 regular season. All of Bush’s Heisman numbers are off the books. However, it looks like while Bush may be able to keep the trophy, the national championship is up in the air.
The NCAA doesn’t have control over the Bowl Championship Series. But the way talk has come down from the BCS, when it officially meets they may well vacate the 2004 national championship. If the guys are smart, there won’t be a BCS champion that year. Oklahoma backed into the game and was destroyed. Auburn went undefeated but didn’t get invited. The clusterfuck that would open up with awarding the championship to either of these two teams is so migraine-inducing that standing pat with no winner would be the preferred path.
As for basketball, screw it. O.J. Mayo spent one year on campus, there were shady things and we don’t particularly care about college basketball, especially as it involves the Pac-10. The NCAA more or less agreed with the school’s self-imposed penalties.
Which brings us to women’s tennis. Who saw this one coming? An international player made unauthorized long-distance calls over about three years, costing the university more than $7,000. Southern Cal vacated its own wins between November 2006 to May 2009. A girl gets homesick and everybody on the team has nothing official to look back on for their time on the court.
One question raised from all of this, or more like an observation, is that the principals basically got away with it. Sure, Bush can’t be officially involved with the university, but that isn’t stopping him from making bank with the New Orleans Saints, living it up and nailing hot pieces of tail from coast to coast. Former head coach Pete Carroll talks total shit from his new post with the Seattle Seahawks, jumping off the ship like so many rats and then has the gall to say he had no idea what was going on and the NCAA exaggerated. Je-sus. But they basically get away clean. If there’s any justice, athletics director Mike Garrett will be shit-canned shortly. He, of some massive swinging balls of brass, said the NCAA came down on Southern Cal more or less because of jealousy. Yeah, Mike. Everyone wishes they went to a private school in Compton. THAT’s why three of your athletic programs got hit hard after a four-year investigation.
What Carroll and Garrett don’t seem to realize is 1) Southern Cal was actually involved in this and deserved the hammer and 2) it was the Trojans’ turn in the clink. Alabama football didn’t receive its first probation until 1995. For a while, it looked like the NCAA was treating traditional powers like NBA referees do with star players. That ended in the ’90s. It shouldn’t be a mistake that Notre Dame, the other pristine football power, started tanking again about that same time.
Granted, this is speculation, but it would seem to us that former coach Lou Holtz put the kibosh on whatever might have been going on that was against the rules, seeing how the Tide got its ass spanked. So, the Irish started losing. They still haven’t fully recovered (eg. a run of great seasons) from what happened in the mid-’90s. Miami was known as straight-up criminals for years before having to endure some mediocre seasons and turn that around.
So, suck it up, Southern Cal. We know y’all are — by definition — in SoCal, but quit being such douchebags and deal with your time in the wilderness. It takes a few years to get back in saddle. You’re probably going to lose a few more to UCLA and Stanford and whomever else. And part of that may just be because you hired Kiffykins.
Standout Alabama players Julio Jones (wide receiver) and Mark Ingram (running back) went on a fishing trip with a 56-year-old guy several months ago. Jones knew the gentleman before he showed up in Tuscaloosa. The “Athens businessman” is in no way affiliated with the university. So, you know what this means.
It’s the NCAA and Alabama — a fucking four-month investigation.
Finally, at the end of business on Wednesday, the NCAA said that Jones and Ingram are OK to play in the Crimson Tide’s opening game against Virginia Tech. The “student-athlete reinstatement staff” said as long as the players pay to charity their parts of the trip, everything’s fine in what’s considered a secondary violation. Secondary violations are routine matters and don’t usually draw this much scrutiny.
We’re pretty much sure that Michigan committed a few dozen secondary violations just by putting such an awful team on the field for 12 games last season, but it isn’t fishing.
The NCAA says:
According to the facts of the case submitted by Alabama, the student-athletes received impermissible food, lodging, transportation and entertainment from an individual with whom one of the student-athletes had become acquainted prior to enrolling in college.
Consistent with NCAA membership requirements, the institution reported the violation and declared the student-athletes ineligible. As part of the reinstatement request, the institution required the student-athletes to make repayment of the value of the impermissible benefits to charity.
As of late in the evening, the players had made the requisite payments.
Head coach Nick Saban says, “I don’t have time for this shit.” No, really, he wasn’t contacted after the ruling, but seemed to be irritated with the questions earlier in the day before the report was released.
But, let’s break this down — does this kind of insanity happen at any other school if a couple athletes go fishing with a dude from back home? Southern Cal has basically been given carte blanche by the bureaucratic knuckleheads running collegiate athletics. Alabama goes under the gun if you buy a player a drink at The Houndstooth.
And, from Bryant Drive, they can’t even hang out with T-Pain, ON A BOAT:
Haven’t had enough bowl games? The NCAA is talking with New York Yankees general partner Hal Steinbrenner about installing an early-December bowl game in Yankee Stadium. In the event it went through at the proposed 2011 date, it would be the first postseason college football game played in New York City in 49 years.
While the NCAA is probably jazzed about the possibility of building off of Army’s scheduled games in the Bronx, there are a dwindling number of teams that reach the six-win threshold that don’t go to bowl games. Last year, only four teams that could have gone to bowl games did not.
But, let’s say the game was in effect last year. Would you have tuned in a week or two after the conference championship games to watch UL-Lafayette and San Jose State play in a bowl game? Moreover, who in the greater NYC environs would want to brave the cold temperatures to watch two mediocre college football teams play in a stadium designed for baseball?
If the 34 current bowl games were pared down to, say, 24, maybe somebody could find two halfway decent teams to square off. But, there’s still the problem of a paucity of viable FBS teams in the area. Consider: Rutgers, Buffalo, Syracuse, Army, Boston College. Maybe Notre Dame goes 6-6. But, there’s still issues with bowl tie-ins with the conferences.
Somebody stop the insanity.
It’s that time again, the part of the year in which universities self-report their NCAA rules violations. Monday, it was reported that Carolina has admitted to 14, including six that are considered “level one” rule-breaking. According to procedure, level one violations have to be submitted to the NCAA, but lower-level secondary violations only have to be reported to the SEC.
2009.01.09 | Men’s Basketball prospective student-athlete was interviewed by the media during an official visit [NCAA bylaw 13.10.1] — Level II
2009.01.12 | Ineligible Football student-athlete was provided transportation to an away-from-home contest [NCAA bylaw 16.8.1.2] — Level II
2009.01.12 | Student-athlete practiced beyond the permissible 14-day period prior to being added to the squad list [NCAA bylaw 30.13] — Level II
2009.01.29 | Track coaches were present during voluntary athletically-related activities on one calendar day [NCAA bylaw 17.02.13] — Level I
2009.01.30 | Men’s Soccer student-athletes were provided an impermissible nutritional supplement [NCAA bylaw 16.5.2] — Level II
2009.02.09 | Student-Athletes were provided impermissible snacks during away-from-home contests [NCAA bylaw 16.5.2] — Level II
2009.02.13 | Men’s Basketball prospective student-athlete and current student-athletes were provided with impermissible entertainment during an official visit [NCAA bylaw 13.6.7.5] — Level I
2009.03.05 | Women’s Track coaching staff provided two prospective student-athletes with an official visit prior to receiving proper approval [NCAA bylaw 13.6.3] — Level I
2009.03.06 | Assistant Football coach sent an impermissible text message to a prospective student-athlete [NCAA bylaw 13.4.1.2] — Level I
2009.03.24 | Men’s Basketball complimentary admissions were not issued via the proper procedure [NCAA bylaw 16.2.1.2.1] — Level II
2009.04.22 | Impermissible complimentary admissions were provided to the Men’s Basketball NIT contest [NCAA bylaw 13.8.1] — Level II
2009.05.25 | Men’s Basketball prospective student-athletes were provided with impermissible hotel accommodations during an official visit [NCAA bylaw 13.6.6] — Level II
2009.05.29 | Football prospective student-athletes viewed a display which simulated a game day experience [NCAA bylaws 13.6.7.9 & 13.7.3] — Level I
2009.06.10 | Men’s Swimming student-athlete participated in competition prior to being certified as eligible [NCAA bylaw 14.3.1] — Level I
Newberry College found itself without a nickname recently, because the NCAA made a ruling for schools to stop using Indian names for their schools. Since Newberry used the name “Indians,” their name went by the wayside. However, recently Newberry managed to be in the running for a new name.
According to the Associated Press, “The school sent more than 16,000 questionnaires to alumni, students and others connected with the college. The committee says it will soon get final input from alumni and students before sending a recommendation to the board of trustees.”
Hopefully, the school will pick an OK name. Years ago, St. John’s decided on the name “Red Storm,” and Miami of Ohio went with “RedHawks.”
While there is no doubt some in the administration at the University of Alabama thought of just keeping their heads down and taking the relatively minor probation the NCAA laid down for the “textbook scandal,” university President Robert Witt released a statement Wednesday saying that UA would be appealing the ruling.
The University of Alabama will appeal the sanctions announced on June 11 by the NCAA Committee on Infractions regarding violations of the NCAA’s policies on textbooks for student-athletes. We appreciate that the Committee recognized the isolated nature of this violation as well as UA’s immediate and aggressive actions to correct the situation as soon as we discovered the problem.
However, we are disappointed with the excessiveness of the sanctions in view of the facts of this case and the penalties in other textbook infractions cases. There is no evidence or allegations of other NCAA violations; no coaches or administrators were involved; no players obtained books and sold them for cash, and all the books were returned or charged to the student’s account as required by the UA textbook policy in effect at that time.
As a number of people have pointed out, this only declares an intention to appeal, not whether the school will appeal the entire ruling or just part. The main part of the ruling that injures the pride of Crimson Tide fans is the ludicrous vacating of 21 wins between the 2005 and 2007 seasons. But, the three years of probation (eg. “Fuck up again and it’s the death penalty for you, asshole”) is probably of more concern. With a major school under such intense scrutiny as Alabama, chances for another trip down the probation trail are as plentiful as landmines around the Korean DMZ. Plus, with so many university sports involved, 16 in all, the NCAA Gestapo is likely to get an itchy trigger finger.
For what it’s worth, Oklahoma went down this path in 2005, appealed and won. So, anything’s possible.
The NCAA handed down new sanctions on the Alabama athletics program today, three years of probation involving the actions of 16 teams and 201 players, regarding the illegal receipt of academic materials between 2005 and 2007. However, commentators are beginning to say that this constitutes a win for Bama, and especially the football program, which only has to vacate about 21 wins over the three seasons.
Because of earlier violations, the Tide was technically up for very stiff penalties, but because of proactive action by the university administration, immediate suspension of the players involved and the university’s own investigation, the NCAA said it never considered postseason bans or the dreaded death penalty.
“I think that the University of Alabama did a terrific job,” NCAA Committee on Infractions chairman Paul Dee said in a conference call. “I think the University of Alabama in this particular case had a problem that was just magnified by the number of student-athletes involved, and they had a system in place that had a gap in it and the student-athletes took advantage of it.”
So, how did this problem come to light? It turns out that an employee at the University Supply Store (known as the SUPe Store) reported the unusual activity. While around here we operate by the “snitches get stitches” philosophy, it’s important for these things to come to light. We would rather have something to be reported than be found out and get the hammer laid down, especially when the violations covered so many people over the entire athletics program.
Head football coach Nick Saban, speaking a couple hours before the official release of the report, had a generally positive outlook for his players, the program and the university as they go forward.
“I think it’s a positive that we made tremendous progress as an institution academically, proud of the progress we’ve made in the athletic department as well as the football program,” he said. “I see the University of Alabama as one of the hot schools in the country. We’re more getting more merit scholars and have done a great job in terms of improving the academic quality for the students in the state of Alabama. So I think there are a lot of positive things out there to talk about in terms of what we’ve done and what we’re doing, and there a lot of people responsible for that. I’m happy to be a part of that.”
One interesting aspect of media coverage of the scandal is that it’s pretty much blanketed news in Alabama, naturally, but ESPN seems to be not even noticing. However, the NCAA Web site shut down today by the incredible amount of Internet traffic trying to download the PDF of the infractions report.
Here we go again. In what would seem to be OK — athletes paying for books for class courtesy of the university — is actually not OK, and Alabama is taking another dip in the probation pool because of it. This story came out a while back, and the athletes in question were suspended. That, apparently, wasn’t good enough for those assholes at the NCAA (motto: “Screw Alabama, but Notre Dame and Southern Cal? Hands off!”), and Thursday will send down a report levying a number of years on probation on the Alabama football program (and possibly track), ordering the school to “vacate” around 10 wins between 2005 and 2007, but possibly no scholarship restrictions. Postseason bans are not being discussed.
According to Gentry Estes of The Press-Register:
Players in multiple sports were found to have exploited the school’s textbook procedure, which allowed scholarship athletes to pick up required textbooks for classes at one counter and pay for them off an athletics department account at another register.
UA self-reported the findings of its internal investigation to the NCAA. The investigation found that players in multiple sports “exploited the University’s textbook distribution system for scholarship student-athletes to acquire texts and materials of a value greater than $100 for girlfriends, boyfriends or other student-athletes.”
This happened during the Mike Shula era (seriously, Shula — thanks), but the presence or absence of coaches, players and personnel matters little to the fickle investigations and enforcements staff with college sports’ umbrella organization.
This will certainly cast a pall over an otherwise excellent offseason, in which Bama has been picked by a number of experts to represent the SEC West in Atlanta again, and a Top 10 preseason favorite. But, fuck it. We’ve been through this before with coaches who fouled up and didn’t exert proper control over their players, so let’s go. And beat Auburn. And Tennessee. And Carolina. And everyone else. After all, 12-0 felt pretty good last year, so why not do it twice?
UPDATE: Ian Rapoport of The Birmingham News says that the Tide will be able to keep its 2007 win against Tennessee and the Independence Bowl win against Colorado, and that there will not be any scholarship restrictions. However, other Bama sports programs will get hit harder.
