Clinton-Dix received payment from Bama coach

Submitted by JeepinBen on

Via the Tuscaloosa News:

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/HaHa_Clinton-Dix?Title=Alabama-assistant-strength-coach-placed-on-administrative-leave-for-providing-money-to-HaHa-Clinton-Dix

 

Alabama assistant strength coach placed on administrative leave for providing money to HaHa Clinton-Dix

Harris found to have connection with a representative of a sports agent

Harris made a short-term loan to Clinton-Dix in an amount less than $500 at some point in the summer, an apparently violation of NCAA Bylaw 16.11.2.2, which states that “an institutional employee or representative of the institution's athletics interests may not provide a student-athlete with extra benefits or services, including, but not limited to ... a loan of money.”

Clinton-Dix has provided bank records to UA athletic compliance department representatives that show a withdrawal in the amount he said he repaid to Harris, The Tuscaloosa News has learned.

 

While minor, still a big no-no. What will the NCAA do?

mgobaran

October 3rd, 2013 at 3:54 PM ^

nothing about it. If this is the one they actually do something about I am going to be pissed. >$500 is not a big deal! 

I coach gave a kid who was in need of some money, and the kid paid him back. These coaches are like parents to the student athletes. I realize the rules don't allow for this kind of stuff to go on. But there is a huge difference between a $500 Loan that gets paid back, and $5000 gifts, or cars, or houses for your mother, etc. 

What is the unlevel playing field here? Oh 3 years ago I chose to come to Bama so last year I could get a loan from my strength coach. It's not like he knew this would happen.

Idk, I need Michigan football back in my life, I am getting gouchy.

mgobaran

October 3rd, 2013 at 4:10 PM ^

I guess here are some bulleted points for no reason.

a.) I will feel bad for the kid if he has to miss more time than Johnny Football over this.

b.) I know we all hate Saban and his Alabama Dynasty they created through (allegedly) cheating. I AGREE 100%!

c.) The NCAA is a bunch of crooks who have been letting stuff way worse than this be swept under the rug because they know they have no foot to stand on at this point in time.

d.) If we really want to get Bama, and hurt them, something wayyyy bigger than this needs to come out. (Idk, something like the Fluker thing no one cares about anymore). Something Reggie Bush-like. You know, something really huge, and it comes out after Saban decides to go to the NFL (he has to go to the NFL instead of Texas for a year because he will have that one-year ban from coaching in college) out of the blue. And probably all the kids who are involved are gone. And you know, the program is already on the decline, so thats when the NCAA jumps in and TAKES DOWN THE PROGRAM over some booster or something. 

goblue20111

October 3rd, 2013 at 4:39 PM ^

People don't care because Fluker's family was sleeping in a car post-Katrina. The kid grew up in extreme poverty. No one is going to go after him for this. Like I said in the past, I applaud him for taking the money and he'd have been stupid to not do so. 

Yeah he got paid in a college eduction, sure I'll grant that. What about what he needed in the mean time? 

akearney50

October 3rd, 2013 at 5:15 PM ^

A full athletics scholarship grants a student-athlete housing and 19 meals a week. 99% of the time that's what they get. Along with medical care, training table meals, extra educational help, etc.

If the individual's family did not have enough money then he most likely met the qualifications for a Pell Grant. Pell Grants are usually around $5,000.

Dustinlo

October 3rd, 2013 at 3:59 PM ^

I agree with you. It surprises me that he paid the loan back. Nothing against the kid, but you don't see this sort of story too often. Looks like he needed a little help (as many do when they receive a loan), got that help, and paid it back. While I realize this is an NCAA inraction, it's nothing to go crazy about IMO.

mgobaran

October 3rd, 2013 at 4:22 PM ^

You may be confusing the timeline of events in comparing CWebb to HaHa C-D. (yeah I just made that kick ass nickname up)

Get Money > Go to Michigan > Get Drafted in NBA > Pay back Money > Ruin College BBAll Program.

Go to Bama > Get Money > Pay back money > TBD.

Granted, this could be only one of many times this has happened, and only the first time it was covered up. Maybe that is all part of the Alabama recruiting pitch. But really that is all assumptions. Based on the article, and the information inside the article, to compare this to CWebb is a stretch.

Oscar

October 3rd, 2013 at 4:43 PM ^

Did he pay the loan back?  I didn't read the link, but what I read from the OP was that he showed the administration a bank statement with a withdrawal amount.  Now I'm no lawyer, but that to me does not prove anything.

Erik_in_Dayton

October 3rd, 2013 at 4:30 PM ^

This may have been intended to benefit the agent, not the school. 

I may be alone in this, but I don't believe we have reason to think that Alabama has cheated its way to the top.  This is not to say that every member of the program has been pure as the driven snow, but I don't agree with assuming that they must have consistently cheated to be where they are.  Nick Saban is probably a hell of a recruiter (in an honest way) and coach. 

Further Edit: Oversigning has helped Alabama.  That's a way they've cheated, if you want to think of it that way. 

stbowie

October 3rd, 2013 at 4:12 PM ^

This seems like something you could hear a charming story about. "Coach X cares about the students, there was a time when Player Y was struggling to support himself and Coach X loaned him a small amount of money to help him get through the month." I don't see the harm here, except that it's a blatant violation of NCAA rules.

teldar

October 3rd, 2013 at 4:12 PM ^

I could take $500 out of an account and say i have it to someone and if they agreed, it would prove nothing. This should be a hammer offense. Admitted proof positive of a player being paid by the coaching staff. Still bet nothing comes of this.

stephenrjking

October 3rd, 2013 at 4:19 PM ^

A loan like this from a coach is not a small thing. This is a pretty big deal.
It's surprises me that we've heard about it. I'd be interested in knowing how this came to the admin's attention.
I know I'm not alone in suspecting all kinds of dirty stuff in the SEC. That they've found one isolated event on a big-time player (and acted immediately) is interesting and worth watching.

imMaizeNBlu

October 3rd, 2013 at 4:46 PM ^

I'm curious to see the results, how many among you would pitch a fit if Michigan FB and BB downgrades to DIII as Delany has mentioned, but keep Hockey and Lacrosse as DI ? True, I sincerely doubt that we would get those rare 5* recruits any more and the product and quality B1G play would lessen.

However, Michigan football and B1G football and basketball would still be here and hockey continues as it is. We could put a lot more premium in education and invest in other sports for entertainment.

Only reason I see hockey and lacrosse staying as D1 would be hockey has junior leagues that the recruits could go into and semi pros that I believe pay ( if I'm wrong please tell me) and lacrosse isn't popular enough as a sport to warrant paying amateurs like BB and FB do.

Thoughts

Erik_in_Dayton

October 3rd, 2013 at 5:02 PM ^

The purity of college sports is not something I inherently care about, at least with respect to amateurism.  My half-assed proposal:

1. The BCS conferences split off into a new NCAA-type-thing.   

2. Allow non-BCS conference schools to join - on a team-by-team basis if they like - if they're willing to live up to the new arrangement. 

3. Give football players and men's basketball players $5,000 per year (with some sort of cost of living adjustment).

4. All schools with at least one team in the new NCAA-type-thing give all female athletes $5,000 per year, thus avoiding a Title IX issue...Could you give $5,000 to only as many female athletes as you do male athletes?  Could Georgetown give $5,000 to only its men's and women's basketball teams?  I don't know the law well enough to say.

5. Suffer tremendous criticism for both defiling college sports and not paying players enough, sometimes from the same people. 

6.  Know that you made things a little better for the DJ Flukers of the world. 

Ron Utah

October 3rd, 2013 at 5:05 PM ^

While I'm not going to pretend this is an issue like Bush at USC or the UNC grades scandal, this isn't nothing.

The loan itself isn't the issue here, it's that a player and coach were willing to break the rules.  You might argue that Haha didn't know the rule (which would be a failure of coaching, since these kids NEED to be taught the rules to avoid breaking them), but the coach either knew the rule, or is galactically stupid.

That a coach would willingly break an NCAA rule about cash benefits, no matter the degree, suggests that perhaps that's an okay thing to do at 'Bama.

A small loan isn't the end of the world, but for a coach to be the one giving it is either tremendously foolish, criminally negligent, or indicative of a program that encourages such behavior.  Or all three.

TrppWlbrnID

October 3rd, 2013 at 5:10 PM ^

prove he repaid a loan? i guess it could be a scan of a check he wrote, but i would doubt that is the case based on potential tracking. i doubt the strength coach takes credit cards. so there is likely a cash withdrawl from an atm, which, what could an 18 year old possibly spend $500 on besides repaying an interest free loan.

jblaze

October 3rd, 2013 at 5:35 PM ^

$500, because any agent knows that $500 to a kid in college will influence his choice in agencies in a few years.

Also, it's only 1 player, because Bama don't got any other NFL prospects. Case closed NCAA!

Tater

October 3rd, 2013 at 6:59 PM ^

The player sits out a few games, the strength coach gets severely reprimanded, suspended, and/or fired, and the NCAA continues to kiss Alabama's collective ring.

allintime23

October 3rd, 2013 at 7:05 PM ^

When can we just except that there have been no clean , uncorrupted national champions from the sec? Strip the titles and do what's right before the title national champion becomes even less than it already is.

SJSGoBlue

October 3rd, 2013 at 8:05 PM ^

By the book, Alabama should receive some type of penalty. Unfortunately, it will not happen. The decision the NCAA makes is going to be a key talking point for many analysts. Alabama gets penalized then the NCAA will be applauded. If they make no move whatsoever then they have just given fuel to the idea of super conferences forming their own league. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out...