Oregon paid pair with ties to recruits
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=cr-oregon030311
Apparently, they paid 28k+ to people assocated with recruits...
Money shot:
According to State of Oregon expenditure records, the university paid $25,000 to Will Lyles of Complete Scouting Services in Houston, and $3,745 to Baron Flenory of New Level Athletics. Lyles is a former athletic trainer who recently was serving as a mentor to highly touted Ducks running back recruit Lache Seastrunk. Meanwhile, Flenory runs the Badger Sports Elite 7-on-7 football camps which have featured several celebrated Ducks signees including running back DeAnthony Thomas, defensive back Cliff Harris, defensive back Dior Mathis and wideout Tacoi Sumler. Flenory had a personal training relationship with recent Ducks signee Anthony Wallace.
If true, this is some bad joojoo for the ducks.
EDIT:
As it turns out, this isn't the first puff of smoke regarding these two characters.
That was posted 3 months ago!
I'd like to know from the payor University and the recipient, what the $25,000 was for? The article points out that both are silent at this point.
When you start paying offsight guys for recruiting evaluation work, but you know they do more than that, or worse you know that they actually have relationships with these players, be it mentor or camp coordinator, or you should have known with some dilligence, you are headed for trouble. You just can't go throwing money at people who you should have known have relationships with players you are recruiting.
I would be real hesitant to just scoff at this as nothing.
Plus they are west coast, not SEC. The NCAA likely won't think twice about making a big example of them. There won't be the worry about a law suit or SEC football powers not playing ball.
I was expecting university bankrolled cocaine and hooker binges for recruits, along with six-figure signing bonuses. If this is the major bust on a top 12 team, it's underwhelming to say the least.
I know that school. It's called: Charlie Sheen.
FEED ME!
FWIW, it may or may not be legal for them to pay from whatever account, but this is why it looks like it at least should be illegal:
That's Joe Schad on Twitter, and its clear the money's being used in slushy ways.
Here's the issue I have and it's a big one.
SMU gets the death penalty in the 80s for essentially making payments to recruits.
Oregon pays some dude 25k who is apparently "in charge" of a high profile prospect's recruiting and this prospect eventually chooses the Ducks.
And yet, we're supposed to believe none of this money made its way into the prospect's pockets.
Color me skeptical.
I think this is essentially the same damn thing and when more and more info comes out we're going to find out that 25k was the same thing as the 180k that put a new roof on Cecil Newton's church.
There's one key distinction, though. SMU received the death penalty because it was a repeat offender.
Sorry, you're absolutely right and I should've mentioned that and I'm not advocating the death penalty for Oregon in the slightest.
Just saying SMU got busted for the same thing over and over and got the death penalty. Oregon should have sanctions leveled against them including massive reduction in scholarships and a postseason ban if this thing turns out to be as fishy as it seems.
SMU was also busted for having coaches systemically paying players. They had a system in place and did it over the course of years.
This isn't the same at all. Still could be huge, but definitely would need more to warrant the death penalty.
And SMU was put on probation six times in 30 years before they received the death penalty. They were already on probation when the final scandal hit. The NCAA continually tried to deter them by levelling sanctions and they kept on cheating until their program was shut down.
the frickin governor of the state of texas, iirc.
Check out ESPN's 30/30 episode on SMU football. It's UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE what SMU was doing. What SMU was doing and what Oregon seems to have done are totally different situations. SMU's athletic department was signing contracts with these kids. IIRC, the conversation was something like this: the President of the university came and said, "hey, you gotta stop paying these kids", the response was, "we gotta wait till these contracts are up". It was crazy.
The point has been made that these 7 on 7 camps are becoming football's version of basketball's AAU teams. I'm not sure how much money makes it from the camp coordinator (or AAU coach) to the kids. I've always thought the idea was to pay the coach so that the coach will not only guide the current elite player your way, but act as a funnel for future elite players as well. Do these guys pay a portion to the kids too?
How does a pair benefit from recruits getting paid in ties?
Baron Flenery got boned. Dude is probably pissed after seeing what Lyles made.
Its the return of the Busey pictures...god help us all
Here's a link to a post on an Oregon blog (Addicted to Quack) that includes a quote from the University.
http://www.addictedtoquack.com/2011/3/3/2028702/yahoo-reports-that-oreg…
The University is claiming that the payouts were legal and above-board. It seems that while some folks may think the tactic to be less-than-wholesome (I do), I think it may hard to prove that it is/was gainst NCAA rules.
Clearly shady... maybe against NCAA rules... but if this is the report that will "blow the lid off a major D-1 program," it's a major disappointment. Bill Greene said "it will be a bombshell, with names-dates-amounts," so I was picturing blatant pay-for-play stuff. This won't even amount to tattoo-gate. Maybe Greene's comment wasn't about this Oregon story, but if it was, it's a big let down.
it might be a let down, but everything he said was true. There are names and dates and amounts.
What I didn't realize is that every school does this (pays scouts). They all report it for compliance reasons, just as Oregon has done. The only difference is that most schools pay around $1000, if not less.
I'm not sure how you think this is similar to Tat-gate. That was just some kids being dumb. It wasn't a systematic transfer of funds from a school to an athlete.
I thought it was the team from ohio!
I want to make sure everyone caught and enjoyed this from earlier in the thread...
Like every scandal over recent years, I doubt all the details have come out at this point.
Apparently, a major news source was going to blow this wide open. However, the rumors had been circling rapidly for a while now.
My guess is that the NCAA caught wind and began investigating.
However, the big media source could still have a bomb to drop in regards to this case or it could be about something completely unrelated.
Needless to say it must suck to be a duck fan right now. Theyll spend the entire summer hearing about this.
I guess we all know that pain as well though.
They are going to be covering this today. I will add the link when it comes up in the Podcast.
WWL take.
on espn.
"Sources: Man who helps Ducks probed."
Clearly it is not a good idea to help ducks...I do not want probed.
"Scouting service"
That is awesome. And that old leaky underground gas tank we just removed could have contained molassas.
Update: Joe Schad was on ESPN's "The Herd" a few minutes ago. He said that the NCAA will be focusing in on what specific services the $25,000 payee was performing for Oregon. That is considered a very high amount in the scouting service industry.
Also, not sure if this has been made clear in the reports, but the money was sent AFTER a star running back from Texas surprised the Texas recruiting community and came to Oregon. The payee apparently had a close relationship with the running back. So this has the vibe of pay for extra extra services rendered.
To add a little more unwanted emotion to the story, apparently the player's mom is raising hell asking the NCAA to investigate this. She said that the payee presented himself to her and her son as a trainer, not a scout for Oregon. She is quoted as saying something about it being wrong that a guy makes $25,000 "on the back" of her son.
This is gonna get very uncomfortable for Oregon. Again, they aren't an SEC elite team that will threaten the NCAA with defection to a football super league or a lawsuit. It would be a great program to make an example of if you are the NCAA. If they knew what they are doing they should get severely penalized. Way worse then Southern Cal. We're talking possible competitive balance violations here.