SI Investigation: Oklahoma State Has Been Paying Players

Submitted by ChopBlock on

[Not seeing anything on site search about this, nor on the mod thread canning the subject, so here goes...]

 

Sports Illustrated is set to break a major, major story on alleged naughtiness by the  Oklahoma State football program this week. The lowlights:

  • Paying players 
  • Phony/nonexistant jobs for players (maybe it's an OSU thing?)
  • Academic fraud: systematic outsourcing of player's classwork to others, and adjusting their grades upward
  • Campus hostesses providing sex to recruits

There's a few things to note about this that suggest this might be, like, an actual thing and not just a media spectacle

  • The timeframe stretches across more than a decade, since the Les Miles days. 
  • The University (and WVU, who currently employs Joe DeForest, an assistant coach at the center of the allegations) have already started damage control. They're shocked, shocked, that improprieties are going on in here.
  • If you're going to flat-out state that the University is paying players (about the most damning allegation possible), you better have dang good evidence.

Now, it's much too early to say which of these allegations will or won't be substantiated, and the NCAA hasn't said a word on the subject. But SI is planning to run a multi-part exposé on the subject, so this might get ugly, at least publicity-wise.

 

Edit: Many of these violations are alleged to have occured between 2001 and 2007, outside of the NCAA statute of limitations. Howeva, SI insists that DeForest paid players as recently as 2011, which is fair game.

 

 

Sources: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/big12/2013/09/07/sports-illustrated-oklahoma-state-investigation/2780501/

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/23529111/sports-illustrated-to-allege-series-of-violations-at-oklahoma-st

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9646580/oklahoma-state-cowboys-told-report-alleging-pay-play

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GoBlueInIowa

September 8th, 2013 at 8:42 PM ^

It would be great of the NCAA took this case to go after coaches at other institutions (Miles for example) and put show causes on them - I am tired of coaches getting off by just changing schools. If these allegations are true any coach involved in these violations should get a 2-3 year show cause put on them regardless of where they are currently coaching.

Joined: 03/05/2011

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Yeoman

September 8th, 2013 at 8:43 PM ^

...there was a lot of conversation about alleged enmity between him and Carr. Miles allegedly spreading false rumors about Carr's health to recruits, old personal stuff between the two of them going back to Bo's time....

I'd always suspected there was more to it than that. Maybe this story helps explain why there was such intense opposition to Miles from some circles? it certainly doesn't do anything to dispel my perception that Miles was willing to bend the rules in ways that wouldn't have been welcome in Ann Arbor.

(That's probably overstated--I'm sure there are people in Ann Arbor that wouldn't object to some rule-bending. They don't control the program, thankfully.)

Joined: 06/08/2011

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archangel2k12

September 8th, 2013 at 8:51 PM ^

I just moved to OKC about a year ago.  This ought to get interesting.  The cfb fans here are a differnent breed.  I've already been asked if I am a Sooner fan yet.  I said, "No, I already have a team that I have been obsessed with since I was 5...thank you."  The person then insisted that I would become a Sooner fan in no time.  No progress on that.  osu fans here aren't much different, except they (in my experience) are even less informed about the sport.  It wouldn't surprise me if many fans remained completely unaware of the scandal.

This will get interesting.

Joined: 01/19/2011

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trueblueintexas

September 8th, 2013 at 8:58 PM ^

Isn't Lloyd on the NCAA infractions/enforcement committee now? If so, this could get interesting as far as Les is concerned. Aren't those two at the top of each other's Christmas list?

Joined: 11/10/2008

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EGD

September 8th, 2013 at 9:09 PM ^

Usually with a limitations period, it doesn't begin to run until the entity entitled to enforce the violated rule is on notice of the violation. I wonder if the NCAA's limitations period works this way too, or if the NCAA's history of simply ignoring older infractions is part of its general cop-outitude.

Joined: 09/16/2009

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denardogasm

September 8th, 2013 at 9:20 PM ^

Tangential question that I just started thinking about: Has ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports, ever broken one of these stories? I can't remember any, and I was just curious if they do any real journalism work or just repeat the same tabloid-style stories over and over as is obviously their preference.

Joined: 09/11/2011

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Tater

September 8th, 2013 at 9:27 PM ^

Ohio State has gotten away with every NCAA violation listed in the OK St story for at least the ten years of Jim Tressel's tenure with minimal consequences.  Then again, since OK St isn't a "traditional power," I can easily see them getting hammered and being made an "example" to show everyone how "tough" the NCAA is on cheaters.

Joined: 08/13/2008

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bronxblue

September 8th, 2013 at 10:02 PM ^

Yet another reason why striking out on Miles has paid off for UM.  Even if he wouldn't have tried the same purported tactics at UM, the stink would have been pretty strong.

I kind of doubt much will happen, save for (maybe) some self-imposed sanctions and a couple of admins being fired. 

Joined: 11/22/2008

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Njia

September 8th, 2013 at 10:04 PM ^

"Has been paying players?" No. According to the WWL, no one currently involved in either the football program or team is within the scope of this story.

Joined: 09/15/2009

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Yeoman

September 8th, 2013 at 10:14 PM ^

the ESPN report says that Oklahoma State says "the allegations outlined don't involve any current coaches or players." It also says "The university said Sports Illustrated didn't provide all of the specifics of the accusations," so maybe the school itself isn't the best source of information on this point.

Joined: 06/08/2011

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Pibby Scott

September 9th, 2013 at 12:07 AM ^

i for one am stunned.

 

of all the colleges that i took as being on the up and up, this one particular u in question, was, undoubtedly, somewhere in the mix of the various places i would think of variously when i thought of places as being on the up and or up.  

Joined: 08/18/2010

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Jonesy

September 9th, 2013 at 2:26 AM ^

NCAA is going to remain toothless until they can somehow make all the cheating illegal and get the police involved.  Their investigators are worthless.

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