Yahoo Sports: Documents, text messages reveal impermissible benefits to five SEC players
Presenting without comment. Have a few blockquotes below with choice info. Click thru for the full scoop. Evidence against Fluker and Bray seems to be the most comprehensive and damning...
I will edit this post as I find additional information, etc.
Five Southeastern Conference football stars violated NCAA rules by receiving extra benefits prior to completing their collegiate careers, a Yahoo Sports investigation has found. The benefits – which in some cases came from multiple individuals – were conveyed to University of Alabama offensive tackle D.J. Fluker, University of Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray, Tennessee defensive end Maurice Couch, Mississippi State Universitydefensive tackle Fletcher Cox and Mississippi State wideout Chad Bumphis.
[Former Crimson Tide defensive end Luther] Davis declined to comment for this story. However, Yahoo Sports was able to authenticate text message records,Western Union fund transfers, banking statements, flight receipts and other financial material linking both Davis and the five college football players. Yahoo Sports also found that three NFL agents and three financial advisers engaged Davis in transactions totaling $45,550. The three agents were Andy Simms, Peter Schaffer and John Phillips. The financial advisers were Jason Jernigan, Mike Rowan andHodge Brahmbhatt.
Break down of the text messages:
Slideshow of documents: http://sports.yahoo.com/photos/sec-investigation-slideshow/
September 12th, 2013 at 8:33 AM ^
Well, the problem with that approach is that universities are nonprofit entities, so they'd have a tough time justifying turning one of their branches into what is essentially a for-profit system.
The NFL, by the way, is nothing like a capitalistic system where the richest team wins. Otherwise the Redskins would have won 10 Super Bowls in the last decade. Nobody really wants that anyway. Sports are built on the idea that every team ought to have at least a reasonable shot at winning, not the richest. There's a reason everyone despises the Yankees. Baseball was killing itself with pure capitalism. To survive it had to de-capitalize, because nobody was going to the games in 2/3 of the cities.
September 12th, 2013 at 3:00 PM ^
I'd argue that what the NCAA needs to do is simply stop policing this stuff. Stipends, etc are not necessary. Just fire all of the compliance guys and erase all of the sections of the rulebook related to player benefits.
September 11th, 2013 at 7:12 PM ^
I live in SEC country, and the most common refrain tha I hear, even before this came out, is that everyone pays players and everyone cheats. Shoot, I even heard one Tennessee fan say the problem under Dooley was that they might not have been paying players, so they couldn't get the talent to compete (that plushis terrible coaching, of course). So my question is: what are the general thoughts of fellow Michigan fans regarding the likelihood of us cheating? I mean, have I just been drinking the koolaid in adamently defending Michigan's program as a clean one that does not cheat? They claim that I am being naive in my insisting that the culture at Michigan is different than in the SEC, and cheating would not be tolerated. However, I just wanted to make sure that I am not just a homer (by asking a bunch of other homers) in my refusal to believe that we pay our players.
September 11th, 2013 at 7:16 PM ^
My response would be 134 years and the only violation was for stretching to much.
September 11th, 2013 at 7:20 PM ^
There have been allegations.
CWood comes to mind.
Granted, I'm old, but I lived in Squad freshman year and interacted/partied with several players that had NFL careers...
They had lots of Michigan athletic clothing.
They had some pizza coupons and blimpy coupons.
If they were getting cash payments, they were cheap fu*kers because they kept coming over and eating our Gumby pizza and Touchdown 15 cent wings without pitching in most times. Also, they kept hanging out in our rooms to play Sega, Nintendo, and watch TV.
By no means were they rolling around in $
September 11th, 2013 at 7:49 PM ^
At the same time as Woodson, he actually got caught and had to sit out the first chunk of the 1998 season for taking money from a wannabe agent (the same stuff as is going on here, which to me is much different from SMU or the Miami/Ok.State allegations where the school itself and boosters are the ones providing benefits).
Woodson was tied to a super shady agent (who had loads of SEC clients as well, including Stephen Davis from Auburn/Redskins) that he signed with immediately after the Rose Bowl. He and others ended up taking the dude to court a few years later, since it turns out agents who will buy your signature while risking your college eligibility don't often have your best financial interests at heart.
September 11th, 2013 at 7:27 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 7:29 PM ^
The distinguishing difference between this and Oklahoma State is that in OSU's case, at least one coach, and however many school employees (re: the grades and tutoring) were involved in the alleged violations.
Here, you have outside agents paying athletes, according to what's alleged, and there isn't evidence at this point that the school was directly involved or had the dreaded "lack of institutional control."
This is sure looking like some very dirty business is going to come out. It should be obvious that we are seeing a tiny part of the tip of a very ugly iceberg.
September 11th, 2013 at 9:07 PM ^
Tyler Bray - still screwing with UT even when he's no longer on the field.
But seriously, this will lead to absolutely nothing. Unless Nick Saban and Les Miles are on video giving bags of cash to players while hookers pleasure underage recruits, I'm doubting the NCAA even bats an eye. And yeah this is pretty graphic, but at this point the NCAA has shown itself to be one of the most spineless "oversight" organizations in America.
September 11th, 2013 at 9:23 PM ^
As spineless as the NCAA is, there is some pretty damning evidence here, and I do believe that it will lead to something.
September 12th, 2013 at 8:59 AM ^
It'll be some minor, 1 game suspension-type stuff. Maybe you'll see a scholarship reduction of 1 or 2 for a year and some lower-level admin or coach will get canned. But I'm not suspecting we'll see any widespread sanction like we saw with PSU or even OSU.
September 12th, 2013 at 12:08 AM ^
The NCAA isn't spineless, they don't have subpoena power. This is the reason Manziel got .5 game punishment.
September 12th, 2013 at 8:51 AM ^
Everyone says they don't have subpeona power as if they have to bring sanctions before a court of law. Yes, some players and former associates don't want to talk; so be it. They can still put pressure on institutions to punish coaches and players, and what we saw with Manziel was as much the NCAA settling because they didn't have the resources or desire to truly dig that much deeper. The institutions punished can obviously appeal both internally as well as, I suspect, outside arbiters one federal frounds like anti-trust, but just because people aren't willing to talk doesn't mean the NCAA can't punish people based on evidence that would not meet proper evidentiary thresholds in a court of law.
September 12th, 2013 at 9:37 AM ^
It's a shame they don't simply have a policy that says if you don't speak, we'll just believe everything we hear. But I doubt the heavyweight member schools would sign off on such a policy.
September 11th, 2013 at 10:50 PM ^
September 12th, 2013 at 12:06 AM ^
Meanwhile at the NCAA:
September 12th, 2013 at 12:30 AM ^
September 12th, 2013 at 7:43 AM ^
Cotton, I'm shocked.
September 12th, 2013 at 9:22 AM ^
Quote:
And that's fine. The NCAA always looks foolish when it tries to retroactively strip championships – in this case, Alabama's. D.J. Fluker won championships at Alabama the previous two seasons.
It's(sic) looks even worse when it argues that something horrible occurred if a kid such as D.J. Fluker, who grew up poor even before Hurricane Katrina left him homeless and sleeping in a car with four others, actually accepted some of the money that just about everyone was willing to throw at him because they've defined his worth as far greater than just tuition, room and board.
It starts to have a different feel when you see that. I don't know the whole story, so if that's made up well color me fooled.
So, was it against the rules what he did? Sure. Is it morally right that these guys can be homeless while the people making money of them are living like kings and queens, I'm not so sure. Would most of us do the same thing in the same situation? I don't know. I'm lucky enough to never have faced anything like this. But I would hazard a guess that we would be accepting that cash immediately.
September 12th, 2013 at 10:41 AM ^
Those kings and queens are the people who spent three years training him and providing him with every imaginable resource he needed to make the millions he ended up making. I get that he grew up in rough conditions, but he certainly didn't have them at Alabama, and he could have waited a few months to help his family. Instead, he decided to potentially screw over 100 of his teammates.
September 12th, 2013 at 11:15 AM ^
September 12th, 2013 at 4:31 PM ^