OT - Sun rises in east, Auburn pays players, alters grades
Selena Roberts, formerly of Sports Illustrated, has released a new investegative piece for her own blog in regards to Auburn University paying football players and altering grades under the watchful eye of Gene Chizik. Roberts has credibility - she was the first journalist to do an investagative piece on A-Rod's use of steroids - so this can probably be taken fairly seriously....
Rumors have been rampant forever, but now we have some specifics:
Three players say that before the BCS Championship game the team was told that as many as nine of their teammates would not be able to play in the title game because they were academically ineligible. “We thought we would be without Mike Dyer because he said he was one of them, but Auburn found a way to make those dudes eligible,” says Mike Blanc, a teammate and roommate of Mike McNeil’s.
Receiver Darvin Adams, a star player with NFL dreams and a family to support, wrestled with whether to turn pro after the championship season. He discussed his plans with teammates and told them how much pressure he was under by Auburn coaches to stay. McNeil and Blanc say Auburn coaches offered Adams several thousand dollars to stay for his senior year.
Link: http://www.roopstigo.com/reader/auburns_vainted_title_victims_violations_and_vendettas_for_glory/
Also, a USA today piece which provides some background and links to Roberts' piece:
The NCAA will blow hundreds of thousands of dollars making a fool of itself with a massive investigation that reveals the Auburn staff are wards of Satan, but can't prosecute it because that one investigator used the report cover sheet as a napkin and the grease like, totally ruined it.
You call that nothing?
Water is wet
If only Auburn produced a graduate with the writing skills necessary to do an investigative piece on the rest of the SEC they could have their revenge.
According to Wikipedia, Selena Roberts, who wrote the piece under discussion, graduated from Auburn.
Apparently she wasn't part of 'the family.'
hide the trees
...shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.
Is that a from/a-reference-to something? The first time today when I saw this response, I thought "meh, I kind of get it". Now I'm lauging my ass off for some odd reason after seeing this...
Casablanca.
Former players have came forward and admitted to getting paid already. Nothing happened.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/30/four-ex-auburn-football-players-paid_n_842726.html
As long as Emmert is at the helm, this won't matter at all. That man is one of the most digusting figures in the history of sports.
Is Auburn's president also a BFF of Emmert? (see: Gee, Gordon)
I think Auburn is dirty, but consider the source. It is Selena Roberts, she of Duke lacrosee fame.
She also broke the A-Rod on roids story.
There is a reason she is no longer working for the SI and is posting this stuff on some odd named website. She has zero credibility after the hatchet job she did on the Duke lacrosse players. She never even apologized for all the garbage she wrote.
I am not saying she didn't put out a hatchet job. I am just pointing out that she has broken a major story that held up and I think she will get the benefit fo the doubt in this case considering her subject.
She shouldn't. If yahoo or SI or really anyone had put there name beind it (and not just posted it on there webstie as a report) it would look a lot better.
Didn't a bunch of Auburn players accuse the school of wrongdoing a couple of years ago an interview and then nothing happened (shocking!) ? I remember something like that happening, but can't remember who did the interview.
HBO Sports and Bryant Gumbel did a stroy on it a few years ago. I linked to a story about it above.
Does SI running a story really make you feel like this story would carry more credibility? This is the same SI that employs Michael Rosenberg.
It was like the MRA Superbowl. They still cite it as proof that their hate group is a good thing.
Scam Newton!
Is a little public pressure. Then they're on top of things. See Penn State.
Is "properly maintaining the integrity of college sports" really the objective of the universities that have banded together to form the NCAA?
The worse part of this story is how the kid got screwed and is now on trail for something he likely didnt do. Plus draft stock killed and millions lost for him individually
something tells me they will be a bottom feeder for awhile......
if the ncaa does nothing about these things'then why not just say fuck it and make it the wild west. everything is legal,do whatever you want. hell that would be more fair than this shit that have going now.
because the NCAA hasn't done anything against anyone except for the Penn State sanctions. There were big rumors about Oregon football, Miami football, OSU football, Syracuse basketball, etc and nothing has happened. The NCAA has no teeth and I think schools are figuring it out now because they're all pushing back
USC?
Holy-freaking-hell. They are actually going to officially accuse Auburn. Now we will see how truly gutless the NCAA has gotten. It only took a post-good Auburn period for all of this to officially come to light.
I love watching big time college sports. But after a while it's the same crazy stuff, year after year, and it's getting harder to swallow.
And it's not just about the Miamis, the SEC or "football factories" like OSU or PSU; there were problems at institutions like Michigan with the basketball program in the early 90s that we all know about, point shaving scandals at Northwestern around the same time, repeat problems at USC, etc. On other words, this stuff happens at schools that have good academic reputations, too.
There's too much pressure on the coaching staffs for them not to be tempted to break the rules, too much money at stake for the institutions to want to really look under the rock, etc. So everything is glossed over if possible and left at the doorstep of the NCAA to worry about.
College athletics is fairly rotten, and we all know it and make excuses for it.
I don't know if 110,000 people would turn out to watch students in Michigan uniforms who were not on athletic scholarship play in something like the Ivy League, or not. Probably not.
All of the big time conference schools have put themselves in a position where they have to feed the monster of their athletic budgets, and sustain their building programs, and can't face the reality that these are professional teams, and the "student athlete" moniker is just window dressing.
Schools simply can't go back to Square One and do what the Ivy League did banning athletic scholarships now. Imagine Michigan Stadium with 30,000 people a game instead of 110,000, and all those empty luxury suites. But banning the athletic scholarship is the only way to kill the disease.
Have real students play real students in sports. It might be entertaining. But it won't fill the Big House.
I disagree with the idea that banning the athletic scholarship is the only way to kill the disease of corruption.
I think allowing universities to pay the players would get rid of the corruption, too. It may bring some changes (though personally I don't think the atmosphere of college athletics would change all that much). Whatever changes it brought, it would at least be honest.
I can live with a few cheating scandals a year. Let's not over-romanticize college athletics to something they're not. They're great and are a big part of our culture, but too many people take it too far: upholding tradition above all else, worshiping players and coaches like gods, berating others for their fandom whether they're a rival or a fellow fan who left the game early during a blowout. And let's not forget the cringe-worthiness of posts like "The Blockhams..."
espn reported it it's real now boys.
be for free this time
Two Auburn players claiming they were misquoted:
Man this article is outrageous and isn't true. The media will do anything for a juicy story smh #sad
— Mike Blanc (@MikeBlanc93) April 3, 2013
While I spoke to Selena Roberts about Mike I have just read her article & not only am I misquoted but my words are very out of (1/2)
context. We didn't talk about NCAA violations or recruiting. I'm proud 2 have played at Auburn & the opportunities it gave me (2/2)
— Neiko Thorpe (@Neiko15) April 4, 2013
usually when you are interviewing someone for a big story ( or any story) you record the conversation. So I guess we will see if he is misquoted or whatever.