College Football Thread -- The Fun Never Ends

[DanS]

Even during the offseason...

Lots of coaching changes. Coming down the stretch for recruiting to National Signing Day. Lots of speculation on the NFL draft. And Arkansas continues eating its own.

Continued from...

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=160217

[Lord Avalon]

Report: Tapes could confirm Bush received gifts
SAN DIEGO -- The existence of taped conversations between Reggie Bush or members of his family and an investor in a failed sports marketing agency could confirm the New Orleans Saints running back received cash and gifts while playing for Southern California, Yahoo.com reported Wednesday.

A federal investigation into extortion claims by Bush and his family revealed the existence of the taped conversations, according to the Yahoo.com report.

The U.S. Attorney's office in San Diego has issued grand jury subpoenas to multiple witnesses in the probe, Yahoo.com reported. According to a copy of a subpoena obtained by Yahoo, at least one of the witnesses was asked to hand over "any recordings in your possession of conversations between Lloyd Lake and Reggie Bush, Denise Griffin or LaMar Griffin."

Lake, who founded a sports marketing agency in hopes of landing Bush as its first client, is the subject of a grand jury probe into the extortion claims. Denise Griffin is Bush's mother, and LaMar Griffin is Bush's stepfather.

Yahoo.com, citing unidentified sources, reported LaMar Griffin spoke with federal investigators in the spring of 2006 and acknowledged the existence of the tapes.

"We're aware of an investigation into possible criminal conduct by Lake and others associated with him," Bush attorney David Cornwell told ESPN's Joe Schad on Wednesday. "We have and will continue to cooperate with the Department of Justice."

When asked in the past about the allegations of receiving inappropriate extra benefits, Bush has insisted that he and his family did nothing wrong.

Multiple sources told Yahoo.com that Lake made the tapes in late 2005 to protect his financial investment if Bush backed out of a deal to sign with New Era Sports & Entertainment, founded by Lake and San Diego businessman Michael Michaels. In January 2006, Bush signed with agent Joel Segal and marketing agent Mike Ornstein.

On Jan. 12, 2007, Lake's mother, Barbara Gunner, testified before a grand jury, according to the Yahoo.com report, that she had heard portions of tapes made by her son, in which LaMar Griffin states Bush intended to repay New Era Sports "their money," as well as for a car purchased for him.

Lake told Yahoo in August 2006 that he contributed a portion of the cash and gifts allegedly given to Bush and his family as part of an agreement to represent the 2005 Heisman Trophy winner when he signed an NFL contract. In September, Yahoo.com reported Ornstein also supplied Bush and his family with gifts while he was still at USC.

According to Yahoo.com, nearly $280,000 in cash, rent and gifts was allegedly given to Bush and his family.

The Pac-10 Conference and the NCAA are investigating whether Bush or his family broke NCAA rules and compromised his eligibility during the 2004 and '05 seasons by taking extra benefits.

If Bush is found to have violated NCAA rules, USC, which won a national title in 2004 and played for the '05 championship, could be sanctioned.

Meanwhile, the nine members of the Heisman Trust continue to monitor the Bush story. When reached by Schad, a spokesman for the Heisman Trust cautioned Thursday that the members will take no action until the NCAA and Pac-10 complete their investigations.

If at such time it is shown that Bush should not have been eligible at the time of the Heisman voting -- a violation of a requirement printed on the ballot itself -- the fate of Bush as a Heisman winner would likely be decided by majority vote of the nine members.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2741773

If true, bad news for USC.

[DanS]

Yes, this could be bad news, although Yahoo! appears to have run with the story without knowing what is on the tapes, or the extent of the coverage of the tapes.

For the record, I would not wish USC to be taken down a peg in such a manner. Historically, taking USC down a peg on the playing field has been Notre Dame's job.

[mrmitchell]

If the allegations are true, the NCAA needs to bring the hammer down. There's no way USC could not know that Reggie took in $280,000. That is big time dealing.

More Arkansas news...Last week at an alumni gathering in Dallas, Frank Broyles was the main speaker. There were no press at the event but this is most of what he said, verified by several separate attendees:

-Arkansas will always be ranked seventh or eighth in the SEC.
-The infamous parent's meeting was about tutoring and curfew times. Only one parent wanted to talk football. (?)
-Broyles reminisced about playing Texas in the 1960s.
-The turnover of assistant coaching staff (Malzahn for one) is a good thing. When Broyles coached he prided himself on his ability to develop assistants and he said that new faces were good because 10 to 15 percent of your game plan could come from new staff.
-Arkansas could not have joined the Big 12.
-Arkansas is good enough to win the SEC West, the most competitive football league in the nation, once every three years. How much more can you expect?

The most welcome part:
-Arkansas lost its last three games on special teams mistakes and special teams coach Shibest needs to go.

Meanwhile, basketball continues to be topsy-turvy, losing 66-60 at South Carolina. IMHO Stan Heath is lucky the heat is on Houston Nutt this year, noone is noticing what's turning up to be a dismal hoops season. The baseball team is preseason ranked top 10, though. There is hope yet.

[snoopy369]

They need a professional vocational football league... then nobody would care if they took money

[Guynemer]

If the Bush story is true, this is very bad for college football.

[-Jrabbit]

The Bush stuff has been bubbling just under the surface for over a year now. It was pretty stupid (or arrogant) of Bush to accept so much from this guy and then not hire him as his agent.

It would be awesome if those audio tapes actually exist, and become public.

[Drake Tungsten]

They should pay players anyway or, at the very least, give them their image rights...

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
They should pay players anyway

Et tu, Drake?

or, at the very least, give them their image rights...

Agreed on that count.

[Drake Tungsten]

I appreciate the ideal of amateur athletics, but it's pretty clear that college football has almost nothing to with that ideal anymore. It's a massive business and the players are being exploited by it...

[DanS]

I don't know that men's college football ever had anything to do with that ideal. That's why it's classified by the NCAA (in addition to basketball) as a revenue sport.

[Lord Avalon]

Stoops: Players 'knowingly' broke employment rules

NORMAN, Okla. -- The NCAA has alleged a third Oklahoma football player received excess pay from the same car dealership where former Sooners Rhett Bomar and J.D. Quinn received similar benefits, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The allegation of a third, unnamed player receiving excess pay was made in the NCAA's report on its investigation into self-reported violations at Oklahoma. The university acknowledged the allegation, the newspaper said, but still says only Bomar, a quarterback, and Quinn, an offensive lineman, accepted excess pay.

The newspaper reported that in the preliminary report Oklahoma submitted to the NCAA in August, the university said only Bomar and Quinn had accepted the excess pay. A third, unidentified player was referenced, but aside from Bomar and Quinn, "all other student-athletes were paid for the number of hours worked," the university said.

The NCAA's findings came in an investigation after Oklahoma self-reported the violations. Oklahoma disclosed Monday that it had received its notice of allegations from the NCAA and is scheduled to appear before the NCAA's Committee on Infractions on April 14 in Indianapolis.

The NCAA asked athletic director Joe Castiglione and football coach Bob Stoops to attend the meeting, along with compliance officials, general counsel Joseph Harroz and director of football operations Merv Johnson.

Oklahoma also appeared before the committee last April following an investigation into hundreds of improper recruiting phone calls by former basketball coach Kelvin Sampson's staff.

"We are eager to move forward toward the conclusion of this matter," Castiglione said in a statement.

In its notice, the NCAA claims Oklahoma didn't follow its own guidelines when it "did not collect gross earning statements for the 12 football student-athletes who notified the institution of their employment at [the dealership] during the 2005 summer vacation period ... and as a result the institution did not detect the violations" it self-reported.

Oklahoma claims it did not detect the football players' employment because the players did not complete required forms. The university also claims it was transitioning duties at a time when the NCAA alleges that Oklahoma failed to collect some of its monitoring forms in a timely manner.

The NCAA points out that the failure to monitor occured "despite receiving information that at least one student-athlete worked at Big Red during the academic year."

"From our perspective, any allegation related to our monitoring activities, no matter how limited, is not warranted," Castiglione said in the statement. "The NCAA does not appear to be contesting the speed of our response or the action that we took."

"I think any school would agree that monitoring practices can always be improved, and we constantly seek to improve our practices, but we also recognize that it was our staff that originally uncovered and reported the violations that had occurred. Upon completing our investigation, the university took action above and beyond what was required under the NCAA rules."

Bomar and Quinn were both dismissed from the program and transferred to Division I-AA schools -- Bomar to Sam Houston State and Quinn to Montana. Bomar was ordered to pay back more than $7,400 in extra benefits to charity, while Quinn was told to pay back more than $8,100.

Oklahoma has also banned athletes from working at the Norman car dealership where Bomar and Quinn were employed until at least the 2008-09 academic year and has moved to prevent the athletes' supervisor at the dealership from being involved with the university's athletics program. The dealership is now under new ownership.

Oklahoma also will reduce the number of football coaches who are allowed to recruit off campus this fall.

Stoops has said the players "knowingly" broke the rules.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2763389

[DanS]

IT'S DIVISION 1 FOOTBALL!!!

http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/1135/460360.wma

(CU coach)

[Drake Tungsten]

Rants!

[DanS]

The icing on the cake would have been slapping himself.