ITAT board is funny...

They want to know who can come up with $200,000...
This should answer all their questions:

This AU network is still alive and well


Interview with Terry Bowden April 24, 2001, at his Loachapoka ranch.

Also present was Paul Davis. After our interview, Bowden was expecting a visit from Dr. Muse that same day at his ranch.

Randy Kennedy Editor, Former Auburn University football coach Terry Bowden says the program he inherited in 1993 included an elaborate system of paying star high school players up to $15,000 to sign with Auburn and $600 per month while on the team.

In a lengthy interview from the ranch he still owns in Loachapoka, Bowden alleged that the "pay-for-play" system was orchestrated by powerful AU Board of Trustees member Bobby Lowder and carried out by former assistant coach Wayne Hall.

Bowden said the corruption extended to former head coach Pat Dye, and included $30,000 to Atlanta attorneys for Gene Jelks in order to sustain the former University of Alabama player while he leveled charges of wrongdoing in the Crimson Tide program.

Bowden said he learned of the major NCAA infractions within days of being named Auburn's head coach, but kept quiet while trying to clean up the program from within." I broke the rules," Bowden said. "I told Wayne Hall to pay it off to the players we already had and it will never happen again. I was hiding a dirty secret.

"Bowden said the payment of players could be traced to Lowder, who Bowden said is the unquestioned leader of the AU athletic department. "Nothing was done without Lowder knowing. "Wayne Hall and Pat Dye paid $30,000 for lawyers in Atlanta to keep Gene Jelks talking. This came from the money that had been used to pay Auburn players.

One week on the job, Hall came in with a ledger of players who have been paid, who paid the money, how much money and when it was paid. He said we've still got 9-12 players that we're paying $600 per month. We paid them $12,000-$15,000 to sign. We sign about four every year that we pay.(Former assistant coach Rodney) Garner paid most of the players. He was paid when he was a player at Auburn.

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS ... Fifty to 60 men give $5,000 per year. Wayne would collect it. These are all good AU men. They didn't ask questions. The coach tells them that everybody cheats so we have to. My first two years we went 11-0 and 9-0-1. My third year, (assistants Jimbo) Fisher and (Rick) Trickett said, "Hall is on the phone a lot with Lowder. "I thought he was going back to cheating. I told Hall that when the season was over he needed to move on. I told Garner that I was taking him off coaching for a year. That was the beginning of the end for me. Jimmy Rane was in on all of this. He is high maintenance.
Three current Board of Trustees members gave cash to players - Rane, Spina and McWhorter.


Paul Davis