re: how is Auburn landing all these blue chip recruits?

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Lowder's fingerprints have lingered for three decades in the hiring and firing of coaches and athletic directors alike -- even university presidents. Thus, his brash micromanagement of his alma mater is as renowned as it is reviled.

When Tommy Tuberville was lured away from Mississippi before the 1999 season, Auburn was still paying off four ex-football coaches -- head coaches Pat Dye and Terry Bowden, along with defensive coordinators Wayne Hall and "Brother" Bill Oliver. The price tag approached $2.5 million.

Oliver reached a $210,000 settlement after filing suit accusing Lowder and then-athletic director David Housel of reneging on a promise to name Oliver as Bowden's replacement. Oliver said Lowder first broached the prospect two seasons before Bowden was forced out, adding, "I felt like an old whore."

Kenneth Ingram, who represented Oliver, called Lowder a man "who has anointed himself a monarch over this, what he considers to be his kingdom." The attorney attended Auburn and held tickets to a football skybox.

Bowden, now ABC's college football studio analyst, credits Lowder for his hiring and eventual firing, as well as alleging that Lowder was involved in a deep rooted, pay-for-play scheme in place when Bowden was hired almost a decade ago. (ABC and ESPN are part of The Walt Disney Co.)

Wanting to have a public record in case anything happened to him, Bowden agreed to a lengthy tape-recorded interview with Paul Davis of the Opelika-Auburn News in 2001. In transcripts reviewed by ESPN.com, Bowden said he was so stressed about Lowder during his last year at Auburn that he told Davis, "I'm having my house checked for bugs
Bowden also said it was Lowder who convinced Dye to resign at the end of the 1992 season, fearing ex-player Eric Ramsey's allegations of pay-for-play at Auburn might expose the larger scheme and result in stricter NCAA sanctions. As his Auburn tenure drew to a close, Bowden said Housel acknowledged that Lowder was the source of a newspaper story indicating the trustees had lost confidence in him.

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