re: BREAKING Alabama Associate AD took 25k to steer players to Atlanta financial advisor

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Coaches and administrators are 100% allowed to recommend agents and advisors to players.

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not as paid employees of those agents/advisors

A coach or staffer cant take money from them let alone for purposes of steering a player, whether successful or not.

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AU would be totally cleared in this from an NCAA standpoint if Persons had not given Heron and Wiley any of the bribe money.

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No they wouldnt

For example

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It is alleged that from 2007 to 2010, then assistant football coach John Blake partnered with Gary Wichard, National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) certified agent, and Pro Tect Management to represent individuals in the marketing of their athletic abilities in violation of NCAA legislation. Specifically, Blake was employed and compensated by Pro Tect Management to influence football student-athletes to hire Wichard to represent them in marketing their athletic abilities and reputations.

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This is outside the actual giving to players scope

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Maybe it is just semantics.

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I am not saying there is an NCAA violation at this point on the player level. Just Admin.

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he John Blake UNC situation is a good parallel to the Alabama case except for one key difference. UNC only got in trouble because the agent Blake was steering the UNC players to gave the UNC players illegal benefits (paid trips, hotels, parties, etc). So the UNC/Blake situation is more like the AU case than the Bama case at this point.

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Yes for other factors, but him merely being paid by the agent made him an employee of agency which was also a NCAA violation. This is what I am saying. Having a staff member being paid by and agent or similar is an NCAA violation in and of itself

FTR, here it is, there is another bylaw as well I will try to dig up. related to receiving any money as an employee of the school and another related to integrity

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11.2.5 Representing Individuals in Marketing Athletics Ability/Reputation. Staff members of the athletics department of a member institution shall not represent, directly or indirectly, any individual in the marketing of athletics ability or reputation to an agent, a professional sports team or a professional sports organization, including receiving compensation for arranging commercial endorsements or personal appearances for former student-athletes, and shall not receive compensation or gratuities of any kind, directly or indirectly, for such services.

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This is what I am saying. Having a staff member being paid by and agent or similar is an NCAA violation in and of itself

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You are likely right. But most likely only an NCAA violation for Kobie Baker and not Alabama (so long as Alabama had no reason to know this was going on and covered it up or willfully ignored it).

I honestly think that both Alabama and Auburn won't receive any significant penalties. Persons and Baker likely did this totally in secret. It would not be beneficial to either university to have a staffer being bribed to steer players to agents. Hence, why Persons was charged with fraud. Auburn was the victim of the fraud. AU will lose their top 2 players, but probably wont get further penalties unless the NCAA really has it out for them due to hiring Pearl. In all likelihood, the NCAA will have much bigger fish to fry when more cases like Louisville's come to light where you have head coaches directly asking shoe companies to pay recruits.

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I honestly think that both Alabama and Auburn won't receive any significant penalties. Persons and Baker likely did this totally in secret. It would not be beneficial to either university to have a staffer being bribed to steer players to agents. Hence, why Persons was charged with fraud. Auburn was the victim of the fraud. AU will lose their top 2 players, but probably wont get further penalties unless the NCAA really has it out for them due to hiring Pearl.

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Is there an example of this sort of thing happening in the past? It has to have and I just missed it. Maybe at the mid-major level or with a smaller program?

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Will Auburn be punished beyond that? It depends on whether the NCAA can show that Pearl either knew or should have known his assistant coach was paying players.
Why wouldn't this apply to Avery and Alabama?

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Because at this point there is no allegation that Sexton was paid. Also, AU has the additional issue of having played ineligible players. Sexton has yet to play a game. If Pearl knowingly played ineligible players then AU will be in massive trouble. It all comes down to a lot of what ifs.

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Yes and no, its an Alabama violation but the severity might be deemed just level II or less in nature

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Correct. In a lot of ways both Alabama and Auburn are the victims here. We both had employees harming our universities in exchange for bribes from outside agents. Which is why both will go to jail for state and/or federal ethics violations. The victim in those cases are the public institutions and the public at large.

It's only a major NCAA problem for the schools if the schools knew and covered it up or turned a blind eye (as was the case with UNC and John Blake).

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If Pearl knowingly played ineligible players then AU will be in massive trouble.

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Then Person would not have been charged with defrauding Auburn.

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Then Person would not have been charged with defrauding Auburn.

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The fraud is because they are scholly athletes and it would be a violation of that.


Id bet some lawyer argues that the schollies come from the Athletics funds which is privately capitalized but wont get them far