Question for people with knowledge of the Alabama Bookgate of the mid 2000s

LINK


An alert bookstore clerk called the athletic dept to report what was happening. The AD investigated and suspended several players and notified the NCAA.
Seems players were buying extra books for friends or for resale or to return for cash credit. The athletic department guidelines were rather loose and easy to get around.
No arrests and all discipline handled internally.

Chip... You should do a story on this... Why did UGA arrest the guys? What is different about stealing books for money? Are all the arrests in Athens due to the players, the coaches, or the environment?

Well, the bookstore is not part of the AD, so the AD and the University at Bama certainly worked together without even involving the UA Police. This was felony level theft too. They were asked to pay the money back.

The places that were cashing the checks, did they call the police or did UGA aa?

The checks are from the AD.

I think one of the reasons that UGA handled the double check cashing in the way it did has a little something to do with the cluster**k that the swim coach put them in with his attempts to help a star swimmer get an incomplete or something like that over a failing grade. I am guessing the AD didn't want any more equivocal issues on the books at this time. God knows that the NCAA has always hammered UGA every chance it gets while seemingly letting plenty of other schools off much easier. STill am utterly ticked off by the difference between AJ Green's treatment and the Bama DL that was actually at an agent's party and then Cam Newton ( who as barely in limbo for a half hour after his father ADMITTED to shopping him around vs Green being made to wait weeks and miss 4 games for selling his own property).

The Bama DL was simply given well over $2000 by the agent, he missed two game. AJ Green was completely cooperative, sold a piece of his own property for $1000, and was given 4 games. Cam Newton was auctioned of by his father and received 30 minutes. That is all you need to know about the NCAA.

Nope his Dad admitted to asking for money,which was part of the deal. Then the NCAA said that Cam had no knowledge so no harm, no foul. However, what will forever stick in my crawl about that 30 minute suspension is that the moment his Dad admitted to asking for money, according to the SEC rules, Cam Newton should have been rendered ineligible from any SEC team. IT is pretty explicit in the rule book, and the SEC just completely ignored it because they wanted Auburn in the championship game.

I would assume that the IRS "trusts" churches to report how much cash is in the offering plate. That was too easy to launder. It's not hard to cheat if you have a plan. I see it happen every day.