Your Move, Mr. Emmert.

by MaconDawg on Jul 1, 2011 6:00 PM EDT in Football

So here's an idea. Let's kick off the hioliday weekend with a huge flaming brown paper bag of awful on Oregon coach Chip Kelly's doorstep. Wouldn't that be fun?

By now you already know about the slowly building firestorm surrounding Oregon's payments to Texas recruiting guru Will Lyles. Oregon has said that Lyles provided them with valuable information in exchange for $25,000. Lyles has now done an hours long,on the record interview with Yahoo! Sports, and says . . .{drumroll please}

"I look back at it now and they paid for what they saw as my access and influence with recruits,"

Well that's quite forthright and plainspoken, isn't it? Lyles also told Yahoo! that the reason that footage released recently and alleged to be his contribution to the Ducks' recruiting effort looked like it was thrown together at the last minute was because, eh, it was thrown together at the last minute. After an urgent request from Kelly for Lyles to get something together to show for that $25,000.

I said as recently as last week that this thing would likely die quietly unless somebody opened his mouth about it. Mouth. Opened. What Lyles is describing is a) himself as a representative of Oregon's athletic interest (a "booster" in common parlance) steering recruits to the University of Oregon after receiving tens of thousands of dollars for a steaming pile of grainy, outdated digital crap. Also, color the Oregon athletic department stupid for paying with a school check for . . .nothing they could legitimately pay for. Certain members of the SEC and Big XII frown disapprovingly in your direction Oregon. You're doing it wrong.

This also raises the question of what Mark Emmert and the crack investigation team in Indianapolis will do with this. While they're used to dealing with incomplete information, innuendo, rumor and grudge-fueled allegations, what will they do when a guy comes out and says "I was paid cash money by Oregon to influence recruits and, what do you know, they ended up going to Oregon!" Oregon can certainly characterize the transaction differently than Mr. Lyles does. That's their right, and we should definitely give equal consideration to the possibility that Lyles may have an ax to grind or an agenda to serve. But this is about as close to a smoking gun as Emmert and crew are ever gonna get. It will be interesting to see how they handle it.

Kudos to Lyles however for reading the writing on the wall. Oregon already brought in a guy known for sealing the leaks around foundering athletic ships. They were going to roll over on Lyles, it was just a matter of when they would start blaming him and what exactly they would blame him for. He may have beaten the Ducks to the punch, and we'll all have a more interesting weekend for it. God Bless you, Will Lyles. Sorry Duck (and Cover) Nation.

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Comments

With Emmert's ties to U of Washington

I doubt he will be crying too much over the NCAA pounding they are about to receive.

Dawg fan by birth,
no longer in Beaumont by the grace of God.

by Dawg in Beaumont on Jul 1, 2011 6:43 PM EDT reply actions

as a contract employee of the university

i don’t see how lyles can be considered a booster in the strictest sense of the term. his connection with oregon is clearly contractual while a booster, in my understanding, would be someone with ties to the institution but not through payment.

(or, more simply, they are financial opposites. an employee is paid by the school. a booster gives his money to the school.)

which isn’t to argue that lyles behavior isn’t actionable by the regulating body in question. but the distinction would seem to have profound implications into the penalties involved.

Remember the Rose Bowl: The Story of the Alabama Crimson Tide & the Grandaddy of Them All

by kleph on Jul 1, 2011 6:59 PM EDT reply actions

Unfortunately NCAA precedent...

implies that “the strictest sense” is not the applicable one. The relevant Bylaw is 13.02.14, which defines a booster as someone "who is known by a member of the institution’s executive or athletics administration to be assisting or to have been requested [by the athletics department staff] to assist in the recruitment of prospective student-athletes."

The Yahoo article included a handwritten note from Chip Kelly thanking Lyles for getting recruits to Eugene for visits. And he was accepting money from the athletic department for services. I’d say that’s plenty under the NCAA’s definition. Again it’s not the common sense conception of a booster, but nothing the NCAA does invokes common sense.

In the end though this probably means Portland State’s getting the death penalty.

by MaconDawg on Jul 1, 2011 7:22 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

i guess the point in question

is how does the financial arrangement between the two parties affect the designation of lyles? it seems to me this wording is certainly designed to include the classic “booster” acting as an agent for the school but lyles was under contract. while he clearly was assisting in the recruitment of this players, it was as part of his job. so would that mean there is some other part of the regulations that would have precedence over how his role is defined?

i ask this because it seems to be the nut of the case. the school wants it to seem like lyles was employed on a contractual basis for his recruiting information and – oh look at this! – a player he happened to know ended up choosing oregon. that seems to obscure the “assist in the recruiting” clause of the booster definition (however badly) but it woudn’t address issues of improper contact with a recruit by a paid agent of the school.

also, you might find this of interest.

Remember the Rose Bowl: The Story of the Alabama Crimson Tide & the Grandaddy of Them All

by kleph on Jul 1, 2011 7:42 PM EDT up reply actions

Broken link.

I think the problem (at least one of them) is that Lyles had pre-existing relationships with Dontae Williams, LaMichael James and Lache Seastrunk. He chaperoned Williams, James and current Auburn receiver Trovon Reed on visits to Oregon. He then received a payment of $25,000 from Oregon for something. The question is what. Lyles seems to think it was influencing high school football players. If that’s the case, then Oregon “knew or had reason to know” that he was a representative of their athletic interest. Because they were paying him to be.

by MaconDawg on Jul 1, 2011 8:15 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

A check, and a thank you letter?

Someone is pretty new at this to leave a paper trail like that. Come on Oregon, you gotta Randy Moss this thing. Straight cash hommie. See Clemson <a href="http://bridalbird.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/cashmoney.jpghttp://bridalbird.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/cashmoney.jpg" >here, here, and here.

http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/

by Mr. Sanchez on Jul 1, 2011 8:39 PM EDT up reply actions