As first reported by The State, the NCAA has spoken to South Carolina tight end Weslye Saunders regarding his relationship with an unnamed player agent.
The NCAA’s tentacles stretching from Chapel Hill to Columbia is apparently tied to the governing body’s investigation into the North Carolina football program, where reportedly several Tar Heels have been questioned regarding their relationships with agents. Saunders himself has admitted that he’s best friends with UNC defensive tackle Marvin Austin, one of the central figures in the NCAA’s probe into the program.
This evening, South Carolina has released a statement from athletic director Eric Hyman regarding the NCAA’s interest in one member of his football program.
“The NCAA has been in contact with us regarding possible rules violations in one of our programs. We have and will continue to cooperate fully with their inquiry. We have confidence in our compliance program and will work with the NCAA to bring this matter to a resolution in a timely fashion.”
Thus far, it’s student-athletes from North Carolina and South Carolina who have publicly been fingered as being of interest to the NCAA; according to a source, there’s the possibility that the names of at least two more prominent Div. 1-A schools could be made public over the next few days/weeks in relation to an NCAA investigation that has the potential to reach much, much further than its limited public scope right now.
Suffice to say, this is not the last we’ll hear about a probe that’s been described as “deep and far-reaching” by someone with knowledge of the situation.
what’s with all the NCAA investigations?
It looks like it’s just one big NCAA investigation, NE49ers.
Of course, a better headline would be “Cocks Bust Out Hymen”, but “Cock’s AD Hyman Busts Out ….” will have to work for now.
NCAA is trying to make itself relevent again. Making up for all the time it has looked the other way. It is either feast or famine with them. Consoladation of conferences is threatening the NCAA I would just as soon see it defunct.
Tee-hee. You said “Cocks Hyman busts.” Tee-hee.
These agents are out of control. 18 year old kids need better protection from these slime buckets.
I wish more states would create legislation to protect the amateur athlete. I think that Alabama has something in place that makes it criminal for the agents to have interaction – not sure about the specifics of that law but I have heard that it has greatly helped the University staying ” NCAA Compliant.
Well, John, I see you’re feeling playful with your headlines today. (Started to just say “heads” … but caught myself.)
Blown headline.
Corrected: “Cocks’ Hyman busts out statement on NCAA’s interest in USC (this time without a Trojan)”
The NCAA and NFL seem to have a pretty good working relationship, and I think that relationship is the primary key to stopping this kind of thing, if both parties are actually interested.
My solution:
The NFL currently requires agents to be licensed by the league. If the NFL instituted an automatic loss of license for the agent and a stiff fine ($250k? $500k? a cool million?) for the representation firm, that’d probably give this enforcement mechanism some teeth. It wouldn’t hurt to institute a penalty for players, either. As it is, players like Reggie Bush, O.J. Mayo, Adrian Peterson, etc. are laughing it up in the NFL by the time the NCAA ever catches up with them.
I’m sure you can find violations at any Division-1 team. The NCAA really just needs to fall back.
@ burntorangehorn
Adrian Peterson?
Another SEC team beign investigated?? Shocking!!!
@TB3–yes, Adrian Peterson. The NCAA didn’t really get into his agent involvement, but it is a documented fact that he received improper benefits from Big Red Auto, which was the same scandal that led to the dismissal of Rhett Bomar and J.D. Quinn.
burntorangehorn is right and his proposed solution is the only way to go.
Do you really think agents don’t go after Big 10 players?
Most of these kids have never had two dimes to rub together and some shyster comes along offering them a pot of gold–you think they’re not going to listen? By the time anyone find out about it, the kids and the shyster are whooping it up in the NFL and the only people being punished are schools and fanbases who had nothing to do with it.
funi, you know we’re sympatico on the pro side of things, but you need to get over your SEC-envy
I don’t think conference has anything to do with it. There are kids in the northern states that come from inner city poverty just like the kids that have never had anything that come from the southern states. Poverty doesn’t know a zip code or region, its every where and going to get worse.
I have a college athlete and we’ve had numerous discussions about not endangering all your hard work for a “short cut” or an “easy route”. From the sound of it all these youngsters had to do was give adequate time for things to fall in to place with their NFL plans.
Another thing is the mindset of the parents. If parents are just chomping at the bit to live off the rewards of their athletically talented children then youngsters feel the need to relieve their parents financial worries as soon as possible.