Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a man walks into an Auburn bar, and trips over an NCAA investigator...
A new day has dawned, so, of course, it’s time to bring you word of a new NCAA investigation involving the Auburn football program and its since-banned “Tiger Prowl”. This investigation, though, should not be confused with the NCAA’s ongoing probe into the Cam Newton situation. Or the ongoing probe into Auburn recruiting practices. Or the ongoing probe into allegations made by four former players on an HBO show.
Or this is just one big ol’ probe underneath one huge NCAA umbrella. One of the two.
The Birmingham News reported Thursday that they had requested of the school any records pertaining to individual violations that may have arisen from last year’s “Tiger Prowl” recruiting caravan. The thing is, Auburn was forced to deny the open-records request because, you guessed it, last year’s “Tiger Prowl” is currently part of a pending NCAA investigation and, the paper writes, Alabama law therefore does not require release of the records at this time.
“The NCAA is not reviewing Tiger Prowl as individual violations. They are reviewing the entire event as a whole,” Auburn Senior Associate Athletics Director Scott Carr wrote the News via email. “Therefore, the investigative phase of this event is still ongoing and we are currently working with the NCAA.”
The paper goes on to note that Auburn would not comment further on what the NCAA is investigating in relation to last year’s “Prowl”.
“Tiger Prowl” first appeared in April of 2009 in Gene Chizik‘s first year as AU’s coach. That year, coaches would pile into a white or black stretch limo Hummer, and proceeded to travel from high school to high school to high school visiting potential recruits, hoping to make enough of an impression on the players that, come Signing Day, they’d put pen to paper and fax their intentions to Auburn. The event was held again the following year, only this time with pimped-out buses/motor coaches.
Shortly after “Tiger Prowl v2.0" began, however, the NCAA passed a measure that prevented a school from sending more than two coaches in any one day to the same high school.
On a completely unrelated note, we can neither confirm nor deny the rumors circulating that the NCAA is considering relocating its home office to the state of Alabama in order to save on travel costs.