It wasn’t a great day for Tulsa athletics yesterday. The Big East “acquired” two Conference USA programs to join the league beginning in 2014: East Carolina and Tulane. Tulsa, obviously, was passed over.
But now the university has more pressing, short-term issues. Per the Daily Oklahoman, athletic director Ross Parmley was placed on administrative leave Tuesday after the FBI identified him as an “admitted gambler.” Parmley, who became AD this past January, is said to have been involved with Oklahoma City bookie Teddy Mitchell.
The report states “Parmley admitted to the FBI that he bet on college and professional football games for years before quitting gambling early in 2010... He told the FBI he made payments to Mitchell on losses and collected from Mitchell on wins, said the source who has read an FBI report on his interview.”
The problem at hand is that Parmley has been an athletic department employee at TU since 2005 and the NCAA prohibits gambling on both professional and collegiate sports. As John Infante of the Bylaw Blog writes, “Chief among the NCAA’s questions for Parmley [if there is an inquiry] will be how long his gambling went on, whether other athletic department staff were involved, and what type of gambling education the Tulsa athletic department conducted.”
There would also be questions about the relationships between Parmley and Mitchell, and Mitchell and TU’s student-athletes. In other words, point-shaving could be a possibility.
Parmley has not been charged yet and Mitchell is awaiting trial on a federal indictment for operating an illegal gambling enterprise.
(Photo credit: TU athletics)