Like a game of Pong (for you early video gamers), the ongoing saga involving the University of Oregon, recruiting service manager Will Lyles and the NCAA appears to be bouncing back and forth. On one end are legitimate concerns; the other end are no concerns whatsoever.
Consider this latest update a bounce toward the latter.
Shortly after Oregon released recruiting documents related to their business relationship with Lyles -- none of which seemed initially to show anything substantial -- further digging by a pair of Oregon newspapers showed that the university paid $25,000 for what was essentially outdated information that provided no help for their latest recruiting class.
The development begged the question “what was Oregon really paying for?”
Well, the university has since released a few more documents that might, once again, clarify their connection with Lyles.
According to the Oregonian, UO released “two e-mails from consultant Lyles to Josh Gibson, an employee on Oregon’s football staff: one sent Feb. 17 and one sent March 3. Attached to the e-mails were documents including contact information for prospects in Texas (sophomores and juniors), Louisiana, North Carolina* and South Carolina*. The attachments totaled 131 PDF pages with prospect information and two spreadsheets with 157 names.”
The e-mails take place about a year after UO paid for the “2011 National Package” (and, as a few of you have recognized already, the same time as Yahoo!'s initial investigation of the university). The Oregonian also states the e-mail attachment packages “appear to be more current and comprehensive” than the aforementioned 2011 package. However, an invoice from Feb. 22, 2010, says video highlights from 22 states were part of the $25,000 deal between UO and Lyles. No video highlights of recruits have been released by the university.
Phone and text records between head coach Chip Kelly and running backs coach Gary Campbell were released, though -- none of which seemed to indicate Lyles directed any players toward the university (a violation of NCAA Bylaws).
Oregon has been pretty upfront with their documentation thus far. It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, develops from it going forward.
(*note: the links for the recruiting documents from North Carolina and South Carolina are broken at this time)