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The real story of Auburn and the NCAA


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#PMARSHONAU: The real story of Auburn and the NCAA

ByPhillip Marshall

So what’s the real story about Auburn and its run-ins with the NCAA? What does it mean? Some facts could be helpful for anyone who is actually in search of the truth.

Though I express some opinions here, the facts are in black and white. This is not in any way an attempt to whitewash anything or to say that Auburn or anybody else has been mistreated by the NCAA. I move on with the full knowledge that some will take it that way, regardless of what I write.

Hare are some facts, indisputable, hard, documented facts.

--According to the NCAA database, Auburn programs have been hit with major sanctions by the NCAA seven times. Auburn is tied with 11 other programs, including SEC members Texas A&M and Georgia, for the fifth most all-time. Fifteen programs - including Alabama, Kentucky, South Carolina and Mississippi State – are tied with six. SMU has the most major sanctions with 10. Arizona State and Oklahoma have nine each. Wichita State has eight.

--Auburn football was last hit with major NCAA sanctions in 1993. If you are counting, that is 26 years ago.

--Auburn lost basketball scholarships in 2004 when the NCAA enforcement staff found a way to call Mark Komara, a summer basketball guy and well-known Alabama fan and supporter, an Auburn booster. That was the last time Auburn was found guilty of major infractions in any sport.

--Auburn underwent an investigation as thorough as anyone ever has in 2010-2011. The result was the Cam Newton was ruled ineligible for 24 hours. On Oct. 13, 2011, the NCAA informed Auburn in a letter that it had been cleared.

--In the summer of 2011, oddsmaker Danny Sheridan said on the Paul Finebaum show that the NCAA had found the “bagman” that provided money for Newton and that he got the name from a source inside the NCAA. In an extraordinary response, the NCAA issued a press release saying "Danny Sheridan continues to make vague, unsubstantiated claims without backing them up with proof. Contrary to his claims of having an inside source with details on the Auburn investigation, the NCAA has not provided information to Sheridan or anyone else.”

--Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl was accused of doing some unseemly stuff more than 30 years ago. He lied to the NCAA at Tennessee and got a three-year show-cause order as a result. He has never once been accused at any school by anybody of buying players.

--Auburn’s response to Chuck Person’s arrest was to immediately suspend and soon fire Person, refuse to play Austin Wiley or Danjel Purifoy until things were resolved, consult with the NCAA and hit Wiley and Purifoy with suspensions recommended by the NCAA. If the NCAA had recommended a suspension for Pearl, that would have happened, too.

To steal part of a line from “A Few Good Men,” those are the facts, and they are undisputed.

And here are some opinions derived from those facts:

--It’s too early to say Pearl will come out of this unscathed, though any kind of major action is highly unlikely. The NCAA has the wherewithal to sanction him for Person’s actions because he was the head coach when they happened.

--Comparing anything about Auburn or about Pearl to a coach being caught on a wiretap talking about paying a player is off-base, lazy and is not in any way a search for the truth.

--Pearl made himself look bad by refusing to talk to Auburn president Steven Leath until the FBI investigation was done. Since Pearl was not and has not been accused of anything by the FBI, I thought that was a mistake on his part in 2017 and I still believe it was a mistake. As a result, Pearl is often compared to LSU coach Will Wade, though there really is no comparison. Anyone who actually examined the situations would know that.

--No matter how many times someone says “the head coach always knows,” it makes no sense that Pearl would have signed off on what Person has pleaded guilty to doing. It did nothing to help his program and a lot to hurt it.

--Blaming anybody at Auburn because Ira Bowman allegedly was involved in an admissions scandal at Penn is a stretch beyond the breaking point. It’s laughable.

--Most of the dirt in college basketball comes from shoe companies and filters through summer leagues. Auburn went to the Final Four without any of those one-and-done kinds of guys that shoe companies are willing to give big bucks to go to certain schools.

--College football has its rogues, too, but it isn’t the same. Kids don’t wear football shoes to school. One great player doesn’t make nearly as much difference in football as in basketball.

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if you go back to 57 i remember housel stating we got banged by the ncaa because one of our players could not prove the nice apartment and boats,etc, were bought by his father and not provided by auburn because his father was a moonshiner. i believe i have this correct. someone help me if i got that wrong.

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On 4/20/2019 at 10:07 AM, aubiefifty said:

if you go back to 57 i remember housel stating we got banged by the ncaa because one of our players could not prove the nice apartment and boats,etc, were bought by his father and not provided by auburn because his father was a moonshiner. i believe i have this correct. someone help me if i got that wrong.

It is absolutely true. His name is Don Fuell, a QB from Guntersville.  I wrote sports column for the Plainsman in 1957 and hence got to know all the coaches and players. bama was really pissed that they lost Fuell to Auburn. They sent two guys to Fuell's apt. posing as encyclopedia salesmen just to check it all out. I could tell you a lot more details about this deal but will leave it there. But it cemented my dislike for all things bama forever.

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War Eagle, Phil although the bbq stain (@ TENNESSEE) wasn't 30 years ago. The ten ton elephant in the corner not mentioned in Marshall's article is the difference between Auburn and any other major program is the others would have those facts in your face, coast to coast, for years on end. We - many on this board and or our media relations office - historically take the position:

A. I don't give a rip what anybody else thinks (as if it can't hurt Auburn) 

B. If you complain about unfair/baseless coverage you look all the guiltier (which is a bizarre response to defamation)

C. Our media relations office - and i know this from both the Eric Ramsey and Cam situations - "ignore it and it will go away".

Of course it doesn't help that we dont have any major paper/media that's pro Auburn. 

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3 hours ago, aucanucktiger said:

War Eagle, Phil although the bbq stain (@ TENNESSEE) wasn't 30 years ago. The ten ton elephant in the corner not mentioned in Marshall's article is the difference between Auburn and any other major program is the others would have those facts in your face, coast to coast, for years on end. We - many on this board and or our media relations office - historically take the position:

A. I don't give a rip what anybody else thinks (as if it can't hurt Auburn) 

B. If you complain about unfair/baseless coverage you look all the guiltier (which is a bizarre response to defamation)

C. Our media relations office - and i know this from both the Eric Ramsey and Cam situations - "ignore it and it will go away".

Of course it doesn't help that we dont have any major paper/media that's pro Auburn. 

The 30 years ago issue had to do with him accusing Illinois of paying for a recruit that he was recruiting to Iowa when he was an assistant there. It was a little messy for Bruce but he actually didn't do anything wrong there either from what I have read. 

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With this LSU basketball firestorm and re-instating the coach, there were a couple neg articles towards them rightfully so.  However these articles could help themselves by trying to say we were similar.   I think he is just trying to explain the differences in situations 

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26 minutes ago, 3rdgeneration said:

That was kind of my thought, why bring this up now?

There have been articles in the news & statements by TV commentators about the ncaa basketball scandal generally & about LSU & Will Wade specifically wherein references to Auburn were included. One in particular claimed LSU & Auburn are causing a decline in ethics in the SEC. I'm glad Marshall has gone to the trouble of setting forth how unfair such claims are. Bruce has obviously not done what Will Wade appears to have done, but neither did Chuck. As the prosecutors said explicitly during his recent court appearance, Chuck did what he did for his personal enrichment. He took bribes to get players already at Auburn to sign with a particular agent. I'm still mad at Chuck for what he did, but that's not in the same ballpark as what appears to have happened with shoe companies, schools wearing their gear, & recruits. It infuriates me when we're linked to that scandal. Good for Marshall for setting forth how wrong that linkage is.

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9 minutes ago, TigerTennis80 said:

There have been articles in the news & statements by TV commentators about the ncaa basketball scandal generally & about LSU & Will Wade specifically wherein references to Auburn were included. One in particular claimed LSU & Auburn are causing a decline in ethics in the SEC. I'm glad Marshall has gone to the trouble of setting forth how unfair such claims are. Bruce has obviously not done what Will Wade appears to have done, but neither did Chuck. As the prosecutors said explicitly during his recent court appearance, Chuck did what he did for his personal enrichment. He took bribes to get players already at Auburn to sign with a particular agent. I'm still mad at Chuck for what he did, but that's not in the same ballpark as what appears to have happened with shoe companies, schools wearing their gear, & recruits. It infuriates me when we're linked to that scandal. Good for Marshall for setting forth how wrong that linkage is.

Thank you for setting me straight on the details. Since the final four, I honestly have not been paying too much attention to basketball news. I did not watch the championship and I turned off any news that had to do with UVA. Sour grapes, I guess, but I was just heartbroken for the guys. I wish these commentators and so called "reporters" would do their homework! It is so obvious that BP did not participate in any wrong doing at Auburn, and what he did at UT was not all that bad. They need to stick to going after the people who really break the rules! (And treat all schools equally.) I feel like we run a pretty clean program, and have head coaches with tremendous character. I pray that we never get caught in any large scandal. The Cam thing was awful!

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2 hours ago, gr82be said:

The 30 years ago issue had to do with him accusing Illinois of paying for a recruit that he was recruiting to Iowa when he was an assistant there. It was a little messy for Bruce but he actually didn't do anything wrong there either from what I have read. 

Uh huh thats true which is why im scratching my head about why he mentions bruces ancient illinois non issue but not non-ancient Vols issue.

For those wondering why now, its the Penn issue w/ our current (suspended) coach gave legs to the sudden overflow of butt hurt blather in blogs & media from bamzos, corndogs etc after our recent final four run.

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Don't forget this. Mark the head of the NCAA president and Saban have been friends since Nicky was at Michigan State. Why do you think Bammer has never had the hammer come down hard? well one friend isn't gonna hurt the other friend. Bammer will never get in trouble the NCAA as long as Saban's is at bammer and Mark Emmert remains the NCAA president.

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18 hours ago, WarTiger said:

not sure the point of this article. It's all OLD NEWS...

Probably a response to Goodman's hit piece in al.com

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1 hour ago, AU64 said:

Probably a response to Goodman's but piece in al.com

That’s exactly why Marcello wrote his article. It was like a rebuttal. 

I wrote to Goodman about his article especially his words about Auburn doing everything at all costs... insinuating we not follow the rules in order to win, especially since we hired tainted Bruce Pearl. It was totally uncalled for. 

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1 hour ago, AFTiger said:

 

Thanks. My posts in that long ago thread add details I didn't want go into in my earlier post in this thread. The key thing to me in all this is Auburn actually did the honorable thing. They could have easily told that Fuell's dad was a bootlegger and could have probably escaped probation. But then the dad would have gone to jail.

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On 4/20/2019 at 3:53 PM, WarTiger said:

not sure the point of this article. It's all OLD NEWS...

Its a good time for this kind of AU football discussion as there is no football news right now. I always learn something I did not know from these discussions. Heck I wasn't even alive in 57!

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13 hours ago, Proud Tiger said:

Thanks. My posts in that long ago thread add details I didn't want go into in my earlier post in this thread. The key thing to me in all this is Auburn actually did the honorable thing. They could have easily told that Fuell's dad was a bootlegger and could have probably escaped probation. But then the dad would have gone to jail.

I think there was a second incident that caused NCAA to bring the hammer down....the Beaube twins if I recall the names correctly....kids went somewhere else and were never a factor in the SEC.  Not sure which was first...them or Fuell but the timing was ultra bad...and we spent most of my college days on probation until my senior year. 

That was more than 50 years ago....but bammers never forget...

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1 hour ago, AU64 said:

I think there was a second incident that caused NCAA to bring the hammer down....the Beaube twins if I recall the names correctly....kids went somewhere else and were never a factor in the SEC.  Not sure which was first...them or Fuell but the timing was ultra bad...and we spent most of my college days on probation until my senior year. 

That was more than 50 years ago....but bammers never forget...

Yeah, elephants have that long memory thing going!

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On 4/20/2019 at 11:04 AM, aubiefifty said:

--Auburn underwent an investigation as thorough as anyone ever has in 2010-2011. The result was the Cam Newton was ruled ineligible for 24 hours. On Oct. 13, 2011, the NCAA informed Auburn in a letter that it had been cleared.

--In the summer of 2011, oddsmaker Danny Sheridan said on the Paul Finebaum show that the NCAA had found the “bagman” that provided money for Newton and that he got the name from a source inside the NCAA. In an extraordinary response, the NCAA issued a press release saying "Danny Sheridan continues to make vague, unsubstantiated claims without backing them up with proof. Contrary to his claims of having an inside source with details on the Auburn investigation, the NCAA has not provided information to Sheridan or anyone else.”

Would really, really love for our few friendly journo types to include the facts in Starkville every time this comes up. 

Any logical read of all the facts shows that this was clearly a Kenny Rogers story. 

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1 hour ago, McLoofus said:

Would really, really love for our few friendly journo types to include the facts in Starkville every time this comes up. 

Any logical read of all the facts shows that this was clearly a Kenny Rogers story. 

That's the problem...logic and intent.....and no way a bama beat writer is gonna be objective ...would lose too many clicks and readers...

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3 hours ago, AU64 said:

I think there was a second incident that caused NCAA to bring the hammer down....the Beaube twins if I recall the names correctly....kids went somewhere else and were never a factor in the SEC.  Not sure which was first...them or Fuell but the timing was ultra bad...and we spent most of my college days on probation until my senior year. 

That was more than 50 years ago....but bammers never forget...

Coach Hal Herring gave each of the Beaube twins $500 in 1955 and got caught. here is an article about it.

http://patrickgarbin.blogspot.com/2012/03/ncaa-infraction-filled-history.html

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4 hours ago, Proud Tiger said:

Coach Hal Herring gave each of the Beaube twins $500 in 1955 and got caught. here is an article about it.

http://patrickgarbin.blogspot.com/2012/03/ncaa-infraction-filled-history.html

I was in HS at the time but recall the uproar about it....and guess that must have been the first trespass which might have got us a year or two of probation...the Don Fuell came later which took us all the way until 1963. ….total of 7 years I think. 

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1 hour ago, AU64 said:

I was in HS at the time but recall the uproar about it....and guess that must have been the first trespass which might have got us a year or two of probation...the Don Fuell came later which took us all the way until 1963. ….total of 7 years I think. 

we had another silly violation in that period. An ass't coach took a kid to a movie and paid for his ticket.....like 10 cents. Ridiculous. I am  good friends with the Captain of bama's FB team Marlin (Scooter) Dyess. He came to work for me at NASA when he graduated. He scored the winning TD against us in Bryant's second year. Great guy and he told me all kinds of stuff about bama violations.  He left us to go into partnership in a sporting goods business which was his dream. I'm sure you know Dyess-Hibbett.....now just Hibbetts.

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1 minute ago, Proud Tiger said:

we had another silly violation in that period. An ass't coach took a kid to a movie and paid for his ticket.....like 10 cents. Ridiculous. I am  good friends with the Captain of bama's FB team Marlin (Scooter) Dyess. He came to work for me at NASA when he graduated. He scored the winning TD against us in Bryant's second year. Great guy and he told me all kinds of stuff about bama violations.  He left us to go into partnership in a sporting goods business which was his dream. I'm sure you know Dyess-Hibbett.....now just Hibbetts.

I was good friends with Chip Hibbett 

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