AU Self Imposed Staggering Recruiting Sanctions

[Auburn Kev 1,653]

Quote

Auburn basketball had severe self-imposed sanctions from 2017 it never made public

Updated Aug 07, 12:30 PM;Posted Aug 07, 11:27 AM

 

By Sam Blum | SBlum@al.com

In the aftermath of the September 2017 arrest of former Auburn assistant coach Chuck Person, Auburn imposed a long list of previously unreported self-imposed sanctions. Those sanctions included restrictions that limited unofficial visits, official visits, contacts, evaluations and phone calls.

In fact, Auburn did not conduct recruiting of any kind from September 2017-April 2018, Auburn Athletics told AL.com. There were no official visits, no unofficial visits, and no contacts or phone calls made to any recruits during that time.

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl made a somewhat ominous comment on a July 29 podcast, when he said, "We took some real strong penalties, a lot of which have never been made public — at some point will be.”

Now we know that Auburn, during its incredible and unexpected run to its first NCAA Tournament in 15 years, wasn’t conducting any recruiting at the time.

Interview requests for Pearl, compliance director Rich McGlynn and athletic director Allen Greene were not granted. The Office of the General Counsel did not respond to a request for official documents pertaining to these sanctions. When AL.com followed up with Pearl directly, he responded by saying, via text, “If it’s OK with you, I’m leaving those subjects alone and refer you to compliance.”

While it has long been known that Auburn held out Danjel Purifoy and Austin Wiley for the entire 2017-18 season — and Purifoy an additional nine games — AU had never announced any further sanctions.

That decision was a proactive one by Auburn. Both players likely would have been ruled ineligible at a future date, and more severe penalties, including the vacating of wins, could have been enforced.

But there were more self-imposed sanctions in addition to Purifoy and Wiley’s suspensions. And while it is impossible to prove any direct correlation, Auburn did not have any true freshmen scholarship players on last years roster, despite having multiple open scholarships.

The program is no longer under any self-imposed penalty.

All of the self-imposed sanctions and possible NCAA sanctions come as a result of Person’s crimes. The former assistant coach was charged, and later pleaded guilty and was sentenced in the bribery scheme, which included direct payments to Wiley, Purifoy and their families. Auburn University tried to distance itself from Person’s actions in a Victim Impact Statement sent to the court before his sentencing.

In the Victim Impact Statement, AU said it expected to receive a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA, and that it carries the potential for further NCAA sanctions. Pearl reiterated that expectation on Rothstein’s podcast.

“I am anticipating that we are not finished completely,” Pearl told Rothstein. “I am anticipating because we have gotten through a lot of things with the NCAA, obviously with the federal government, that case is closed. But I would [anticipate] that we would have to finish some things up. I do feel like the worst is behind us.”

When asked if Auburn had received a Notice of Allegations, an Auburn Athletics spokesman said he couldn’t comment and referred AL.com to the Victim Impact Statement.

AL.com has learned from a source, though, that Auburn has not yet received a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA.

 

[TigerOne 1,140]

well let's hope it mattered. Auburn shouldn't receive a letter other than saying everything is in the clear.

Smart move by compliance, and this is after the FBI said Auburn was innocent. Makes you think the other schools and those to come, caught up in this scandal are in big trouble. Looking at you uat.

 

[Tiger 8,818]

That is a looonggg time to shut down recruiting

[AUTigersfan89 256]

17 minutes ago, Tiger said:

That is a looonggg time to shut down recruiting

That was my take-away. We essentially didn't host any visitors that entire football season which is a prime time to bring recruits on campus.

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

That makes a ton of sense because the only guy we brought in last year was J'Von McCormick and we got him pretty late in the process. Wonder what last year's class would have looked like had we brought in a few other players. Seemed to work out pretty well for us though...

 

[gravejd 3,269]

This is pretty crazy and i never even considered that we had imposed recruiting sanctions on ourselves. I thought it was just due to the uncertainty surrounding the bball program at the time. No recruiting for an entire year.....i don't think i've ever heard of a penalty that severe. Hope it helps with what comes next

[gravejd 3,269]

Also wanted to add that i am happy to see Pearl is learning how to use the "no comment" line 😂 

[dyehardfanAU 2,117]

I thought this was old news, or at least an old topic on the forums.  We didn't sign a single kid in the 2018 class.

[ellitor 33,062]

18 minutes ago, dyehardfanAU said:

I thought this was old news, or at least an old topic on the forums.  We didn't sign a single kid in the 2018 class.

Not old. Grave gave the opinion above that was thought at the time by most. Never saw anyone theorized we may have already given ourselves recruiting sanctions.

[dyehardfanAU 2,117]

Just now, ellitor said:

Not old. Grave gave the opinion above that was thought at the time by most. Never saw anyone theorized we may have already given ourselves recruiting sanctions.

It was discussed last year on at least one site. 

[steeleagle 2,945]

1 hour ago, gravejd said:

Also wanted to add that i am happy to see Pearl is learning how to use the "no comment" line 😂 

I bet Pearl had a hard time saying that. lol...

[ellitor 33,062]

57 minutes ago, dyehardfanAU said:

It was discussed last year on at least one site. 

Correction then. I haven't seen it suggested by any AU reporters or anyone connected to the program.

[dyehardfanAU 2,117]

1 minute ago, ellitor said:

Correction then. I haven't seen it suggested by any AU reporters or anyone connected to the program.

I can't remember which "insider" brought it up and I do not have access to the forum anymore.  I do agree that this is the first time I remember seeing it in the press.

[AU64 10,122]

3 hours ago, dyehardfanAU said:

I can't remember which "insider" brought it up and I do not have access to the forum anymore.  I do agree that this is the first time I remember seeing it in the press.

Yep....we've wondered about this for quite a while and guess I'm not surprised that the penalties were taken.....BUT am totally surprised that this has not been in the news before now....even after BP hinted at this several days ago, nobody confirmed it until today as far as I know.  

Amazing that the ace beat writers did not ferret this out in the past couple years.....seems like some of them have been lazy about filing FIA requests. 

[WalkingCarpet 1,379]

What do we make of this tweet out there that says we clandestinely kept recruiting when we were on double secret imposed sanctions?

[AUTigersfan89 256]

51 minutes ago, WalkingCarpet said:

What do we make of this tweet out there that says we clandestinely kept recruiting when we were on double secret imposed sanctions?

I think there was a bit of misreporting. It appears we didn't initiate any new recruiting in the given time frame. Any recruiting plans that were made before Chuck Person's arrest continued as planned.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,641]

10 minutes ago, AUTigersfan89 said:

I think there was a bit of misreporting. It appears we didn't initiate any new recruiting in the given time frame. Any recruiting plans that were made before Chuck Person's arrest continued as planned.

Which is still pretty big and of itself. Coming out of that year with only JVon, we evidently didnt have many targets already on the board

[AU64 10,122]

48 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Which is still pretty big and of itself. Coming out of that year with only JVon, we evidently didnt have many targets already on the board

We have been getting commitments all along so someone has been talking to prospects.....just check the many threads on recruiting.   Frankly this does not sound right...JMO.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,641]

5 minutes ago, AU64 said:

We have been getting commitments all along so someone has been talking to prospects.....just check the many threads on recruiting.   Frankly this does not sound right...JMO.

We've gotten commitments from this class, the premise of the previous convo was that we weren't bringing anyone in the 2018 period

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,641]

https://247sports.com/college/auburn/Season/2018-Basketball/Commits/

this class

[AUTigersfan89 256]

3 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

We've gotten commitments from this class, the premise of the previous convo was that we weren't bringing anyone in the 2018 period

This is correct which is why our 2018 class was non existent. We had already been in touch with a number of guys from the 2019 and 2020 class when Person was arrested.

[AUTigersfan89 256]

10 minutes ago, AU64 said:

We have been getting commitments all along so someone has been talking to prospects.....just check the many threads on recruiting.   Frankly this does not sound right...JMO.

I believe the only commitment we got during the time frame of the sanctions was from Stretch.

[AU64 10,122]

Looking back, the period was only 6  months and that ended more than a year ago....so you have to be an optimist to think that short time will be considered as sufficient.   

[aujeff11 6,243]

23 minutes ago, AUTigersfan89 said:

I believe the only commitment we got during the time frame of the sanctions was from Stretch.

He actually committed during that time frame of self imposed “no recruiting, no contacts, no visits,” etc 

 

How does that work?

[AUTigersfan89 256]

27 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

He actually committed during that time frame of self imposed “no recruiting, no contacts, no visits,” etc 

 

How does that work?

There's nothing keeping him from committing, even if recruiting contact is non-existent. He had an offer, so he was open to committing at his convenience. Another scenario is that the reported sanctions weren't accurate and that recruiting did occur w/ players that had already been contacted before Person's arrest. I don't believe Blum had any quoted statement from the athletics department—It was all his word which he has already had to back track on. A good guess would be that the sanctions had more to do with restricting any contact and visits to any new recruits. At this point, I think a statement from the athletics department could clear up some confusion on what has been reported.