A couple of counterpoints, if you please: - Paul Walker was hired by AU, but at a lesser position, not the same position. - comparing a staff hiring process with that used for a head coach is absurd. - unlike GT's combative attitude, Auburn has cooperated throughout the Cam Newton innuendo, furnishing correspondence and bank records to the SEC for presentation the the NCAA .... and that was prior to the story breaking. Another absurd comparison .... I'm jes' sayin' there is a program that will be penalized over the Newton mess, but I suspect it will disappoint many when they find out it isn't Auburn. In he meantime, Chizik simply wants the NCAA to publicly declare what they and AU officials already know .... that there is no evidence that Auburn ever offered or provided incentive to Newton or his family. Haters gonna' hate ..... in the meantime, I'll wait for some actual evidence to show up before I conclude an opinion on matters like Newton, Willie Lyles, Paul Bryant Jr, Brent Calloway, or other tabloid wannabe stories. :yelwink2:
caddy, what may or may have happened with newton aside, chizik pulled a pretty damned stupid move. he grilled an ncaa infractions rep over this in an open meeting. that was not the place to bring up and question a specific ongoing investigations. that is something for a private face to face meeting. the ncaa is not gonna stop until they feel they have been thorough. all chizik did by questioning the official, in the manner he did, was antagonize the ncaa. he might as well have been waving bright red panties in front of a horny bull.
If the NCAA was convinced Auburn was squeaky clean, they would have quietly dropped the investigation by now. They would make a short and sweet statement indicating no evidence of wrongdoing, and would do so in the middle of the summer while nobody's paying attention. Again, the USC investigation took 5 years to come to a close, with very long stretches of time with nothing so much as a peep from the sports media. The NCAA would love nothing more than to be able to bury the entire scandal, but they haven't. That means they're either collecting evidence or looking very, very hard. Either way it spells big trouble, because if the NCAA is intent on hammering your program, they will do so regardless of the weight of evidence. Which makes what Chizik did all the more baffling because of its sheer stupidity.
Chizik and the AU athletic department are smug and arrogant since they believe they got away with everything scott free. They'll be in for a rude awakening.
The NCAA is vindictive to those that make waves. They dragged Dale Brown through four investigations before they finally got something to stick by setting up Lester Earl to solicit cash with a promise that they would waive the transfer rules for him in return . . . and they did. And don't forget Tarkanian. The pursued him relentlessly until they got him. Auburn had better get squeaky clean and even that may not help if the NCAA is convinced they are dirty. They will make a mountain out of the next molehill and hammer them.
If Paul Walker was hired at a lesser position at Auburn, I stand corrected. I based that information on what his job title is listed as on the official athletic site of Auburn: Associate Athletic Director in the Compliance Dept. That was the same position—OK, title if you prefer—he held at GT. The comparison was made to the vetting process in hiring. Vetting isn't any different in any occupation. You research one's history, resume', etc. It's a background check. Parker was hired in the compliance department coming out of a position that the NCAA said was openly combative. I said it was strange: it is. It's as perplexing as Tennessee's intent on hiring GT's Ath. Dir. as their own. I never made a comparison with how Auburn is handling the situation with the NCAA to GT. So, as to your last point, frankly I'm a bit lost. FWIW, I'd say it's pretty clear that the NCAA doesn't need "actual proof" (as you put it) to make a judgment on what is going on within a program. If you will kindly go back and read my post you'll see I found that interesting. It was simply an observation that struck me as well, odd, considering the story lines over the last few months. "Haters always going to hate" may apply to some, but as I've said on numerous occasions I've always considered Tennessee to be "my rival" when it comes to SEC football. Alabama fans have been linked to this often when the accusations have come from schools other than the Capstone. I'll add this only as something for you to chew on. While I didn't care for Saban when he was at LSU I respected his ability as a head coach. That situation has changed. It happens in this crazy world we share—the fandom of college football. Let me pose this question. Trooper Taylor has long been known as a real shady character when it comes to recruiting. It started, in SEC circles, during his days at Tennessee. At that time you'd be hard pressed to find any other fan (of another SEC team than UT) to say otherwise. Can I assume the attitude has changed on "The Plains" concerning Trooper?
I realize that Dan Radakovich has former ties with LSU, but the reality is that the screwup at GT goes way beyond the compliance personnel, and it is one of the contributing reasons Parker chose to resign his position there. The NCAA contacted GT Compliance shared the situation. The NCAA demanded he only discuss this with the AD and the President of University. Radakovich decided he would share the info with HC Paul Johnson and the player involved. GT's General Counsel was the one who really caused the dust up and the friction ..... instead of doing what the compliance officer wanted to do in cooperating. Subsequently, what should have been a secondary violation became major violation .... largely because of the actions of the AD and the General Counsel. Regarding AU's hiring of Parker .... Parker was vetted, although the typical hiring process was abbreviated. Why was it abbreviated? Because Parker is a known commodity since he has previously worked with Rich McGlynn (AU's Compliance Director) while with the NCAA. Parker's body of work is credible and solid. :yelwink2:
I haven't posted here in a long time. I always enjoy this LSU baord though. I just want to clarify that the NCAA lady (Roch) in her exchange with Chizik DID NOT say that Auburn was still under investigation in the Newton issue. She just said the investigation was still going on. Most assume it is Miss St. that is still being investigated since they are the ones whose rep admitted to discussing money with Cam's Dad. NCAA investigations these days are sometimes a joke anyhow. They don't mean much until they send a school the Preliminary Letter of Investigation (PLOI). That means they have probably got you. I read where they are in Baton Rouge talking to people about something and have told LSU not to comment on it. So other fans could jump to the conclusion that LSU has done something wrong but that would just be speculation. I would also add that, from what I hear, that the exchasnge between Chizik and Roch was nowhere as heated as has been reported. it was Tenn. coach Dooley that first broached the subject and Chizik folowed up. Roch was subsequently quoted saying she didn't take the discussion as heated at all. The whole initial report was based on comments by Ole Miss basketball coach Kennedy who violated the understanding that everything discussed in the meeting was off limits to the media.
Link, please. This wasn't some isolated leak, several other SEC coaches have confirmed, on the record, that the exchange went down the way it was reported. And that is hard to spin as anything else but a terse, tense statement by Lach.
