there is a very valid reason why both Auburn and LSU coaches dropped Lache Seastrunk (like a hot potato) from their respective boards in the weeks leading up to NSD. Here's a more detailed column by Dodd: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/15251289/ducks-dated-recruiting-data-ripoff-or-coverup
So . . . will this pass the smell test with the NCAA? Does Oregon play Seastrunk and risk having to forfeit a season somewhere down the road? They are pretty deep at running back . . .
Fired for what? Nothing's been proven, and there are no NCAA rules in 2010 about these scouting services, OR how much is too much to pay for them. Oregon hasn't done anything every team in the NCAA hasn't done. I'll bet more than half of the SEC teams paid more for scouting services than Oregon did. Sure it looks a bit shady right now, but not all the information is out yet. I'll hold judgement until all the information is out.
After reading the so called "information" they paid for, if I were a duck fan, I would have the following two thoughts running through my head... 1) Sh*t, we just got caught or 2) Sh*t, that was a waste of money either way, Oregon looks incompetent. Not saying no other school does this, you just happen to be in the spotlight at the wrong time and it doesn't matter if the NCAA finds anything this time, they are going to be looking at Oregon with a fine tooth comb in the coming years because of it.
It's already been said that other teams do this, it's the amount that Oregon paid that's raising a red flag. Most teams pay around $5,000 for these types of scouting services/packages, Oregon paid $25,000. That's the big deal. A school is not going to pay 5X's as much for old, useless info.
all the evidence shows that Oregon paid $25,000 to influence a star player to come to their school. Oregon paid Will Lyles $25,000 less than a month after 5-star RB Seastrunk signed with Oregon, and Lyles is Seastrunk's mentor. there is even a report of Will Lyles living with Seastrunk's mother (Lyles was also the mentor of Oregon RB LaMichael James, also from Texas: "Will's a great guy... when I was down or something happened to me or I got in trouble, Will was there for me," said LaMichael James) do you think NCAA rules allow schools to go around paying $25,000 to high school coaches of star athletes and mentors of star athletes? i seriously doubt it Tressel got fired for looking the other way when Ohio St players sold some of their stuff to a tattoo parlor. Pete Carroll resigned from USC right before they got hit with sanctions because agents gave Reggie Bush's family impermissible benefits, and USC's compliance was laissez faire about it you don't think paying $25,000 to influence a star player to come to your school is more serious that what Ohio State and USC did? as for claiming that Oregon was simply paying for scouting information from a neutral 3rd party (like schools regularly did with rivals.com, scout.com, etc before the NCAA recently outlawed that)... yeah, that would be great if Lyles had nothing to do with star athletes that went to Oregon, and Oregon just innocently thought he was some guy selling recruiting info, wouldn't it? and that would be great if Oregon could at least produce something that resembles legit scouting info in exchange for the $25,000 they spent, wouldn't it? but all Oregon produced was a bunch a crap that was obviously just sloppily put together by Lyles: 1) the info was 2 years old and was worthless as scouting information. after the 2010 season ended, and before the 2011 season began, Oregon paid for 2011 scouting info, but received 2009 scouting info (the title of each individual profile reads “Player Profile 2011,” the invoice calls it the "2011 National Package," but the info is from 2009). 2) the invoice Lyles sent Oregon claimed Lyles would send info on players from 22 states ("Texas, Florida, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Missouri, California, Virginia, Maryland, Mississippi, Alabama, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Washington.") however all Oregon got was info on 133 to 134 players from Texas and 6 or 7 players from four other states. 3) whole chunks of the material were cut-and-paste from other sources. the journalists that reviewed the material said it looked like it was "hastily cut, pasted and shipped just so Oregon had something in hand to show for its $25,000," a "shoddy, outdated, possibly plagiarized booklet," a "virtually useless trove of outdated and incomplete material," etc. there are links to the material online if you want to go look at it yourself i agree that not all the information is out yet, and i agree that Oregon can't fire Kelly until they hear both sides of the story (or else Kelly can slam them for millions with a wrong termination suit like the Ohio State basketball coach did recently to Ohio State after they fired him for paying $6,000 to a recruit's mother without doing a proper investigation first) there is plenty of information that can come out that could vindicate Oregon. for all we know, Kelly has already admitted to the NCAA they paid $25K to influence a recruit, and that they are ready to face their punishment and of course, it's going to take a year or two for all the witnesses to be interviewed, for all the evidence to be reviewed, for the investigation to be completed, and for officials to decide what they want to do. for ex, UNC just got their Notice of Allegations from NCAA today
