For years there’s been talk that some of the richest schools in the country might break away from the NCAA.  Readers of this site know that we’ve tackled that topic — here, here, here, here and here since December alone — and suggested that instead of a full split, it’s much more likely that the richest schools will simply form their own “super-division” within the NCAA.

With the bounty of a new college football playoff on the horizon and new league-owned networks soon to launch, there’s about to be even more distance put between the haves and have-nots.  And that’s got long-time NCAA leaders like outgoing Georgia president Michael Adams saying exactly what we’ve been writing lo these many years:

“It’s gonna accentuate the division between the haves and the have-nots.  I don’t think there’s any question about it.  And you might as well just admit it.  But the divisions already exist that are pretty pronounced.  So I think the 65 schools in the big conferences are going to separate themselves even further from those schools that are not…

I don’t know what you’d call it.  And I think some of those other conferences, like the MAC, like the West Coast Conference, what’s now gonna be Conference USA, those schools bring a lot to the NCAA.  And I think the reality is that the 65 schools are not gonna want to be bound by some of the rules that those other conferences are gonna want to impose on us, like the $2,000 payment to athletes, for instance.  I do think, again, whether you call it all Division I, of sub-divisions, I think that’s something for somebody after me to decide.

But I don’t think now with these big-time programs, particularly when you look at the strength of the Big Ten, the Pac-12, the SEC, I don’t think you’re gonna put those genies back in the bottle.  And you add in the Big 12 and the ACC, those places, they’re going to compete and play and fund at a totally different level.”

As Seth Emerson of The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer points out (click the link above), even SEC commissioner Mike Slive has brought up the potential of a new division being formed if NCAA schools don’t start providing full-cost-of-tuition scholarships to student-athletes.  Of course, he also said that he doesn’t want that to happen, but most people couldn’t hear that over the rattling of his saber:

“I’m not looking for change in the organization.  I’m not looking for new divisions.  But I do feel strongly on this particular issues — and there are a few others — but this one that those of us who want to do that ought to have the ability to do that.  And if we believe that’s in the best interests of the student-athletes, then we ought to be able to do that.  If other leagues don’t do it, then just don’t do it.”

Ah, but not all leagues can afford to pay more cash to players even if they do want to.  Slive knows that.  All of the large conference commissioners, presidents and athletic directors know that.  NCAA president Mark Emmert knows it, too.

This morning, USA Today posted a new study showing that most college athletic departments receive subsidies of one form or another.  Of the 228 public Division I schools in the US, just 23 turned a profit in 2012.  And of those 23, 16 schools received some type of subsidy.

It must be noted that schools cook their books differently.  Apples-to-apples comparisons do not exist, unfortunately.  But it is clear that even if some creative accounting is taking place — Minnesota just happened to bring in and spend exactly $83,619,526, for example — there are still far more athletic departments losing money than there are making money.

There will be no grand exodus from the NCAA.  There is no way that 70-80 schools — we believe some schools outside the biggest conferences will try to keep up with the Joneses — could possibly agree on a brand new organization, new rule book, new enforcement policies, new officers and administrators, etc.

But a world with a super-division of super-rich schools is coming.  With so few schools turning a profit in athletics, there’s no way everyone can provide stipends or full-cost-of-tuition scholarships as leagues like the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 desire.  The die has been cast.  The only questions remaining are: When does it happen and who will make the jump?

Earlier this year the NCAA admitted it had crossed some of its own lines in gathering information against the University of Miami athletic department.  Now a former Miami coach at the center of that investigation wants to know if the NCAA crossed some legal lines while digging into his bank account.

The attorney for Missouri basketball coach Frank Haith filed a petition in court today in an attempt to determine how the NCAA was able to access detailed bank records.  CBSSports.com’s Dennis Dodd reports that Michael Buckner “is trying to determine whether information from canceled checks in the coach’s account were improperly — and possibly illegally — obtained.”

Uh-oh.

The gist of the case is as follows:

*  Haith provided the NCAA with a specific number of bank records as investigators tried to determine if he had passed money along to former Hurricanes booster Nevin Shapiro for his help in recruiting a prospect.

*  Additional information could have been obtained improperly by accessing the microfiche reproductions of Haith’s checks, which were not turned over to the NCAA by Haith.

*  Bank of America employees could be served with subpoenas to see if they turned over the additional information to the NCAA.

*  A judge will have to grant the petition before the subpoenas could go out.

According to the petition:

“Bank of America may have permitted or allowed an unknown person or person to gain access to, or to acquire, non-public information into (Haith’s) Checking Account without authorization.”

If that’s true it would be a black eye for Bank of America and yet another black eye for the NCAA… which would have once again gone too far in trying to track down information on Miami and its coaches.

Haith has been charged by the NCAA with failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance while coaching at Miami.  He just finished his second season at Missouri.

Even if the charges against Haith stand, it’s unlikely he’ll be hit with any serious, long-lasting sanctions.

Watch the trailer for the new SEC Network at MrSEC.com
Ex-Penn State QB Steven Bench says he is considering Mississippi State as a transfer destination but is open to any school
Kentucky S Ashely Lowery is improving after being critically injured in a weekend car accident in which he was ejected from his vehicle
There is continued debate within the conference as to whether a switch to a 9-game conference schedule makes sense
Missouri basketball coach Frank Haith has filed a court petition to learn if the NCAA improperly or illegally obtained information about cancelled checks in his account
Follow the SEC every day on MrSEC.com and twitter/mrsec.com

SEC Football

1. Will Muschamp assesses Florida football: “We’re an ascending program.” Muschamp a more popular man this offseason vs. last.

2. A review of the lines for season openers in  the Nick Saban era at Alabama.  Crimson Tide open as a 22-point favorite against Virginia Tech – haven’t been underdog since 2009 SEC Championship Game.

3. Saban asks North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams for advice on how to defend up-tempo offenses.

4. Auburn coach Gus Malzahn talks depth chart – quarterbacks Kiehl Frazier and Jonathan Wallace even. “Dead heat” battle gets a new entrant this month with arrival of  JUCO transfer Nick Marshall.

5. Auburn safety Demetruce McNeal is back in good standing with the team.  Malzahn: ”We took care of all the off-the-field issues that we had, so he is going to be in the mix.”

6. Texas A&M announces expansion plans for Kyle Field - but what happens when the newness wears off? “You have to go back only a couple of years when — other than the Texas game — sellouts were few and far between.”

7. LSU running back Jeremy Hill, not formally charged yet for his role in a bar fight, won’t face a judge this week regarding probation for a prior case.

8. Tennessee offensive tackle Ja’Wuan James on learning to be a leader: ”Leadership is hard, because it’s making decisions first of all upon yourself and living the right way…”

9. Who would you take – Johnny Manziel, AJ McCarron or Aaron Murray?  When it comes to the NFL draft, here’s one vote for Murray.

SEC Basketball

10. Guard Brian Greene, Jr. is leaving Auburn.  Rutgers point guard Jerome Seagears will transfer to Auburn.

11. Klem Ogbueze  on the decision by his brother, Braxton Ogbueze, to transfer out of Florida. “He should have been playing. There were some teammates, some people on the coaching staff that felt he should have been playing more.”

12. Kentucky unveils its non-conference schedule – five opponents that ended the year with a top 50 RPI.

13. Andy Katz asks – can we do away with two NBA draft deadlines?

SEC/College News

14. A record $71 million surplus for the NCAA in 2012.

15. “The entire concept of college sports amateurism belongs in history’s dustbin.”

16. NCAA officials meeting today to discuss revising a handful of recruiting deregulations.

17. The financial gap between Alabama and Auburn – “Alabama generated $18.9 million more in revenue than Auburn last year, marking the fifth straight year Alabama’s advantage exceeded at least $13 million.”

18. Update on status of two lawsuits filed against the University of Tennessee by current/former athletic department employees.

SEC/NFL Draft

19. Father of former Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray on the NFL draft. “I know I’m his parent, but I don’t see how 11 quarterbacks get picked, and the best quarterback physically is not picked.”

20. Former LSU cornerback Tharold Simon, drafted by Seattle, addresses his arrest last week. “I had 30 witnesses right there that know I didn’t do anything wrong.”

21. More undrafted Ole Miss players sign free-agent contracts.

22. Missouri fans, did you know you had a fullback last season?  Jared McGriff-Culver gets a shot with the Oakland Raiders.

Extra

23. Is Knoxville, Tennessee the most perfectly average place in America?

I hope you’re sitting down for this one, folks.  Never again will you see #HAILSTATE painted in the end zones of Mississippi State’s Scott Field.

Now, if you’re like this writer you probably don’t give a very big hoot.  The question, however, is why in the world would the NCAA give a very big hoot?

And a very big hoot they do give.

You see, yesterday the NCAA — an organization that’s been dealt so many body blows in recent weeks that its wobbling on its knees like Rocky and Apollo at the end of “Rocky II” — announced that urls and hashtags cannot be painted on football fields.  In fact, only the name of the home team, a conference logo, or an NCAA logo can appear on fields during regular season play.  An exception can be made when there is a commercial sponsor with naming rights for a game (ie: the AT&T Red River Rivalry).  Also, bowls can put their logo/name on the field during postseason play.

The NCAA rules committee is trying to stamp out advertising on the gridiron and hashtags can be used as advertising, don’t ya know?  Why the NCAA couldn’t just be more specific — “no hashtags that serve as advertisements,” for example — is anyone’s guess.

Hashtags and website urls — they’re also banned — weren’t the only topics tackled by the NCAA yesterday.  Nope, college sports’ governing body also mandated that numbers on jerseys contrast with the overall uniform color (somewhere a Nike designer just passed out), eye shields and helmet visors must be clear and not tinted, and most importantly… towels must be solid white.

With all that in mind, we’d like to dedicate this good song (and horrific video) to the NCAA rules committee:

NBA player Jason Collins’ decision this week to announce his homosexuality to the world has been met — mostly — with congratulations and shrugs.  Many feel Collins has knocked down yet another barrier in our society.  Many others are past the point of worrying what their favorite athletes do behind closed doors.

But some — if the 34-year-old free agent signs with a team this offseason — will no doubt shout heartless/gutless insults at Collins if/when he takes the floor again.  Just as sure as the majority of sports fans aren’t heels, there is most definitely a small set of sports fans who are.  Why some people feel the need to taunt and harass is beyond me, but anyone who’s ever attended a game knows that some believe ugliness to be a legitimate part of sports.

For those types, Collins might as well wear a “taunt me” sign on his back.

So what does this have to do with the SEC?  Well, NCAA president Mark Emmert said yesterday that he’s in favor of penalizing schools whose fans hurl verbal abuse at players because they are different.

Emmert was speaking at an Inclusion Forum in Indianapolis.  The goal of the get-together was to urge campus leaders “to make school policies more welcoming for women, minorities, disabled athletes and those with different sexual orientations,” according to ESPN.

When the subject of Collins’ announcement came up, Emmert said:

“At the very least, I hope it does make it much easier for athletes in universities and other environments to be open about it and be supported by their coaching staffs and teammates.  We’re talking about a culture change, and it’s slow and arduous, but what I’m seeing on campuses is that the inclusion issues has moved up…

I’m delighted by it.  The need for a high-performing athlete to fell he can be open and honest about his sexuality is long overdue.”

First, an admission.  My social views are libertarian.  I personally don’t care whether a ballplayer is married to a woman, a man, or a maple tree.  It’s your life, live it.  So when I look at those statements by Emmert, I’m not shocked, aghast or overjoyed.  Those statements – those statements — fall right in line with the statements made by most other educated people across the country since Collins’ announcement.

It’s what Emmert later said about sanctioning fan behavior that caused me to perk up.

When someone in the audience in Indianapolis pointed out that female basketball players “seem to be getting singled out” over their gender identities during games, Emmert asked the person what she thought could be done to stop such behavior.  The woman suggested schools could be sanctioned for improper fan behavior.

Remarkably, here was Emmert’s response to that notion:

“I would certainly support a proposal that would do that.  If that’s a rule that makes sense and there ought to be some sanctioning like that, then I hope the membership brings that forward.  I think that would make good sense.”

No.  That would most definitely not make sense, much less the good kind.

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SEC commissioner Mike Slive will appear before the media on Thursday — along with ESPN representatives — to finally shed more light on the soon-to-come SEC Network.  Yesterday, he met with Associated Press Sports Editors Southeast members and opened up about just about everything else currently making news.  You can read more on his Q&A session here (or here, here and here).

Topic:  Playoff selection committee

Slive:

“We want a committee that has football expertise.  We want integrity, and we want transparency, because this is our opportunity to make sure that not only are we comfortable but you’re (the media) comfortable and all the fans are comfortable that this process is the way it should be.  It’s not going to be easy…

When you come into the committee as a member of the basketball committee, the concept is you leave your hat at the door.  If you come in and you’re there to represent football and what’s in the best interest of football, what’s in the best interest of the playoffs.  There’s a foundational culture from which we can work.  Now we need to adjust it to football and the fact that we’re not picking 68 teams, we’re picking four.”

Our Take:  What’s transparent to one might not be transparent to another.  Take the NCAA Tournament selection committee, for example.  Each year the NCAA hosts a short mock selection session with media from across the country to explain their process.  And after the field is chosen each year, the head of the committee does a couple of quickie interviews with CBS/Turner and ESPN.  Yet many still are left scratching their heads about why Team X got in over Team Y.  In the end, the NCAA makes the basketball process about as transparent as possible, but questions remain.  Can the FBS presidents — remember, it’s not the NCAA that’s putting this playoff together — come up with a more transparent manner of picking the four teams for their system?

Topic:  Multiple teams from the same conference getting playoff bids

Slive:

“It was an important piece.  It took us about a year to put all this together, and one of the foundational pieces of it was that there wouldn’t be a limit.  We’re looking for the best teams to play in the playoff.  We didn’t want to create (an) artificial limit.  That was basically an artificial limit in the old system.”

Our Take:  The ability to put two or three or, technically, even four teams from the same league into the playoffs makes sense.  But that doesn’t mean it will happen.  As we’ve noted in the past, the playoff came about as soon as two SEC teams met in the BCS title game.  There is “SEC fatigue” across the country and it’s still possible — we believe very possible when you factor in human motivations — that a deserving SEC team could be blocked from the playoff in favor of a good team from another conference/region… just for the sake of inviting someone from another conference/region.

Topic:  The ACC’s grant of rights agreement

Slive:

“Looking at it from the outside looking in, it looks like it may create some stability.  And I do think at this stage of where we are stability will be constructive so we can move ahead in some other ways.”

Our Take:  As we reported numerous times, the SEC was not going to be the league making the next expansion move.  The SEC’s presidents want to fully absorb Missouri and Texas A&M, count the benefits and drawbacks, and then — if forced — look at further moves.  If the ACC and Big XII grant of rights are as ironclad as advertised, then men Slive and most of his fellow presidents can kick the expansion can down the road to the SEC’s next generation of leaders.

Topic:  The creation of a new “super-division” of the richest programs within the NCAA

Slive:

“When there are certain things that many of us would like to come into play, it’s our hope that those things can all occur in the current system.  Obviously, if things like that don’t get accomplished, then it may be appropriate to talk about some alternative or division or something like that.  But that’s not our desire.  That’s not our goal and that’s not something we’re trying to get to.”

Our Take:  But “they” are trying to push for “certain things” within the NCAA structure.  While the ultimate goal might not be what we’ve tabbed a “super-division” of 70-80 schools, we still believe that is the most likely outcome.  A breakaway from the NCAA just isn’t feasible and not every school in the current FBS can afford the “certain things” — ie: full-cost-of-tuition scholarships or stipends for athletes — that the big boys can afford.  We still firmly believe that a new division will be created within the NCAA to accommodate the wealthiest athletic programs.

Topic:  A $2,000 stipend for athletes

Slive:

“It’s a disappointment that it’s not taken care of yet.  We truly believe that we ought to do more for our student-athletes than just the room, board, books and tuition.  We’re hopeful that we can continue to make that work… I think it’s fair to say it’s an idea that’s not going to do away.”

Our Take:  Read our take above.  Again, it’s very clear that the biggest schools want to offer more cash to athletes and most schools can’t afford it.  The line between those haves and have-nots will eventually serve as the lowermost boundary of a new “super-division.”

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Gene Chizik has apparently had it up to the neck of his favorite leather jacket with allegations of wrongdoing in the Auburn football program during his tenure.  Specifically, it’s clear that now midway through 2013, he’s tired of having to answer questions about what went on way back in 2010:

“It’s really just hard to operate day by day with what I consider to be the most scrutinized, and sometimes villainized, program in the country…

What is somewhat of an enigma to me is how back in 2010 what started out as a Mississippi State program, all of a sudden became an Auburn problem.  It never ended.  It went on for 13 or 14 months and then there seemed to be a trail that kept following a lot of accusations, a lot of allegations but I’m looking for facts.  It’s very difficult for the Auburn people, and it’s not fair.”

Chizik — who spoke with reporters following a radio interview on WJOX-AM/FM in Birmingham yesterday — is of course referring to the recruitment of Heisman Trophy-winner Cam Newton.  In late-2010 it was determined that his father had asked MSU boosters for cash, only to be rebuffed.  The NCAA and SEC tried to avoid a real pickle — with Auburn sitting on top of the national polls late in the season — by ignoring Newton’s father’s actions.  The NCAA has since closed “the Newton loophole” and ruled that in future years if a parent or guardian acts as an agent, the player will be ruled ineligible whether he knows of the pay-for-play scheme or not.

The problem for Auburn at the time was the assumption by many that if Cecil Newton had asked Mississippi State for cash, he most likely had put his hand out when it came to the folks at Auburn, too.  Just ask Danny Sheridan and his bagman.  Or any number of other people who claimed to have tape recordings of the Newtons talking about cash with other schools.  (Of course, we never did learn the bagman’s name and we never heard any of the alleged tapes.)

Fed up with this continuing saga, Chizik also took a few shots yesterday at the journalists who’ve launched investigations into Auburn:

“I’m going to go one step further for all the people that are educated and have common sense.  If you don’t know how the NCAA works, they’re very thorough in their investigations.  Let me make that clear — they’re very thorough in their investigations.  You want me to back that up with fact?  I’ll name ‘em: Miami, Ohio State, North Carolina.  Most recently, Oregon.  USC.  So how could they come into Auburn and leave and find nothing, and that becomes a one-sentence statement after getting drug through the mud for 13 months?  How is that right?  It’s not right…

If everybody in journalism was measured 12 times on a Saturday by what they wrote, what they put out, what was on TV, it would be really interesting to see what their record would be, like coaches.  I’m not going to point the finger at anybody, I’m only going to address what I think were false, unsubstantiated allegations.”

First, Chizik is playing a pretty strong hand right there.  The NCAA will sometimes go beyond its own rules — in the case of Miami, for one — to uncover evidence of wrongdoing at a school.  Yet in three years of digging into accusation after accusation at Auburn, the governing body’s investigators have dug up nothing to date that will stick.

That hasn’t kept fans and some in the media from simply assigning Auburn a bit of guilt anyway.

At MrSEC.com, we call this the John Calipari Syndrome.  There might have been some major issues around that coach’s past programs — at UMass his star player had an agent while in school and at Memphis a player was initially cleared to play by the NCAA only to be ruled ineligible after the fact — but Calipari has never been specifically charged with any wrongdoing.  The NCAA has trailed him for years, but they’ve found nothing.  You can be sure other coaches are watching him and the Kentucky program closely  — like Auburn, UK has an NCAA rap sheet that is hard for people to ignore — to make sure there’s no hanky-panky underway in the Commonwealth.  Yet there’s never been so much as a peep about even little things… like too many phone calls to a recruit or a dreaded “butt dial.”

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With the NCAA facing numerous issues this offseason, there appears to be a growing rift between the academic side of college sports and the athletic side.  A group created by one (the academic side) in order to help run the other (the athletic side), the current NCAA is caught in what’s looking increasingly like a tug-of-war between the jocks and the pointy-heads.

According to Andy Staples of SI.com, “that might be the NCAA’s biggest problem” moving forward:

“Under president Mark Emmert, the NCAA has aggressively embraced a model that puts all the power in the hands of university presidents and chancellors.  That would be fine, some high-profile athletic directors said, if the presidents sought the advice of the people who work in athletics on a daily basis.  Instead, Emmert and his hand-picked group of CEOs have rammed through rules and policies with only minimal consultation of the people who must actually implement those rules and policies.  Why will much of the recently passed football recruiting deregulation probably get tabled?  Because no one bothered to ask the people working in athletics.  If they had, they might have realized a relaxation on the rules that govern how often coaches can contact recruits would be find with most ADs and coaches.  They also would have realized a relaxation on the rules that govern exactly who may contact recruits could result in a hiring spree by the wealthiest schools that would leave everyone else going further into debt while trying to keep up.  Why did the plan to offer athletes up to a $2,000 annual stipend to cover the full cost of attendance get scuttled after its passage at a 2011 presidential retreat?  Because no one bothered to check with less wealthy schools to see how they felt about it.  If they had, they’d have known it stood no chance of passing an override vote.”

Staples’ article is well worth your time, though it reveals just one new aspect of an issue we’ve discussed on this site on numerous occasions — What is the NCAA’s role in college athletics now that college athletics have become such large sources of revenue for schools?

Initially, the NCAA was charged with keeping the amateur model intact, with making sure everyone competed on a level playing field, and protecting the safety of student-athletes.  But today the amateur model is the center of its own controversy and numerous schools are pushing toward a system where all schools are not created equal when it comes to revenue, staff sizes, spending, and even extra stipends or larger scholarships for athletes.

Though talk of a breakaway from the NCAA by a number of big schools is back in the news, at MrSEC.com we continue to feel that such a grand change is unlikely.  Think of all that would be involved in creating a new and improved “NCAA lite.”  Who would make the new rule book?  Who would enforce it?  How would money be distributed?  More importantly, who in the hell could get the largest of the big-money schools all on the same page long enough to even begin answering those questions?  You better believe that Big Ten schools and SEC schools would view things like partial-qualifiers, oversigning, and admissions standards differently.  Even within the SEC, Vanderbilt would likely view those topics through a different monocle than Auburn or Ole Miss or cross-state rival Tennessee, for example.

Aside from infrastructure concerns, just imagine all the potential lawsuits that could result from one group of schools totally breaking away from another.

No, it’s much more likely that a new “super division” of the biggest big-dollar schools will be created as a fifth tier of the NCAA pyramid (atop Division III, Division II, the FCS, and the FBS… though those last two might somehow be merged).  We’ve written on this topic repeatedly — here, here, here, and here.

The richest NCAA schools already appear to be on the path to a new super division model.  Staples’ article reveals that the decision about this new structure will not only require university presidents and chancellors to work together, but it will also require the input of athletic directors, a group that’s been moved to the kiddie table under Emmert’s regime.

And if ADs aren’t asked for their thoughts?  Well, you can expect any new super division to be just as controversial and unpopular as the current four-tiered NCAA set-up… meaning very.

On April 3rd, Selena Roberts posted a story titled, “Auburn’s Tainted Title” on the website Roopstigo.com.  In it she alleged that sources within the Tiger football program — including ex-players — had revealed to her that academic fraud and bribery had taken place on the campus of Auburn University.

The national media flew into a frenzy and just one day later, ESPN released a story claiming that AU officials had also looked the other way regarding synthetic marijuana use on the Tigers’ BCS champion 2010 squad.  The two stories back-to-back left the school and its football program with two black eyes.  And as one of the most sanctioned schools in NCAA history, many media members and fans chose to believe those stories.  (Ironically, the NCAA has since found “major” violations at Oregon — the team Auburn played in the BCS Championship Game in January of 2011 — but the Ducks have avoided the spotlight that’s been pointed toward the Plains.)

Auburn officials immediately shot down the ESPN story with the help of phone records and several ex-players and their parents.  Now the school has released the findings of two reviews of the Roopstigo.com story conducted by Auburn Athletics and Auburn University Internal Auditing.  Their findings:

“There is no evidence academic fraud occurred.  The article alleges improper grade changes took place to make nine student-athletes eligible for the 2011 BCS National Championship Game.  That is false.  In fact, six players were academically ineligible for the BCS National Championship Game, and none of them made the trip to Arizona with the team.”

Among the other accusations rebuffed by AU:

1.  Former Auburn running back Mike Dyer was never even in danger of academic ineligibility, having passed 15 hours in the fall of 2010 with a GPA of 2.8.

2.  While former Auburn defensive back Mike McNeil did have a grade changed from an F to a C, the internal audit showed that all AU policies were followed and documented reasons for the change had been provided (excused absences from classes for medical reasons).

3.  McNeil — who has since been sentenced to three years in prison for his involvement in a robbery — claimed that former AU assistant and current Florida head coach Will Muschamp paid him cash during the 2007 season, but “Coach Muschamp immediately and publicly denied the allegations, as was widely reported throughout the media.”

4.  McNeil also claimed that he received $500 to be used to entertain then-prospect Dre Kirkpatrick — who later signed with Alabama — during his official on-campus visit to AU.  However, “Mr. Kirkpatrick never took an official visit to Auburn.”  Kirkpatrick has also said that no one spent money on him or game money to him during his unofficial visits to Auburn.

In summary, Auburn AD Jay Jacobs stated in today’s release that the facts demonstrate that “the article is clearly flawed.”  He added: “I want you to know that I will always act on the basis of facts.  I will continue to fight for Auburn University, and I will continue to defense this great institution against such attacks.”

Jacobs also took the time to back the “character and integrity” and compliance history of former coach Gene Chizik.

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