NCAA Investigating Tennessee Freshman Bryce Brown

“Here’s the link from ESPN. Of all places.”

Darth Meyer put the WWL up to this. They answer to his bidding.

“At one point, Butler was charging money for recruiting updates involving Brown and other players on his PotentialPlayers.com Web site.”

What could possibly go awry with a domain name like that?

I hope the NCAA fast tracks this investigation. It would be neat if Tennessee was dealing with NCAA sanctions before Kiffin has coached a single game.

Butler said he took Brown and the other players on a trip during Brown’s sophomore year. He loaded the players on a bus and traveled to Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and SMU, among other schools.

“We raised money for the trips with barbecues in front of Sam’s Clubs and Wal-Marts,” Butler told ESPN.com. “I called it an ‘academic tour.’ My intent was to broaden the minds of our young players.”

Brown v. Bored of Education

Thayer Evans, holla. NY Times

Butler, a former rapper and cellphone call-center manager, is among a new breed of entrepreneurs inserting themselves into college football recruiting.

New breed of entrepreneur: The Fucking Slimeball.

I’m not sure how I feel about the NCAA punishing the kid, rather than the colleges that choose to work with “handlers”.

Colleges will keep taking chances on these kids with impunity.

“He said he understands that he would have put the eligibility of the players in jeopardy had the trips been exclusively ‘for athletic purposes’ but that the central element was meetings arranged with academic staffs.”

The key to the Tennessee signing was the quality of their Contemporary Russian Authors program and thier willingness to give him a shot at starting in debate without redshirting.

No promises were made regarding the debate team as these would have constituted a violation.

Actually, I think that’s what the NCAA has to do. The best way to stop this is to make a few examples out of high profile recruits. If the schools are the only ones who suffer consequences, there will be no reason for the kids to stay away from street agents.

The NCAA will do nothing.

ok, but what happens with the high profile kids if they are made ineligible? nfl europe? (does that still exist?) some of them straight into the nfl?

this could blow up badly if some other shady fucks want it to.

Say goodbye to my little friends: Lache Seastrunk and Trevon Reed

along these lines, this is interesting: Mike Balogun

You know it’s shady if Oklahoma backed away from BB.

it wasn’t the shadiness. stoops, kelvin whatsit, and venables were seen playing the game.

at some point they decided they didn’t have the marbles or else got wind this was going to end badly. given the sweetheart relationship of the boren family and myles brand, i’m betting the latter.

I know if I was organizing an academic tour, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State would be can’t miss tour stops

I could see the NCAA going after a few recruits… makes a lot more sense from their perspective since it’s obvious that they don’t want to go after schools at this point.

if you go after the kids you get the schools, too. just listen to the tennessee schmucks squeal.

i’ve been thinking about this.

i bet with all the problems rogue agents have been causing the nfl the past few years that the league sees these high school agents with a dim light. i wonder if they have talked this over with the ncaa peckerheads and worked up a plan.

there’s a list of kids who have already been bought and can never get out from under that rock. if the nfl wanted to, they could supply that list to the league teams with the reminder that the home office has it well within its capability to make life living hell for any franchise that bucks the system. you sign one of these names – EVER – and you’ll rue the day you were born.

think that wouldn’t pop some bubbles?

I agree, Scott. Right in line with this increasingly despicable organization.

From reviewing the Mike Balogun court documents, it appears that it was FSU that got this investigation going. Sooners and Seminoles play in 2010 and 2011. Think there’ll be any bad blood for those games?

"We raised money for the trips with barbecues in front of Sam’s Clubs and Wal-Marts," Butler told ESPN.com. "I called it an ‘academic tour.’ My intent was to broaden the minds of our young players."

So how come the website isn’t “potentialstudents.com”?

brushpile, that name had already been taken.

ok, maybe not.

Ademola “Mike” Balogun,
          Plaintiff,
v.
National Collegiate Authletic Association,
          Defendant, and
NCAA Eligibility Center LLC,
          Defendant.

Seriously…….Authletic?

yeah, i saw that. hey, it’s oklahoma. what do you expect?

say, what do you know about jaydan bird? i’ve seen some mention the sooner fans are concerned about his connection with butler. middle linebacker at ou might rival our troubles at tight end.

If I’m Oklahoma, the last thing I want is a lawsuit. Better get some new fangled redaction machines out.

Well, the NCAA already cleared him. Now those polesmokers want to un-clear him.

looks like the gumshoes have targeted butler. i have to wonder if they aren’t planning to deep six any kid who has had dealings with him. that would put him out of business.

i know kansas has at least two butler kids. i went to the rivals site but it won’t even let you see the topics on the board where they aren’t putting on a show for the public. any word from the kansas people regarding that?

Bryce Brown = Maurice Clarett

“The NCAA will do nothing.”

Yes, this is probably the right call. Sorry to you Horns who desperately wish ill fortunes upon the Tenn. program, being fearful that yet another SEC program will pull ahead of the Horns in talent. I’m afraid that Tenn. will keep on cheating, full steam ahead, and with impunity for at least the near forseeable future. Sorry Horns, but Tenn. is just another program in the SEC that is fated to pull even with and eventually surpass the talent which you boys in Austin have on hand.

You can tell that the NCAA will do nothing serious here based on what the hell they are choosing to investigate. This stuff amounts to nothing more than peanuts, even if it can be confirmed as truthful, which is doubtful. If the NCAA was serious, they would investigate all the direct, or more or less indirect, hard cash that Brown is undoubtedly receiving from Tenn. boosters. Everyone who follows CFB from one coast to the other knows that Brown is being paid (and rather handsomely) to play at Tenn.

Just chalk all this NCAA sheenangins as a sorry attempt at a public relations ploy. They want people to believe that they are at least attempting to fulfill their role in CFB, that there is an actual reason for their existence, and that the CFB image of the student athlete has, at least, a semblance of legitimacy and reality in the real world. Of course all of this is the furthest thing from the truth. The true function of the NCAA is to basically act, rather halfheartedly, as if they are enforcing, but, in reality, to do nothing and to ensure that all the cheating goes on unchecked just underneath and outside the view of the public eye.

For anyone that actually believes that there is any semblace of legitimacy or ethics in the bigtime CFB world, with all the millions and billions floating around and at stake, just pause for a second and note this little undenial fact: in general, given the extremely shortened projected lifespan of football players, especially the lineman (probably due to their size, along with the heavy duty drug use), it is reasonable to expect that their middle aged coach will, more likely than not, go on to outlive many of his players and probably most of his lineman. Now does anyone ever hear about any of these coaches, who by the way, let us not forget, are being paid in the millions, encouraging their players to reduce their size, live a more healthful life for the sake of the long term, and to refrain from the use of performance enhancing drugs? I sure as hell don’t and with their salaries, they don’t seem to have much of a financial incentive to do so. All of them seem to either look the other way or, worse, they do the very opposite and enforce and demand conformity, like the coaches up in Norman, to these destructive habits and behavior. What does this typically unspoken factual tidbit and the cold hearted callousness that is revealed by it, what does all this say and imply about the true nature of CFB, beyond and underneath all media and marketing driven glamour images? If the coaches, the institutions, the parents, and the NCAA can be callous and indifferent with respect to this issue, the young player’s long term health and life spans, does anyone in their right mind then believe these same people are going to really give a damn about the image of the student athlete or whether it is ethical to pay a player or not, if they have no fear of being caught with their hands in the cookie jar? Lip service for the sake of public relations, to keep the money flowing in, would be about as far as their giving a shit about maintain all this goodie too shoes image would go. At least this is how a reasonable person would end up viewing it.

Dude, you are a human rain delay. Can we get the grounds crew up in this bitch?

Glenn, that would be an antitrust violation of the highest order.

I would prefer to think of myself in terms of really, really good sex with a really, really hot, uninhibited chick. The idea being that the longer it is the better it gets, but I do understand that not everyone can be expected to share in my highly refined, elite, grey poupon level of tastes, patience, and sophistication. I will try to remember to be as brief as possible in the future, whenever such brevity is possible and I am still able to get my point across.

Sooner or later, I dream the NCAA will actually make an example of these cheaters. This one seems like a made for TV movie – Lane Kiffin, the eratic loudmouth coach who pisses off the old guard and will shake things up by any means necessary; Bryce Brown, the #1 RB recruit who runs with his hand out; and Brian Butler, the unsavory rapper-cum-handler. If one of them would just kill someone we might even get a Law & Order episode out of it.

lo, for a long time now the ncaa has pretty much yawned regarding ordinary recruiting violations, but i think this is a different breed of cat and we may see a very different response from the ncaa.

i’m going to bet the nfl is interested in this situation. what with the troubles they’ve had the last few years with rogue agents, i can just imagine how much they look forward to dealing with this latest generation of bozos. i’m going to bet they want this whole thing nipped here and now.

it wouldn’t surprise me at all if there have been discussions between the nfl and ncaa honchos.

my guess is they will let some very high profile examples twist in the wind pretty much the rest of their lives. vlad would get wood.