NCAA Investigating Florida For Possible Violations

By: Tyler Ward

NCAA officials and the University of Florida are investigating a potential rules violation that occurred last year - the players they are looking into is offensive lineman Maurkice Pouncey.

Sources say that Pouncey was paid $100,000 by a representative of an agent somewhere between Florida's SEC Championship Game loss against Alabama and their Sugar Bowl victory against Cincinnati. Florida announced the potential violations as soon as they learned of it.

Not only could Pouncey be in trouble, but Florida law enforcement officials are also looking into the state's registration laws possibly being violated. Florida university police are also working with officials, in hopes of somehow clearing up the air around the anonymous claim.

Florida's athletic director Jeremy Foley said in a statement, "We were made aware of some information in early June that we reported to law enforcement and we then shared with the NCAA and the SEC. At this time we have no information that has indicated that there are any compliance issues for the University of Florida."

If the rumors are found to be true, Pouncey could be ruled ineligible for the Sugar Bowl victory, and if so, Florida would be stripped of their win over Cincinnati. It is pretty much the same scenario that involved USC earlier this year when their 2005 season was completely vacated after former Heisman winner Reggie Bush was found ineligible for the entire season, including their championship game loss to Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns.

Pouncey, who guarded 2008 Heisman winner Tim Tebow, bypassed his senior year and entered the NFL draft. He was taken 18th overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers and many consider him to be "NFL-ready".

Reportedly, two sources looked over the anonymous letter, which was postmarked from Canada. The two sources also that the letter included photographic evidence, showing a runner for the supposed agent in public with Maurkice Pouncey and his brother, Mike, who will be a senior this year at Florida.

The sources also told ESPN that the two brothers have provided credit card, bank, and phone statements that show no type of suspicious activity, as far as money is concerned. Apparently, Maurkice Pouncey said that he paid for a Cadillac Escalade (while he let his brother drive it seldomly in Florida) and jewelry after the NFL draft. He also said that he used a deferred line of credit to pay for those items.

The two brothers and their family are expected to issue a statement on Thursday regarding the allegations.

University representatives said today, "The NCAA is working cooperatively with the university. However, it is NCAA policy to not comment on current, pending or potential investigations."

This is just the latest in recent NCAA allegations, which has completely damaged college football's reputation.

North Carolina announced last week that the school was being questioned regarding allegations of agents dealing with several high-profile draft prospects. South Carolina tight end Weslye Sanders told media personnel that he had also been questioned by NCAA investigators.

As stated above, USC has been the center of all the allegations. Running Back Dillon Baxter said earlier this year that he had received phone calls from five schools, including Florida and Alabama, trying to lure him to their school. Baxter and USC would later apologize to all of the schools, as the allegations turned out to be false.

USC also had all of their 2005 wins stripped because of running back Reggie Bush being ruled ineligible for the entire season. The school will also not be able to participate in any postseason games for the next two seasons and some underclassmen would be able to transfer schools if they wanted to. USC will also have their recruiting days reduced from 130 to 110.

The NCAA could rule heavily on Florida if their findings are legitimate and correct. They may not receive as harsh of a penalty than USC, but they could see their 55-21 victory over Cincinnati vacated. The NCAA will still hold the entire university reponsible, even if it wasn't their fault. 

If there is one thing the NCAA has shown us recently, it is that they are not fooling around anymore. Florida could be in deep trouble if everything turns out to be true.

USC Apologizes To Schools For False Recruiting Allegations

By: Tyler Ward

USC Athletic Director, Mike Garrett, has formally apologized to several schools for falsely accusing them of contacting current Trojans freshman, Dillon Baxter.

On June 11, USC director of compliance, Matt Billings, told a Pac-10 enforcement official that Alabama, Florida, Washington, Oregon, and Fresno State contacted Baxter after he had signed a letter of intent with USC. A few days before, the NCAA leveled USC with major penalties in the wake of improper benefits paid to former Heisman winner, Reggie Bush and current Grizzlies basketball star, O.J. Mayo. The NCAA vacated the 13 wins from USC's 2004 season and handed them a two year postseason bowl ban, along with 30 docked scholarships.

Garrett officially apologized to Florida athletic director, Jeremy Foley, for bringing Florida into something that had nothing to do with them and alleging they had illegally contacted Baxter. Alabama and Washington have also confirmed that they have received apologetic letters from Garrett. Oregon has also expected an apology from Garrett and USC. Alabama denied the allegations and a follow-up investigation by USC turned out nothing incriminating towards Alabama or any other team. NCAA rules state that school can contact juniors and seniors on a team facing a two-year postseason ban, but freshmen and sophomores cannot be contacted.

Ron Barker, the Pac-10 associate commissioner for governance and enforcement, confirmed the letter and said that it stated, "I just met with [Baxter] and he told me that he received phone calls from five institutions [June 10th.] All of the institutions asked if he was interested in transferring from USC due to the NCAA decision. Would you please speak with these schools to remind them they cannot speak to this student athlete?"

Mike Garrett said that he spoke with the freshman and he was told Baxter did not receive any calls from any of the colleges. In the letter to Florida, Garrett wrote, "he (Baxter) has now confirmed that he did not receive a call from your institution. Therefore, USC has no intention of pursuing this matter further. I apologize for any inconvenience or embarrassment this matter has caused to you and your institution." 

Baxter was a highly-touted running back coming out of Mission Bay High School and many teams wanted him to come to their respected school. However, he wanted to play for coach Lane Kiffin and therefore, signed a letter of intent with USC.  Kiffin has highly praised Baxter, as he has said that he reminds him of Reggie Bush, who is the reason why USC is in the position they're in right now.

USC apologized for any embarrassment they had caused towards each school, but the only ones who should be embarrassed is USC. They got torn up by the NCAA and received bans that have been unheard of throughout college football. They called out two of the most recent powerhouses in football, Alabama and Florida, but turned up nothing to verify that they had contacted Baxter. Since the NCAA brought down their iron fist on USC, they were probably trying to tarnish two great NCAA school's reputations. I mean, what are the odds that a team, who just got penalized heavily, decides to accuse two schools of violations that have won 3 championships total this decade? Not to mention, they are on the opposite side of country. The other three teams that were accused have been decent football teams, but not championship contenders. 

It's funny to note that Lane Kiffin just left Tennessee, an SEC school, and UT's two biggest rivals are Alabama and Florida. Then, Kiffin goes to USC, and suddenly, two of his biggest rivals in the SEC are accused? Something seems a little bit suspicious to me. I can't quite figure out why they both got accused, but I think it has something to do with jealousy or his bitterness towards the SEC. Either way, the allegations were very stupid and didn't even deserve to be brought up. Mike Garrett, Lane Kiffin, and the rest of USC all need to grow up and get facts first before insisting somebody or someone did something wrong.

There are so many fishy things surrounding not only USC, but Lane Kiffin, also. They need to get their acts together, stop falsely accusing schools, and play football. It's that plain and simple.