kurt
http://www.atipac.com/forum/showthread.php?s=6a23b12d6f807a42c9f1d18513afee34&threadid=897
Paul Davis' column that wasn't printed in the O-A News
The more things change. Scratch that. Things don't change.
We have winning sports programs in Alabama. Alabama has won more national titles than any team in the nation. Its football program is on NCAA probation, it has had four coaches in five years. The Tide can't play in the Sugar Bowl or compete for another national title even if it had athletes good enough to win it all. So much for cheating.
Auburn is again looking down the barrel of the gun with its sports programs, too. The NCAA is wondering if Auburn promised $50,000 and a new car to a hot basketball prospect. AU pays less for players than Alabama. Remember the Alabama recruit by the name of Albert Means who was said to be on the auction block for $200,000. He was just a fat lineman. Wonder what a
top-rated quarterback or a seven-foot center would cost?
Now Auburn's basketball program is under investigation. All the canned statements have been made, press releases Nos. 3-6:
_
"The University can't comment on an on-going investigation. We are cooperating fully with the NCAA investigation. I have full confidence in those coaches who have been mentioned"
And from AU basketball coach Cliff Ellis: "I am very disappointed that the NCAA chose to charge the school."
I love sports. I hate cheats. I have 10 AU season tickets. I have covered sports at both Alabama and Auburn. Both cheat, both have been caught, both have suffered major sanctions, both have fired coaches.
Neither has ever learned from their mistakes.
Terry Bowden, the former Auburn football coach who was the darling here for just a few seasons, participated in the cover-up of cheating while he was here. He told me so. He also told others, many others, and he let some of us tape those confessions. I have a copy of the tape.
On a rainy afternoon at his Loachapoka farm, he admitted his role to a succession of visitors, including newspaper editors, former AU President Bill Muse, and several faculty members.
Bowden said he would tell the whole story, in the proper forum or under court order, but that seems to have changed now that the Auburn University Foundation has paid off the mortgage on his $800,000ish Auburn mansion. He might even deny his comments to his visitors that rainy afternoon, but we have them on tape.
Pay-for-play is not new and not unique to Alabama or Auburn. Among major programs, you simply have the caught and the uncaught.
The thing that blew me away about Bowden's comments was his willingness to name the major contributors to his payroll for athletes. He rattled off the names of at least four of Auburn's current trustees. Says he'll swear to it.
"I broke the rules," Bowden said. "I told (the assistant coach) to pay it off to the players we already had and it will never happen again."
The NCAA doesn't bring charges lightly because it knows of the fight ahead each time it does. Some in Alabama are already talking about laws to curb the NCAA's power over college sports programs. Good luck!
When you tamper with college football, you can get in a whole heap of trouble. Nice people simply don't want to talk about the dark side of athletics. Player buying has even been uncovered in high school programs.
Men who been given jobs and homes to move across state so that a high school could get its hands on a great running back.
"I was hiding a dirty secret," the former Auburn coach said. He said he learned of the major NCAA infractions within days of being named Auburn's head coach, but kept quiet while trying to clean up the program from within.
"I broke the rules," Bowden said. " I was hiding a dirty secret."
A dirty little secret, Bowden said, which involved AU trustees.
That's disgusting. You always see the names of some Big Daddy Big Bucks in Memphis, or some car dealer in Georgia described as "rogue boosters" who put up the money. At Auburn, some of those "rogue boosters" apparently are trustees, according to Bowden.
The names of trustees in Bowden's ledger book detailing payments to players and the names of trustees and others who supplied the money, have also caught the eye of investigators from the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities. That body is looking to see if the trustees "micro-manage" the university. If not the university, most certainly its department of
athletics. The trustees at this late date are probably safe from the NCAA as far as the Bowden allegations are concerned.
"I will go under oath," Bowden said, "and say that (a trustee) looked me in the eyes and said, 'I didn't want (an assistant coach) to collect more money than we needed to pay the players.' I was hiding a dirty secret. We were paying (a star running back). It took about two years to get it all cleaned up.
"Most the guys we were paying weren't any good and weren't helping us win games... Here is how it works: Fifty to 60 men give $5,000 per year. (The assistant coach) would collect it. These are all good men (the donors). They didn't ask questions. The coach tells them that everybody cheats so we have to."
"I told (the assistant coach) not to collect more than we had to have to pay the players. (He) had a safe in his house where he kept the payroll money," Bowden said.
On Tuesday, Alabama voters will defeat a tax proposal that would have brought excellence into our classrooms. We'll chant "We're Number One," at our football games and accept the fact that we are No. 49 in education.
While we're doing all these things, trustees at Auburn will be building new skyboxes at Jordan-Hare, even new classrooms for athletes where they can receive special instruction under the helping hands of tutors _ not just to help them graduate, but to insure they remain eligible to play. Meanwhile, special reading initiatives for school children will be scrapped.
It's strange, too, that we could have it all:_ winning sports programs, better schools, and athletic departments that don't feel it necessary to cheat.
At Auburn, sadly, that cheating starts at the top with a hand full of
trustees who seemingly find a certain amount of enjoyment in cheating and being crafty enough, most of the time, to cover it up.
(Paul Davis may be contacted at [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>)
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