College football is more than a little bit dirty, and the Oregon Ducks are right in the middle of it.
Joe Schad and Mark Schlabach of ESPN reported tonight that the NCAA is investigating two Texas street agents, Willie Lyles and Baron Flenory, who were paid over $28,000 by the University of Oregon for scouting services. Flenory played college football for Chip Kelly at the University of New Hampshire.
The two have ties to Oregon athletes, including LaMichael James, De'Anthony Thomas, Cliff Harris, Dior Mathis and Lache Seastrunk. Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports reported that if Flenory and Lyles are found to have steered athletes to Oregon, it could be classified as a violation of NCAA bylaw 13, a booster directing a recruit to a school.
The Oregon athletic department issued a statement, quoted by Schad and Schlabach:
"This is something we remain confident that is within the acceptable guidelines allowed by the NCAA and occurred with the knowledge of the department's compliance office."
Duck head coach Chip Kelly said:
"Most programs purchase recruiting services," Oregon coach Chip Kelly said Thursday. "Our compliance office is aware of it. Will has a recruiting service that met NCAA rules and we used him in 2010."
The agents run 7-on-7 camps, and speed and conditioning camps on college campuses. They get close to the athlete's families and advise them on recruiting.
It's a gray area in college football, which came to light a couple of years ago in the nationwide recruiting of Bryce Brown of Kansas, outlined in this story by the New York Times' Thayler Evans and Pete Thamel, "College Recruiting's Thin Gray Line."
The practice has gone on for a long time in college basketball. Elite street agents like Sonny Vaccaro became rich men, running summer camps and clinics, advising athletes and brokering shoe deals.
Robinson summarized the known facts of Oregon's involvement:
The payouts all took place within the last fiscal year and appeared in the annual college budget expenditures for the university. According to records, the monies were paid under the account for “Books, Publications and other References.” The $25,000 check was made out to “Willie J. Lyles/dba [doing business as] Complete Scouting”. The check to Flenory was made payable to his company, New Level Athletics.
The practice is pervasive and skirts the rules. The Ducks are doing what top programs all over the country are doing, To win you need the best athletes, and everybody, particularly the SEC and big-money boosters at the traditional powers, wants them. It's not new, not uncommon, just a new twist on a game that's existed for a long time. Back in the eighties Eric Dickerson drove to school one day in a gold Trans Am. They said it was a gift from his grandma.
The investigation by the NCAA is a widespread inquiry into the practices and activities of the agents themselves. New Level Athletics, Badger Sports Elite, and Complete Scouting Services are the targets, but the names of Oregon athletes have surfaced, and the payments are on the books.
What's more concerning are the payments that are not on the books, and the questions that will inevitably follow the trail of cash. Even though Oregon isn't alone in this, and the news reports have turned up players from Auburn, LSU, USC and elsewhere, the problem is this: the NCAA isn't good at widespread reform. They typically look for an example and a scapegoat.
Right now, the Ducks are flying high and in the crosshairs. You could find the apartments and the cars and the bank accounts and Visa cards and family jobs at many schools, but Oregon, tonight, is the one getting the wrong kind of notice.
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