Report: Auburn Paid Players and Altered Grades

[Darth_Pelican]

Report: Auburn bribed players

Updated: April 3, 2013, 10:22 PM ET
ESPN.com news services


Auburn (http://espn.go.com/college-football/team/_/id/2/auburn-tigers)'s football program changed players' grades to secure eligibility, offered money to potential NFL draft picks to return for their senior seasons and violated NCAA recruiting rules under former coach Gene Chizik, according to a report by former New York Times and Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts.
The report appears on Roberts' website, Roopstigo.com. According to three former Auburn players, as many as nine players' grades were changed before Auburn's win in the 2011 BCS national championship game.
"We thought we would be without (running back) Mike Dyer because he said he was one of them, but Auburn found a way to make those dudes eligible," former Auburn defensive lineman Mike Blanc told Roberts.

According to the report, Auburn coaches offered money to players for any number of reasons, including as a means to convince players to bypass the NFL draft.
Darvin Adams (http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/_/id/14759/darvin-adams), a former Auburn wide receiver, told Roberts that coaches offered him cash to keep him at the school.
Blanc and Mike McNeil, another former Auburn player, told Roberts the money amounts reached "several thousand dollars."
"Coaches would say, 'Don't tell anyone where you got it from,' " Blanc told Roberts.
McNeil told Roberts he had a meeting with then-defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, now Florida's coach, in 2007.
"I had no clue what it was about because I'd never directly asked him for anything," McNell told Roberts. "He slid about $400 over to me. He went into a drawer and gave me money and said, 'Is this enough? Is this good?' And I said, 'Yeah, I'm good.' "
Former Auburn defensive back Nieko Thorpe also told Roberts the coaching staff far exceeded its NCAA-allotted per diem for entertaining recruits. Thorpe said coaches gave players $500 to entertain current Cincinnati Bengals (http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/_/name/cin/cincinnati-bengals) cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick (http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/_/id/14940/dre-kirkpatrick), even though the NCAA reportedly limits expenses to less than $50 per day.
All of these allegations happened under Chizik, who guided Auburn to its first national title since 1957 after the 2010 season.
Chizik was fired after a 3-9 season last year

[ThePop]

http://static1.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/HOLY+SHT+BALLS+IT+WORKED+_58cf0bd39cbfbda8de77aa90 5cf9bcbf.gif

[monosylab1k]

"Wow this is shocking news!"
-no one ever

[Jeff Van Gundy]

:lol symple
:lol cheating assholes

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

:lol Gene Chizzrag
:lol NCAA waiting to investigate this after milking the 2010-2011 Auburn team for all it was worth

[Clipper Nation]

An SEC school pays players? Shocker! :lol

[symple19]

Yeah, all this stuff has already been addressed. NCAA hasn't found anything. Notice that the story is being run on her website and that she's a "former" NY Times and SI reporter

Also, her sources aren't very good (disgraced former players, some awaiting trial) and nobody is backing up the alleged quotes she used.

Sooooooooooooooo, :lol

This is some skank trying to get another job by beating the dead horse

[symple19]

She's also the c*nt who fucked everything up in an article about Duke Lacrosse :lol

:lol faggots believing everything they read

[symple19]

Mike Blanc reacts to the story:http://auburn.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1491490


ROBERTS QUOTES YOU SAYING GRADES WERE CHANGED FOR MIKE DYER, AND SAYS YOU ALLEGE THAT AUBURN OFFERED TO PAY DARVIN ADAMS TO STAY HIS SENIOR YEAR: "None of that is true."

[symple19]

http://www.al.com/auburnfootball/index.ssf/2013/04/auburn_committed_ncaa_violatio.html#incart_river

[TFloss32]

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/3884/muschampallin0standard7.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/541/muschampallin0standard7.gif/)

[DesignatedT]

NCAA won't do shit. Move along.

[the chronic]

in other news, water is wet.

[symple19]

Selena gets Chizz all over her face :lmao


Former head coach Gene Chizik responds to recent allegations in a story by Selena Roberts from Roopstigo.com. "During my tenure at Auburn, the NCAA conducted a multi-year investigation into the Auburn football program that they called "fair and thorough." The NCAA focused intently on widespread accusations about Auburn players being paid and other alleged recruiting violations. The NCAA conducted 80 interviews. In October 2011, the NCAA rejected "rampant public speculation online and in the media." Unfortunately, the recent story published by Selena Roberts is more of the same. It once again portrays Auburn University, current and former coaches, professors, fans, supporters and community officials in a false light.
Unfortunately, Ms. Roberts' story is long on accusation and inference, but short on facts and logic. It is noteworthy that the story comes just days before a player mentioned most prominently in the article is set to go to trial for felony armed robbery. The statements are very generalized accusations devoid of substance. During my time as Auburn's head coach, I never authorized, instructed or directed anyone to change any player's grade or provide any type of illegal payment to any student-athlete. Likewise, I am not aware of any alleged grade change or illegal payment by any member of my coaching staff, support staff or anyone else.
As for logic, the notion that the conduct inferred by Ms. Roberts was occurring under the NCAA's nose, at the very same time the NCAA is conducting its thorough investigation, lacks merit. Further, the notion that there was ever an attempt to sabotage any Auburn student-athlete's attempt to play professional football is outrageous. Auburn's success in transitioning student-athletes to the NFL benefits both the student-athlete and the Auburn program.
I remain part of the Auburn family and take these attacks on myself, the University and community seriously. During my time at Auburn, the administrators, professors and academic staff were of the highest integrity. Additionally, the inference that there was academic support staff that worked together with professors to change grades is absurd. As an Auburn resident, I take great pride in the quality and integrity of our police department.
They enforce the law equally and fairly and my dealings with police Chief Tommy Dawson and his staff have been nothing short of excellent. He has handled many high profile cases with the upmost integrity and professionalism. To imply anything otherwise is simply wrong.
If there is a sad truth here, it is that there are no repercussions for bloggers who blast out widespread, venomous allegations and inferences in such an irresponsible manner. To make bold and outrageous conclusions on such thin support is a travesty.
During my tenure as Auburn's head coach, we kept the well-being of our student- athletes at the forefront of every decision. We ran our program with the highest level of integrity and accountability. Period. I make absolutely no apologies for that. I stand firm in my statements, my support of Auburn University, its student- athletes (present and former), faculty, staff and community officials. As I stated during the NCAA investigation, I am comforted knowing that the truth always prevails."

[Darth_Pelican]

Auburn kept test results confidential; 12+ Players Failed Drug Tests

Updated: April 4, 2013, 6:58 PM ET
By Shaun Assael (http://search.espn.go.com/shaun-assael/) | ESPN The Magazine


The 2010 national champion Auburn Tigers (http://espn.go.com/college-football/team/_/id/2/auburn-tigers) were gripped by an epidemic of synthetic marijuana use that led to a rash of failed drug tests and a decision at the highest levels of the university to keep the results confidential, ESPN has learned.
A six-month investigation by ESPN The Magazine and "E:60" into the spread of synthetic marijuana at Auburn reveals that a dozen students on the football team, including its star running back, Michael Dyer, failed tests for the designer drug. The investigation also found that because the school did not implement testing for the drug until after it won the national championship in January 2011, as many as a dozen other seniors who used synthetic marijuana were never caught.

The drug -- also referred to as "spice" -- has been linked to paranoid delusions, hallucinations, and, in rare cases, deaths.
In one extreme case, a freshman tight end, Dakota Mosley, failed seven consecutive weekly tests for the drug, but never was punished. (He was suspended for three months in a separate incident after he tested positive for marijuana.) The Arkansas native says he learned he'd failed a sixth test on the same day he was scheduled to meet with NCAA investigators to discuss a probe into potential recruiting violations.

Instead of being kicked off the team, Mosley was brought into then-coach Gene Chizik's office and told he could keep his spot on the team.
"The whole time, I was thinking, 'They can't do nothing about the spice,' " Mosley told The Magazine and "E:60."

The next day, the emboldened freshman was part of a midnight incident that left him and three other Tigers charged with an armed home invasion robbery.

The first of the Tigers to come to trial, Antonio Goodwin, was convicted in June 2012, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. At his trial, Dyer, who lent the players a gun allegedly used in the crime, admitted to chronically smoking synthetic marijuana. In a jailhouse interview with ESPN, Goodwin estimated that "half the team probably smoked spice."

A second defendant, star safety Mike McNeil, is scheduled for trial in Lee County Circuit Court next week. On Wednesday, in a story largely focusing on McNeil, the website roopstigo.com reported allegations from former players that Chizik and his staff changed players' grades to secure eligibility, offered money to potential NFL draft picks so they would return for their senior seasons and violated NCAA recruiting rules.

No date has been set for the third accused robber, Shaun Kitchens. All were dismissed from the team by Chizik the day after the crime.

The Magazine/"E:60" investigation revealed that while Chizik and Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs were aware of the football team's 12 positive tests for synthetic marijuana, they kept the results secret, even from the parents of the players.

Because synthetic marijuana was new, Jacobs contended in an interview, it was not yet part of the university's official drug-testing policy and therefore not something coaches could punish students for using.
"We did all we could do to educate our student-athletes until [we] could understand exactly what we're dealing with," Jacobs told The Magazine. "I think just like the rest of the campus, and the nation, we were trying to figure it out."

As a result of that decision, not one parent was notified, and no discipline was meted out in the eight-month gap between the first test in January 2011, and August 2011, when Auburn's drug policy was officially amended to include synthetic marijuana.

Kitchens' mother, Kimberly Harkness, a nursing assistant, told The Magazine that she would have put her son into rehab if she'd known. She said she spoke with her son two weeks before the robbery by phone while he was in the office of Trooper Taylor, the team's assistant head coach. Not a word was mentioned about the synthetic marijuana test that the wide receiver failed, or suspicions that was the reason why he was skipping class and missing team meetings.
"I knew something was wrong but I couldn't put my finger on it," Harkness said. "I feel like Auburn betrayed me."

Mosley's attorney, Davis Whittelsey, said he will argue in court that Auburn was more concerned with covering up drug tests than getting students counseling for the highly addictive drug, which is linked to about 11,000 emergency room visits a year.

"Could Auburn have done more? Hell, yeah," Whittelsey said. "Not only could they have done more, they should have done more."

The team's hidden synthetic marijuana problem may have links to an NCAA probe into recruiting violations at the university.
The Magazine and "E:60" have obtained text messages between Mosley and his father from March 9, 2011, that show a heightened level of concern about what Mosley would say to the NCAA investigator he was going to meet after his meeting with Chizik. His father, Harrison, was particularly concerned about a photo of Dakota that hit the Internet, showing him clutching stacks of bills.

"Did you ever visit with the NCAA lady," he asks his son at 7:21 p.m. on March 9, 2011.

"Yeah, I did," Dakota answers.

"So what was said?"

"Just asked about the trips."

"What about the picture?"

"Just told them it was from my mom selling her car."

"That was it?" Harrison asks. Then he follows up with, "Call me for a minute."

An Auburn spokesperson insisted there was no connection with the meeting that Chizik held with Mosley, and the NCAA meeting.

[symple19]

:lol

who the fuck cares

:lmao ESPN doing hard-hitting, in-depth, investigative coverage and unearthing a synthetic marijuana conspiracy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Clipper Nation]

Just imagine the stupid anti-Auburn shit ESPN would come up with if they didn't have a TV contract with the SEC :lol

[the chronic]

:lol

who the fuck cares



everybody but auburn fans

[The Batman]

SEC! SEC! SEC!

[symple19]

SEC! SEC! SEC!

:tu :lol

[symple19]

Just imagine the stupid anti-Auburn shit ESPN would come up with if they didn't have a TV contract with the SEC :lol

Here's the thing... Most Auburn people are up in arms and crying about conspiracies etc etc, but I understand that it has an ugly history of doing shady things. You make your bed...

But this recent reporting is pure garbage and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the Selena Roberts stuff is bullshit (same as HBO --- The FBI and NCAA already tried digging up shit as well, and found nothing.)

As for ESPN, synthetic marijuana was still legal (in the SEC and NCAA) at the time that these things happened, and shortly afterwards (Auburn) developed testing as well as protocol for how to deal with it. Who gives a fuck if they didn't tell mommy and daddy, these kids are legal adults. And we all know that stuff doesn't enhance performance, so I ask again, why does anyone care?

As for butthurt UT/CFB fan (not all of you) who seethe with hatred about any and all things SEC, well, there's nothing I can do but shrug and laugh. Nothing I or anyone else can say is going to cure you of that. Just take solace in the fact that eventually you'll all be able to gloat when a non-SEC team inevitably wins a natty

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

People care because this is the one modern country in the world where marijuana usage is blown out of proportion as something horrible. They shouldn't care but they do because of Christian dogma.


You can largely thank bible belt Alabama voters for this country's view on marijuana, btw.

[symple19]

People care because this is the one modern country in the world where marijuana usage is blown out of proportion as something horrible.


You can largely thank bible belt Alabama voters for that, btw.

I agree with you, DoK...You know I hate jeebotards as much as you do

Hence the rhetorical questions

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

I agree with you, DoK...You know I hate jeebotards as much as you do

I was just answering your question :lol, failed marijuana tests are blown out of proportion at every school.