Old Tiger
12-09-2009, 02:49 PM
The N.C.A.A. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the University of Tennessee’s football recruiting practices, according to interviews with several prospects, their family members and high school administrators. A significant part of the investigation is focused on the use of recruiting hostesses who have become folk heroes on Tennessee Internet message boards for their ability to help lure top recruits.
N.C.A.A. officials have visited four prospects and are scheduled to visit two others this week in an investigation covering at least three states. The inquiry is unusual in its scope and its timing. It is rare that the N.C.A.A. looks at this wide a swath of one university’s recruits before the players have signed with a program in February.
...Interviews with multiple recruits and their family members revealed that the N.C.A.A. has strong interest in Tennessee’s use of recruiting hostesses, students who are part of a formal group at the university that hosts all manner of prospective students at campus visits, including athletes. It is not clear whether the university sent the hostesses to visit the football players.
In one case, hostesses traveled nearly 200 miles to attend a high school game in South Carolina in which at least three Tennessee recruits were playing.
Marcus Lattimore, a running back who made an unofficial visit to Tennessee but said he would not enroll there, said multiple Tennessee hostesses attended a game at James F. Byrnes High School in Duncan, S.C., in September. He said they brought signs, including one that read, “Come to Tennessee.”
“I haven’t seen no other schools do that,” he said. “It’s crazy.”
The hostesses are considered representatives of the university, which would mean they could not recruit players off campus. Therefore, the visits may be considered violations of N.C.A.A. recruiting rules.
...Gary Willis, the father of Brandon Willis, said in a telephone interview Tuesday night that the N.C.A.A. had interviewed his son about the girls’ trip to the game. He said the girls met his son at Tennessee’s football camp last summer and told them that they would attend a game at Byrnes High, which generally has one of the best teams in the country.
Gary Willis said that the trip was not orchestrated by Tennessee’s coaches or staff.
“It was nothing planned on no one’s part,” he said of the girls’ visit.
...Despite Willis’s statement that the move was not orchestrated by the university, the hostesses’ driving that far to attend a high school game and hold up signs would be considered highly unusual. Christian Jones, an outside linebacker at Lake Howell High School in Winter Park, Fla., made an official visit to Tennessee in October and said Volunteers hostesses told him they wanted to attend one of his games.
That did not happen, but he said he occasionally exchanged text messages with them.
“That’s real exciting, getting people like that wanting to support you,” Jones said Tuesday night in a telephone interview.
...On Thursday, the N.C.A.A. will visit the high school of JaWuan James, who has orally committed to Tennessee. He attends North Gwinnett High in Georgia.
James’s mother, Nichelle Mickens, said the visit regarded Tennessee’s hostesses.
“It’s not about the coaches,” she said. “It’s about some of the attendees of the university. It has to do with the hostesses on these visits. That’s as much as I know.”
...Kiffin’s numerous secondary N.C.A.A. violations could be a factor or might have prompted the investigation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/sports/ncaafootball/09tennessee.html?hp
Video removed. You already have one warning today. Do you really want another?!sinton66
N.C.A.A. officials have visited four prospects and are scheduled to visit two others this week in an investigation covering at least three states. The inquiry is unusual in its scope and its timing. It is rare that the N.C.A.A. looks at this wide a swath of one university’s recruits before the players have signed with a program in February.
...Interviews with multiple recruits and their family members revealed that the N.C.A.A. has strong interest in Tennessee’s use of recruiting hostesses, students who are part of a formal group at the university that hosts all manner of prospective students at campus visits, including athletes. It is not clear whether the university sent the hostesses to visit the football players.
In one case, hostesses traveled nearly 200 miles to attend a high school game in South Carolina in which at least three Tennessee recruits were playing.
Marcus Lattimore, a running back who made an unofficial visit to Tennessee but said he would not enroll there, said multiple Tennessee hostesses attended a game at James F. Byrnes High School in Duncan, S.C., in September. He said they brought signs, including one that read, “Come to Tennessee.”
“I haven’t seen no other schools do that,” he said. “It’s crazy.”
The hostesses are considered representatives of the university, which would mean they could not recruit players off campus. Therefore, the visits may be considered violations of N.C.A.A. recruiting rules.
...Gary Willis, the father of Brandon Willis, said in a telephone interview Tuesday night that the N.C.A.A. had interviewed his son about the girls’ trip to the game. He said the girls met his son at Tennessee’s football camp last summer and told them that they would attend a game at Byrnes High, which generally has one of the best teams in the country.
Gary Willis said that the trip was not orchestrated by Tennessee’s coaches or staff.
“It was nothing planned on no one’s part,” he said of the girls’ visit.
...Despite Willis’s statement that the move was not orchestrated by the university, the hostesses’ driving that far to attend a high school game and hold up signs would be considered highly unusual. Christian Jones, an outside linebacker at Lake Howell High School in Winter Park, Fla., made an official visit to Tennessee in October and said Volunteers hostesses told him they wanted to attend one of his games.
That did not happen, but he said he occasionally exchanged text messages with them.
“That’s real exciting, getting people like that wanting to support you,” Jones said Tuesday night in a telephone interview.
...On Thursday, the N.C.A.A. will visit the high school of JaWuan James, who has orally committed to Tennessee. He attends North Gwinnett High in Georgia.
James’s mother, Nichelle Mickens, said the visit regarded Tennessee’s hostesses.
“It’s not about the coaches,” she said. “It’s about some of the attendees of the university. It has to do with the hostesses on these visits. That’s as much as I know.”
...Kiffin’s numerous secondary N.C.A.A. violations could be a factor or might have prompted the investigation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/sports/ncaafootball/09tennessee.html?hp
Video removed. You already have one warning today. Do you really want another?!sinton66