DEVELOPING: Notre Dame Maintains Football Suspensions for Now

((HT: WNDU-TV))

The investigation alleging academic fraud on the Notre Dame campus is taking on a life of its own at the moment.

Various media outlets are reporting everything from just suspension to expulsion as the investigation ensues.

The afternoon lent itself to a press conference where university President, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., and AD Jack Swarbrick tried to get out in front of the situation.

Reverend Jenkins looked uncomfortable discussing the violations of the student code and the unknown after-effects while Swarbrick was barely asked any questions- save the relaying that head football coach Brian Kelly was just as shocked as everyone else and that he wants the on-campus process to take its course.

Here's the early evening coverage from South Bend


Reverend Jenkins did, however, say that the school will forfeit wins if the school is found to have used ineligible players- dating back however many seasons would apply.

The South Bend Tribune's Notre Dame insider Bob Wieneke discusses the four players as well
The folks over at Campus Insiders discuss the roster losses at present as well...

Ruh Roh: Notre Dame Football Players Being Investigated for Academic Fraud (UPDATED With Dismissals And Vacated Wins...???)

((ht: yahoo.com/forde))

T-Minus two weeks to the kickoff of this years college football season and it's beginning to look like Notre Dame may be without 4 key players.

Yahoo Sports reporter Pat Forde says that the four are being investigated in a probe looking for academic fraud.

Wide Receiver DaVaris Daniels, DB KeiVarae Russell, DL Ishaq Williams and LB Kendall Moore are all being checked out for what Forde terms an "Honor Code Violation".

Read Forde's full story on Yahoo.com RIGHT HERE

No word yet from Coach Brian Kelly on where things go from here but how they progress will be interesting to see. Daniels is one of the teams primary receivers and Russell a starting cornerback, the other two players have a chance at starting, but nothing guaranteed.

The Irish this year get back 2012 Quarterback Everett Golson who sat out 2013 due to an academic issue as well.

UPDATE: Fox Sports is reporting that the four players have been dismissed

The South Bend Tribune is reporting that the scale of the alleged fraud is comparable to the current investigation at the University of North Carolina.

Eric Hansen's piece also says that a former player or players may even be involved.

1630 UPDATE: Campus Insiders' Ray Crawford has a breaker on just how bad this could get...


And here's 120Sports Dylan McGorty with what they know

Post by 120 Sports.

OSG High: Another Dallas ISD Coach Fired After Twitter Threat

((HT: WFAA-TV))

OSG Sports chronicled the fallout of a massive recruiting scandal involving the Dallas Independent School District. It went further than that with the catalyst being the death of a basketball player who was beaten to death by a housemate. The two students were positioned to live in a house that was not in the school district of either player. A DISD investigation confirmed the forging of eligibility documents to hide the fact that the students were only living in the house without their parents to play basketball...

And nothing else...which is a huge no-no around the world...

It ended with 15 coaches, administrators, and DISD front office personnel being fired- or, at least, the HQ thought it was over...

In one of the dumbest moves on record, the brother of two of the fired went after the WFAA-TV reporter, Brett Causey, who filed the investigation stories via Twitter. The brother is the two fired is now one of the fired by the DISD.

Here's the fallout after the threat...
Interesting note: WFAA-TV did an investigation of Snoop Johnson and his high school program back in 2012 that was along the same lines. Johnson, of course, denied the allegations.

Rashad McCants Says He Took Sham Classes (UPDATED)

((HT: ESPN/Delsohn))

Yes, the HQ knows you're shocked and stunned...

Steve Delsohn over at the Mothership has been chasing the problems at the University of North Carolina involving their alleged joke of an African-American Studies Department and how it was, basically, an assembly line for not attending class and getting good grades as long as you played along.

McCants and as many as 14 other players were involved in the major and he even had an appearance on the Dean's List with that as his major.

The Raleigh News and Observer reported that basketball players were in the major back in that championship season of 2005 in their initial reporting back in 2012.

Here's a snippet of McCants interview


And here's the initial Sara Ganim report on CNN with UNC whistleblower Mary Willingham


Obviously, the University is refuting McCants' claims and Willingham's study into the department.

CBS' Gary Parrish caught up with Williams, via Parrish's Twitter is the response:

“In no way did I know about or do anything close to what he says.”

OSG High: State Title Coach Resigns Over Recruiting/Grades Flap

((HT: AJC/Holcomb))

This one has a lot of moving parts...

First moving part: Steve DeVoursney was the head football coach for the Griffin High (GA) Bears and won the 2013 Class 4A title
Evidence below...
((HT: GPB Sports/GHSA))


But, over the last three years the rivalry between the city school and the county school, Spalding, seems to have escalated to a different level entirely. Under allegations of illegal recruiting of student-athletes and improper academic assistance, DeVoursney and his wife- a science teacher at the school- submitted their resignations.

They were accepted by the Board of Education Thursday evening.
All the shenanigans then kicked into a high gear last fall...

From Holcomb:

The events that prompted the investigation began in September, 2013, when Griffin principal Keith Simmons questioned the legality of the transfer of a student-athlete from his school to county rival Spalding High. The schools are located five miles apart.

Simmons wrote a letter to the GHSA that asserted that the transfer student from Griffin was not living legally in the Spalding district, according to the report. Simmons speculated in the letter that Spalding football coach Nick Davis illegally recruited the student-athlete.

The Spalding principal, in turn, asked for an investigation on a three-year student at Griffin who was ineligible, but went through what was termed a "course recovery" program and became eligible. The Spalding High principal questioned the idea of 18 hours being picked up rather quickly.

And to top it all off, the student whose eligibility was restored was questioned in the investigation and fingered the coach's wife for giving him answers to tests.

Got all this...???
There's a test later on...

No immediate word on whether DeVoursney will pursue any job openings in the central part of the state- where he grew up, won a title as a player, and won a title as a coach. There are still a handful of openings still in the state for the upcoming 2014 season. And the fallout of this is huge...

It also makes the Spalding-Griffin rivalry really nasty from this moment on...

OSG High: Grady High Investigation Stage 1 Opens

((HT: 11Alive.com))

This investigation started back in November when the Atlanta Public School system received an anonymous tip about address fraud involving football players at Grady-Atlanta High School.

Sources close to both OSG Sports and Grady High have long known that this is one of those elephants in the room- and the investigation discloses that of 58 students investigated almost half have had false documents verified or are still under investigation to determine the legitimacy of the documents provided.

Here's the multi-reporter look at the multi-page document
The fraud is somewhat ingenious in the lengths that school officials, parents, and athletes will go to allege being a part of the Grey Knight family... The head of the Atlanta Public School System, Superintendent Erroll Davis, broke it down and parents are less than pleased at what some are calling a witch hunt. Since, the investigation began, a number of players have withdrawn from the school voluntarily, and others have been asked to leave. If it was discovered that a student lived outside the geographic area of Grady, tuition bills were sent to parents. Davis said at least one player had never seen the inside of a Grady High School classroom. Here's the highlights of the town hall meeting Davis had with the Grady community...

OSG High: Address Fraud Confirmed In Atlanta Football Program

((HT: 11Alive.com, WXIA-TV))

As OSG Sports first reported a week ago, the Atlanta Public Schools investigation into Grady High School and its football program has unveiled duplicate addresses for athletes who claimed to have lived in the district when they, in fact, did not...

Up to 20 players addresses were in question when an anonymous tip was called into APS in early November.

Here's part of the release from APS Superintendent Erroll B. Davis, Jr.

After interviewing the majority of the parents and guardians of the Grady High School Football team, APS has conclusive evidence of address fraud. Specifically, we have confirmed that parents falsified enrollment affidavits for students who live outside of the Grady attendance zone, and in some instances, outside of the city of Atlanta. The interviews also revealed additional issues that warrant further investigation.

Players who were fraudulently enrolled will be required to leave the school. Parents who falsified enrollment affidavits are subject to reimbursing the district tuition of up to $10,000 per school year, as well as other legal consequences that may be pursued.

While parents are ultimately responsible for false affidavits, there are issues of institutional control that must be addressed before we conclude this investigation. Integrity is paramount, and we want to send a message that false affidavits have academic, personnel, financial and legal consequences that are simply not worth it.

This remains an ongoing investigation that will continue after the winter break.

Here's the latest from the TV side...

The Georgia High School Association will now get to decide if the athletes will be eligible in their home districts...
Head football coach Ronnie Millen, Junior is still reassigned...

OSG sources close to the Grady situation still maintain it wasn't the first time of an event like this...and won't be the last...

Oke State Addresses Upcoming SI Article

((HT: Newsok.com))

Or, at least, they kinda did...

Head football coach Mike Gundy didn't say anything at his Monday press conference... he just read...
((HT: Oklahoma State Athletics))


But AD Mike Holder did...

The Sports Illustrated article alleges five fronts:

There was an alleged pay-for-play set up by an ex-coach as well as sham jobs...
Widespread academic misconduct...
Selective enforcement of the university drug policy
That the Orange Pride, the hostess staff engaged in sexual activity with recruits
Athletes who were of no use to the program any more were "cast aside..."

The next few days in Stillwater will be interesting...

Vols Fire Student Judicial Services Head During Investigation

((HT: OKTC/WVLT-TV))

Clay Travis gets the lead for this one...

The University of Tennessee has fired Jenny Wright, the director of the school's office of student judicial affairs, for failing to cooperate with a university investigation into whether she had inappropriate relationships with student-athletes.

Here's Jim Wogan's early report...
((HT: WATE-TV))


Travis is putting one and one together and his money is on former basketball player Trae Golden, who transferred out of UT last week...

From Travis:

If you want to read the tea leaves, it certainly looks like Wright was helping to cover up Golden's academic fraud and then the university found out about it.

Which led to Golden's dismissal and subsequent questions about why Wright would help cover up the fraud. When Wright was asked about inappropriate relationships with players, she refused to cooperate and attempted to resign instead.

Does that seem like something an innocent person would do?

So now the larger question for the University of Tennessee is this, was Wright sleeping with multiple players and taking advantage of her position as head of student judicial services to keep those players eligible when they otherwise wouldn't have been able to compete?

That, my friends, is a potentially huge mess.

Wright submitted a letter of resignation last week. But Matthew Scoggins, an assistant general counsel for the university, wrote that the school wouldn't accept her resignation because it wanted her to respond to the allegations. Wright was also sent a pre-termination letter last Friday.

The school, then, sent Wright a letter Monday stating that she was being terminated "for unsatisfactory work-related behavior" and for her "failure to comply with the directives of authorized university officials to cooperate with a university investigation."

Well, then... harumph...

Read Wright's termination letter and other fun stuff hyah, thanks to Govolsxtra.com

UNC Athletes Take Class That Has No Instructor

((HT: Raleigh News and Observer/Kane, Carter))

Not that this is a surprise in light of the whole Tarheels NCAA investigation that ended up decimating the football team and coaching staff...

BUT...

Kane and Carter have discovered that the "AFAM 280: Blacks in North Carolina" class was attended by 19 students- 18 of them players on the football team, the other a former player. Advisers helped the players enroll in the class, which is the subject of a criminal investigation.

The advisers also knew that there would be no instruction and the class itself ws added just days before the 2011 summer session.

So, this begs the HQ's question of: "Who knew what when and how far does the knowledge go in this case...?" The HQ would surmise pretty far up, and the end result of the investigation will be interesting...

54 UNC classes are in question over the full four years of the school investigation and center around the head of the department.

Here's the early word on the investigation in the Afro-American Studies Department before it involved the current enrollment involving football players...
((HT: WRAL-TV))


And here as well...