NCAA inquiry is the last thing Georgia and Mark Richt need (UPDATED)
Mark Richt is trying to turn Georgia's program around. An NCAA inquiry doesn't help.
(UPDATED at 7:45 p.m.)
Georgia can finally count itself in the same company as Alabama and Florida — just not in the way everybody hoped.
According to our Tim Tucker, the NCAA has contacted Georgia to inform the school of an “inquiry” on campus.
This is never good news.
Georgia associate athletic director Claude Felton emailed a statement, reading: “I have been asked numerous times over the last two days whether we had been contacted by the NCAA and the answer has been ‘no.’ … Late Wednesday afternoon, the University of Georgia received a call from the NCAA requesting permission to conduct an inquiry on the UGA campus. Athletic Association officials indicated that full cooperation would be provided. The NCAA has requested that UGA officials, coaches, and/or student-athletes decline further comment until the inquiry is completed.”
The best case scenario for the Bulldogs is that this inquiry goes nowhere, because if coach Mark Richt suddenly has to deal with a full-fledged investigation and even the potential of NCAA sanctions, after last year’s down season, it could hamper his efforts to move the program forward.
No reason was given for the inquiry. But given recent news, it could be connected with investigations into illegal contact between various college players and agents. Players from Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina been linked with a party hosted by an agent in South Miami Beach earlier this summer. If the players were compensated for the trip in any way — travel, lodging, meals — it would negate their amateur status and constitute an NCAA violation. Alabama defensive lineman Marcell Dareus reportedly is among those under investigation.
Former Florida offensive lineman Maurkice Pouncey, a first-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, has been accused of taking $100,000 from an agent following last year’s SEC title game and before the Sugar Bowl, which also would constitute an NCAA violation. Pouncey denies the charge.
UPDATE: Stories on SI.com and TMZ.com both referenced wide receiver A.J. Green about an agent’s Memorial Day weekend party in Miami. Green denies being at the party in the SI.com story. The TMZ.com story says Georgia “ is investigating” whether Green attended.
A source said one potential interview subject is junior receiver A.J. Green, but if enforcement officials plan to ask Green about the now-infamous party in Miami Beach, Fla., on Memorial Day weekend that prompted the inquiries at North Carolina and South Carolina and an internal investigation at Alabama, they won’t learn much.
Reached by phone Tuesday night — almost a day before the NCAA contacted Georgia — Green told SI.com that he did not attend the party. Green, who is considered on of the nation’s best receivers, said a Georgia compliance official asked him Tuesday if he attended the party. Green said he spent Memorial Day weekend at home in Summerville, S.C.
“I never went to South Beach,” Green told SI.com.
TMZ has learned the University of Georgia is investigating whether football star A.J. Green partied on South Beach at the same bash that’s launched investigations at three other colleges.A source closely connected to Georgia’s athletic department tells TMZ the wide receiver allegedly attended a party at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami on Memorial Day weekend. Partying alone isn’t a crime under NCAA rules — Green is 21 years old — but if someone (like an agent or financial adviser) paid for anything related to Green’s trip, that could be a violation.
Agents and their pursuit of college players dominated the first day of SEC media days.
Alabama coach Nick Saban referred to agents as pimps.
Florida coach Urban Meyer called agents “predators.”
Call them what you like, they’re the major story right now.
What level are your concerns about the inquiry into Georgia?
♦
Previous SEC/Georgia posts
♦ It’s no coincidence Saban suddenly is concerned about agents
♦ SEC media days: Hey, who let the BCS in here?
♦ We’re LIVE at SEC media days (with no shortage of storylines)
♦ NCAA reportedly investigating Florida (but temper excitement)
♦ Can Dogs end Alabama-Florida monopoly in SEC title game?
♦ Listen up, Ole Miss: I’ve got Colonel Reb’s replacement
♦
Follow me on Twitter @JeffSchultzAJC and Facebook.com/JeffSchultzAJC
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
256 comments Add your comment
MikeP
July 21st, 2010
11:56 pm
By Bama fan: “I’ve a feeling the NCAA is going to come down a lot harder on the agent than on the schools.”
The NCAA has no way to come down on the agent. The NCAA has no legal authority. In this case, the schools aren’t in jeopardy because no games have been played since the par-tay.
What should, and probably will happen is that this will be the end of college football for any that got transportation, meals or lodging paid for. They have lost their amateur status.
DOO DOO LEE
July 21st, 2010
11:57 pm
you know the shame of it all with it looking like 3 teams in the SEC East are going on NCAA probation, only one is preranked in the top 25. bwahahaahahhahahahaha
Dawg CRaze
July 21st, 2010
11:59 pm
Some florida fan probably turned in the Dawgs after their players got caught taking money.
Bob
July 22nd, 2010
12:06 am
Sounds like a bunch of hot air about something that is relegated to one player at most(even if its true), same as the florida story, one player being a moron so its not a big deal except to that player.
Still hoping AJ wasnt there and people are just throwing stones.
NEW GA AD
July 22nd, 2010
12:20 am
Don’t worry, I’m on top of this agent thing! I just got a huge $120,000 raise for doing nothing new, so I better look busy investigating Ga players taking money.
bjohndawg
July 22nd, 2010
3:57 am
Cannot sleep so decide to blog. AJC….your journalist ability has reached an all time low. Relying on TMZ as a source. What happened to the journalist who would actually write an article or investigate and report. You guys are basically pulling stories and sources off of web urls. There is software that will do that for free. The AJC should save themselves the sports departments salaries.
As to Georgia…doubt AJ was there. If he was he probably paid his own expense. If so AJ dont pull a DJ and lie to the NCAA. Just tell the truth.
As for agents. The NCAA and the NFL needed a plan of attack. And if the NFL wont play ball, they the colleges should ban all agents from campus, and ban the NFL from any on campus testing or combines.
But as everything else this comes down to $. Until the players get a cut of that jersey money with their name and # on it, that butt load of yearly TV money, and that crazy gate from ticket prices, you will always have agents handing players early money.
Because the cold hard fact is this players are usually from poor families. And if they want to take a girlfriend to a night out, it will have to be Dinner and a Movie on TBS,,,,but they dont have an money and the NCAA and the universities do not give them the time off from the game or the ability to earn any extra money even if they had the time. Curran had it right, a Pell Grant is not enough.
For years this schools have used players as chum for their money shark. Play em hard, play em long, and then when they are hurt hey…..feed them to the money shark,,,and get another 30 recruits. Question….why does the damn shoe money go the coach, is his foot in the that NIKE? No it is the players. And if the player does not like that shoe…tough …coach is getting $500,000 a year so put the darn thing on.
If the player is fortunate he gets a 4 year degree, if not,,,,tough. and oh yeah a hand full make it to the NFL or arena football.
And we collectively wonder why agents get the power they have over the players. Because to the players the agents seem to be the only ones that give a rats backside about the players. The fans….all of us, we just want to win. The coaches, they just want to make 3.5 million a year. The schools just want their BCS check. ESPN and AJC just want their headline so they can sell ad space and subscriptions. And the agents …to the players here is someone who will give me a few bucks so that I can go to Wendy’s and take my girl out to go see Avatar.
Honestly….maybe we need to point the finger at ourselves. We fund all of this damn nonsense.
Okay….now back to my fan status.( I have stirred the pot long enough…hey like the AJC).
Go Dawgs!
Southside Dawg
July 22nd, 2010
5:00 am
I remember Georgia got a scholarship taken away for giving out some ball caps and sweat shirts. The NCAA is a monopoly hypocrite. They rake in millions from the labor of the “student-athlete” and then hammer the same guys for crap that does not matter.
Reality
July 22nd, 2010
5:31 am
Wow. How can anyone, alumni or not, support such a program? DUI every other day, bar fights, alcohol for minors, red panties, and now this?
UGA should simply fold up the men’s athletic program and stop making the people of GA ashamed.
Hedgepruner
July 22nd, 2010
6:01 am
UGA the new FSU of the North !!!!
SCOOBY DOO
July 22nd, 2010
7:02 am
RUT ROW RAGGY!!!
Big Whoop
July 22nd, 2010
7:04 am
So, what if there’s no A.J. or no King … we got Kris Durham and Logan Gray, baby! WOOOO HOOOO!!!
Denver Dog
July 22nd, 2010
7:14 am
We still bestest team in the land. 2010 undefeated will surprise everyone. Best team ever, best history of winning ever. goooo dogs
GoodTimes
July 22nd, 2010
7:23 am
The rules are just too hard for some college student-athletes to understand. They should make the rules easier to understand…..
JB
July 22nd, 2010
7:33 am
Man, the blather from the idiot squad is mind numbing!
UGA is a big time cheater??? Really??
Care to inumerate us with what major NCAA violations UGA has commited in oh say, the last 15 to 20 years? Let me save you some time. You wont find any cause they haven’t happened. Such blather and showing how ingnorant you are.
As to not self reporting, if they were any players there and they don’t tell anyone, how do you self report? Hmmmmm…
Sheeeeesh!
The Dawg Post, who is fairly close to the program, is saying that if it’s anyone, it’s former players and if it was Memorial Day, it doesn’t matter.
Continue to speculate all you like but realize how foolish you look when you do.
HBTD!!!
CrackDaddy
July 22nd, 2010
7:33 am
Don’t give out scholarships. Let students earn their way into the universities, then go out for the FB team if they are so inclined. Anyone disagree?
bamafan
July 22nd, 2010
7:35 am
Jeff – this development makes your previous blog about Saban’s concern look even stupider than it was when you wrote it. I suppose it is now okay for Coach Richt to be concerned but it was newsworthy and subject to your biting criticism yesterday when Coach Saban expressed his concern. Maybe we better review the SEC Media Days tape – Coach Saban may have been talking about sportswriters and not agents when he used the word pimp.
theTruth
July 22nd, 2010
7:37 am
Yes, there were Ga players at the party. This has been confirmed, those players were Michael Moore, Jeff Owens, Rashad Jones. Notice anything? I’m waiting for an update on the story…… waiting……
As for AJ, Moore’s tweet said it best.
That country boy has never been to south beach
Pollack also tweeted that AJ was not there
theTruth
July 22nd, 2010
7:38 am
bamafan, Shultzie a pimp, lol
bamafan
July 22nd, 2010
7:41 am
Got to have somebody to dislike now that Terrence Moore is gone!
PappyHappy
July 22nd, 2010
7:42 am
At present, nothing would surprise me that would happen within the athletic department of UGA. Seriously, would it surprise you?? Think that as long as Dr Adams is at the helm, anything could go on — as long as you do not get caught!!
ugag is irrelevant
July 22nd, 2010
7:43 am
yawn …. nothing out of that pig-trough is of any interest to anybody other than themselves
Paddy
July 22nd, 2010
7:44 am
AJ said he was at home and not at this party. End of story for the NCAA. You should know if you were 600 miles away at the famous Fountainbleu Hotel.
LOR
July 22nd, 2010
7:59 am
Now we know why tony was so mad yesterday. his little georgie doggies have stupid players too.
JB
July 22nd, 2010
8:01 am
Or from reading buffoonery from folks like you.
HBTD!!!
Don
July 22nd, 2010
8:01 am
Yeah right, he’s from SC, a lot of the players involved are from SC and NC, likely all friends. The ncaa is investigating. WHy would they come all the way to athens just to ask ol AJ hey were you there? They know he was there. Ol AJ is lying out his arse because getting caught costs you big in the draft.
JB
July 22nd, 2010
8:03 am
The Don has spoken. Insert roll eyes icon here.
HBTD!!!
Athenian
July 22nd, 2010
8:04 am
Much ado about nothing. This is just a routine inspection of the SEC. Maybe we should lose a national title or two to get them off our backs.
Don
July 22nd, 2010
8:06 am
Right jb. I understand. I know how hard common sense and logic are for uga fans!
JB
July 22nd, 2010
8:10 am
Or maybe some coach or player, from another school, suggested such and they’re doing their due diligence. Especially if some of our recently graduated players were there.
Common sense, indeed.
HBTD!!!
DYNAMICBIGBOY
July 22nd, 2010
8:10 am
Hey Schultz, I know you are salivating over the thought that AJ Greene might be cought up in this, but he’s not. So go back drooling over the bumblebees.
Name Dropper
July 22nd, 2010
8:11 am
Ther’s a reason why people call UGA The Cesspool of the South.
And it’s not just the red panties and Saint Jan Kemp.
timo
July 22nd, 2010
8:11 am
“Jeff, I asked Mr. College Football this same question (no response yet): If USC, Bama or any other school for that matter, is forced to vacate bowl wins, shouldn’t that also mean they should return the money they received for winning that particular bowl game?”
They didn’t get the money for winning the game. They got the money for participating. If an investigation shows they did not participate (!) , then they can give the money back.
JB
July 22nd, 2010
8:13 am
Mostly cause the are yellow maggot fans who are tired of being owned and can’t come up with anythinig else to say. No matter how foolish that come back might be.
HBTD!!!
Don
July 22nd, 2010
8:15 am
Keep grasping man. Yeah it’s all hearsay!! He was sittin in his town a fishin. I was not at that party. Nevermind the ncaa is sending investiGATORS to ask WHY. Why what? Of course he would lie. It will cost him millions. I would too.
richham
July 22nd, 2010
8:17 am
Seriously TMZ? That is the source that claims he was at a party. That doesn’t worry me at all. Green has more than earned his stripes and this would be highly out of character for him.
Tough road ahead for Georgia? And the reason is? Just because they want to talk to the school and some of the athletes doesn’t mean anything happened. Why don’t you guys take a deep breath and wait until the investigation is finished.
Alex
July 22nd, 2010
8:17 am
Who’s owned more? GT by UGA in football or UGA by UF since 91? That would be uga by UF. How does it feel to be so dominated by your arch rival?
Sojourner
July 22nd, 2010
8:17 am
After the story broke late Wednesday of the NCAA’s inquiry at Georgia, former Bulldogs linebacker Rennie Curran, who gave up his final season of college eligibility to enter this year’s NFL draft, addressed the matter on his Twitter account.
“Can’t believe how hard the ncaa is trying to crack down on college athletes,” Curran tweeted. “How can [you] expect someone not to look to outside sources…”
Continuing on his next tweet, Curran wrote: “… when there are video games being made of you, your jerseys getting sold, your family is struggling [and] you don’t even get a dime except pell [grant].”
Curran is obviously admitting guilt. What a freaking moron.
Nope
July 22nd, 2010
8:18 am
David C,
That makes perfect since?? Level the playing field?? If that were the case, wouldn’t they only have to sanction UF and Bama? I would say aside from those two teams, the playing field is pretty level for the rest of the country.
Truth, justice, and the American way
July 22nd, 2010
8:20 am
You Dawg fans who keep repeating “30-24″ like a mantra enjoy yourselves all you want. The thing is… Tech alumni and fans have lives that don’t depend entirely on what a bunch of kids does on Saturday afternoons. College sports are fun to follow, but the biggest reason for going to college is to get an education.
UGA fans don’t seem to care about anything but football, and they don’t care if their players are enrolled in silly majors that no parents who are paying the bills would send their kids to UGA for. The very few football and basketball players who graduate have no job opportunities and end up unemployed or working in menial jobs that hardly require a college degree.
Georgia Tech is a real school with serious academic standards, and that includes scholarshipped athletes. UGA has a long history of being a party school, where parents send their kids for an easy degree, even if the degree itself is practically worthless.
Jan Kemp exposed the crap going on at UGA with athletes being enrolled in courses a ten-year-old kid could pass. That was almost three decades ago, and nothing has changed. If anything, the abuses are more blatant today. Way too many illiterate morons are being recruited, and the very high arrest rate shows clearly that Richt does not care if his players have any morals or self-discipline.
The bottom line is that most Tech fans have very good jobs and productive lives that don’t depend on Tech’s football record for their happiness in life. It would be great to beat UGA more often, but when you put scholar-athletes up against dummy-athletes, it’s usually no contest.
It’s pretty pathetic to see UGA fans who typically have never been within miles of a college classroom and who live or die with UGA’s weekly results on the football field.
So keep on posting your “30-24″ all you want, especially since you’re home with plenty of time on your hands. I wish you well, maybe you’ll get lucky and get your old job back at the Waffle House before your unemployment checks stop coming.
JB
July 22nd, 2010
8:20 am
I know you want this to be true but wishing so doesn’t make it so. Two, if you have any clue about SEC football you know full well that the other schools point fingers at each other 24/7. All UGA folks say he wasn’t there as does he. I’m going with that until proven otherwise. You are going with hearsay.
As to losing millions, not! Even if he was do you really want to try to sit there and tell me he wouldn’t still be a top ten pick???
Run along now. With every post you make you prove to be even more ignorant.
HBTD!!!
Athenian
July 22nd, 2010
8:20 am
I wish everyone on here had to photocopy their degree from said instutution to comment. The rhetoric on here is riduculous. And I am a UGA grad, not a Wal-mart “bulldog” fan.
SEC media days: Catching a breath and waiting on Richt | Jeff Schultz
July 22nd, 2010
8:22 am
[...] The NCAA is conducting an “inquiry” — I’m not sure if it qualifies as an investigation yet — into Georgia’s program. [...]
JB
July 22nd, 2010
8:27 am
Oh lord!!! Not the academics crap, again. You might want to check up on where UGA sits, these days, in regard to such.
You also can’t tell us, least not with a straight face, that you wouldn’t take every kid we recruit.
You can also tell me how often you ran around, last year, when you had your once a decade win and didn’t talk about that win but talked about how many of your kids graduated with what degree. Pah-Lease!!!!
You get owned by us in most sports you play and it burns you to your core. You know it and I know. You also know that UGA and Yech don’t compete in academics because we offer very few of the same majors. You want to be an engineer, you go to Yech. You want to major in damn near anything else, you go to UGA. Degrees from both will get you far.
So, you hate losing to us in what we do really compete in and I hate it for ya!!!!!
HBTD!!!
Nope
July 22nd, 2010
8:28 am
This will blow over where AJ is concerned. I saw him in Summerville myself over the memorial day weekend with his family having a good time.
tim
July 22nd, 2010
8:31 am
there’s a rumor that green was cavorting with the south fl gay community and uga is aware of his behavior…someone even mentioned that the red panties belonged to a.j.
KP
July 22nd, 2010
8:31 am
Sounds like wishful thinking to me JB
MisterT
July 22nd, 2010
8:33 am
Can’t see how a party in May 2010 would cause a need to vacate wins prior unless the “relationship” between a play & agent was prior to any games. I think that “vacating wins” is a bunch of bunk anyway.
I imagine that cmr wants to get tot he bottom of this before AJ plas a snap this year though. He could be deemed ineligible and cost uga wins or put on some type probation.
I have to agree with Saban & Meyer about agents.
R Curran is just incriminating himself based on his tweets.
The student athletes are there to get an education. that is their pay. The fact that many choose notto take advantage of that is their own fault. Yes, the schools do make money off the sale of jerseys, TV and the rest of the marketing. The atletes would not have the opportunity to showcase themselves if the school were not also paying the way for all those athletes that they also have to pay to have educated, fed and housed…the ones that block, kick, hold the PAT, or even just hold the dummys at practice so the stars can get face time and be marketed to the next level. The stars will get their payday, but they should be preparing for the possiblity that they won’t by taking advantage of the education opportunity…even if it is uga.
I get it that they feel like they are bing taken advantage of by “footbal mills.” The fact is that some of them will score contracts that will be equal to the profit of the institution during their time of training. If they have a beef it is with the NFL or NBA that restrict their being allowed to “work” until a certian age. Oh yeah, most of them weren’t ready to play at that level when they came out of High School.
Many of the ones that do come out early end up blowing the millions they make because they aren’t mature enough to handle the money when they come out. The agents that “pimp” them end up keeping more of what players earn than the players do. A Fool & His Money are soon parted.
I could go on all day on this…bottom line is that the cry baby athletes are completely selfish. “I want mine now.” People don’t appreciate that you have to learn, then work, then earn. Not just in sports…every walk of life. Then if they aren’t willing to learn and work, they want the government to take care of them.
Sorry, I digress!
THWg!
V Tech
July 22nd, 2010
8:35 am
99% of the players on rosters at any of these big schools couldn’t be admitted under regular admission rules. Many can barely read or write. The academic rules are thrown out the window so big and fast players can generate millions in profits for universities to build fancy stadiums and pay millions in salaries and benefits for coaches. A total disgrace.
JB
July 22nd, 2010
8:35 am
Or facts…
HBTD!!!
JB
July 22nd, 2010
8:36 am
Or facts…