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
♦
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256 comments Add your comment
KP
July 22nd, 2010
8:37 am
JB The ncaa isn’t going to send reps to athens if he wasn’t there.
Second, dez bryant was a top 10 pick but was taken i think 26th. He lost millions. He got to play some last year. Will AJ? AJ WOULD NOT be a top 10 pick after last season. You know very little about pro scouting and the draft if you think that. He was a 15-25 pick. If he missed an entire season, this most certainly could not him down to the bottom. Plus they have that change in pay starting this year in the nfl for rookies. I know you really want to believe him but someone has proof he was there. He may have thought he covered his tracks but that is very hard to do in today’s tech age. Poor Murray won’t have anyone to throw to if AJ is gone. Talk about a one dimensional team. They may run the ball more than Tech. Ha
KP
July 22nd, 2010
8:39 am
What facts? Facts are statements that are known to be true?
The Difference
July 22nd, 2010
8:40 am
You can kiss the recruits goodbye! No one wants to play for a team that will be on probation!
South Carolina Dawg
July 22nd, 2010
8:41 am
I went to High School with AJ and a few of my high school buddies said they saw AJ in Summerville Memorial Day weekend. AJ is a very honest guy and all lying would do is hurt his future and he knows that. AJ is not the type of guy to promote himself or bring attention to himself, all he wants to do is play football and help the Dawgs win the SEC.
JB
July 22nd, 2010
8:47 am
KP – You are obviously another person who is clueless. Her is a link to a 2011 mock from Si.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/andrew_perloff/04/27/2011.mock.draft/index.html
Feel free to research others. You’ll see similar results.
As previously mentioned, the NCAA is doing an “inquiry’ AND not an “investigation”. Again, if a bunch of recently graduated Dawgs were there and some coach suggested that AJ Green was there, might the ncaa “inquire”?
Again, you are another who want this to be so but wishing it doesn’t make it.
HBTD!!!
DawgPounded
July 22nd, 2010
8:52 am
Hmmm JB you sound awfully defensive…kinda like you’re trying to convince yourself it’s all a bad dream. It’s not. Say goodbye to A.J.
JB
July 22nd, 2010
8:53 am
Nah… Just trying to enlighten many of Atlanta’s envious, bitter and clueless. It’s readily apparent that someone has to do it and it might as well be me.
HBTD!!!
South Carolina Dawg
July 22nd, 2010
8:53 am
Dawgpounded,
You are a real idiot. I just told you that numerous confirmed friends of mine saw AJ in Summerville for Memorial Day weekend. Last I check you can’t be 2 places at one time.
MisterT
July 22nd, 2010
8:55 am
JB,
I don’t think that uga is a bad school acedemically. I really don’t think it ever has been. They have produced many well educated men and women that have inturn made a lot of money. I would never argue that ou can’t get a good education there. The problem lies in that historically you can also go to uga and slack off and still get a degree.
The competition to get into uga as well as any other school in Georgia that has been brought by the HOPE Scholarships has limited the number of slackers that actually get into uga. The number of degrees and the varying levels of difficulty to get those degrees still allows for the slacker to get through.
Athletes often do get a pass on the “competition” part of the entrance requirements. The requirements are still lower at uga than at Tech and some others. After the athletes get into uga, they can then take advantage of the much less demanding avenues of study that uga provides.
Tech has less demanding degrees than others. Athletes do tend to gravitate towards those degrees. Tose or that degree is Mangement. The rub is that Industrial Management at Tech is on par or even considered by many to be more difficult than a Business degree at uga. business at uga is considered a pretty difficult avenue.
Yes, things have changed at uga since Jan Kemp exposed the program. You should be proud that she did. uga didn’t need to sink to that level to acheive success. Somethings are still the same though. There are definitely some much easier routes to take at uga and still pass than there are or have ever been at Tech. You can’t tell me, at least not with a straight face that this is not the case.
Congrats to you for having gone to uga and taken one of the more difficult courses of study and achieving success in your life beyond the dawgs winning on Saturdays. At least I hope you have.
To Hell With georgia!
Call Deion
July 22nd, 2010
8:57 am
AJ needs to call Deion Sanders for some counseling on dealing with agents. Maybe Deion can introduce AJ to his good friend, agent Eugene Parker.
KP
July 22nd, 2010
8:57 am
JB
And Dez was a top 10 last year in the mocks before he got suspended moron.
KP
July 22nd, 2010
9:05 am
Mock drafts are a joke. Only the top 3 picks are ever close. D Thomas was nowhere near a top 25 pick before last season. I guarantee you 15 of the players on that list won’t be taken in the first round. Keep being illogical. The guy even called him Calvin Johnson light. And CJ went what, 2nd? I will bet you that AJ is not taken in the top 10 this year even if he plays all season.
Mike
July 22nd, 2010
9:07 am
My question is: Why, if AJ was in Summerville during that weekend did his name even come up? Who said he was there? And why?
KP
July 22nd, 2010
9:09 am
Wow SC dawg. Sticking up for your player huh? Funny I can’t even remember what I did for Mem day and you have “numerous” people that do. QUit lying idiot. You are so FOS.
South Carolina Dawg
July 22nd, 2010
9:11 am
This is truly unreal. AJ was in Summerville and the reason his name is being brought up is because people are starting rumors he was there. Of course if there is any suspicion whatsoever the NCAA is going to inquire. KP, if AJ stays healthy the whole year, I will guarantee he is a Top 10 pick. You are a fool not to think that. NFL scouts drool over the ability AJ has.
JB
July 22nd, 2010
9:11 am
Mr T – I did get a good degree and do very well for myself. It’s what allows me top post here, as I, for the most part, make my own schedule.
That said, I also know it still burns you when we win.
KP – I have mocks by “experts” and you have your opinion…
HBTD!!!
KP
July 22nd, 2010
9:14 am
Because he was there Mike. You think the NCAA would spend the time money and effort going to athens to talk to him if there was solid proof he was in SC? Someone or something linked him there. He’s lying now to appease his coach and hoping he doesn’t get suspended. Who wants to miss the year before they go pro? Why do you think Tony B was so upset in his article yesterday. This was before the uga news was leaked. He was pissed because he knew aj was being investigated and uga is tony’s school.
South Carolina Dawg
July 22nd, 2010
9:14 am
Really KP, you must be smoking way to much reefer not to know what you did Memorial Day weekend or a real Tard. I would imagine you went to some sort of trade school or something and do not have a college education. Good luck flipping burgers at the local Mickey D’s and when you have something to bring to the table, please return to the forum.
Sincerely,
Educated Football Fans
South Carolina Dawg
July 22nd, 2010
9:16 am
Why the hell would AJ lie when he saw what happened to Dez Bryant. This is a smart kid who is not going to ruin his football career for something stupid.
KP
July 22nd, 2010
9:22 am
Experts? Like I said, half the guys they have in that list won’t be drafted in the first round. Nice experts! No gt players were in the mock drafts last year. 2 were taken first round. Dez was a top 10 wr. He went around 25th. Who had the bigger game in OK last year? Dez or AJ? Uh huh.
JB
July 22nd, 2010
9:28 am
Guys, KP knows all. Don’t bother.
HBTD!!!!
KP
July 22nd, 2010
9:28 am
Haha. And you really sound like someone who “knows” all these people in small town south carolina! Nice made up name. The truth hurts doesn’t it. How many of these players are from S Carolina? Seems to be a link. Your team is really gonna suck with no AJ. Hahahaah. All that talk about tech running the ball and that’s what you will be. A one dimensional team with a no experience qb. Haha. Sc and ARK are going to crush your lousy team.
Scott
July 22nd, 2010
9:29 am
Um, they lie because they want to play to improve their draft status. Duh.
Dez still got drafted. He didn’t make as much had he not been suspended. Same applies to AJ and the others.
JB
July 22nd, 2010
9:33 am
Gents, KP knows all. Don’t waste more time trying to prove otherwise.
HBTD!!!
South Carolina Dawg
July 22nd, 2010
9:35 am
Dez Bryant has had serious character issues before he even lied to the NCAA. There were also questions about him coming late to practice and also a health condition (Irregular Heartbeat). AJ Green is a great kid and practices very hard and never runs his mouth. With all that against Dez he still went 25th. AJ will be Top 10 and there is no doubt in my mind about that. If you are really going to compare their stats on one game, you are an even bigger idiot than I thought. I guess Mark Ingram is not any good cause he had a poor game against TN last year too.
MisterT
July 22nd, 2010
9:39 am
JB,
Absolutely burns me. I know it burns you when we do as well. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am sure you feel the same way.
I did go to Tech. It is a very tough school. Admittedly I would likely have enjoyed and done better at uga. As a Realtor now, having gone to uga might have been the better play. But I do alright
Why did I choose Tech then? I thought I wanted to be an engineer…for about two quaters
I also grew up in south Georgia as a Tech fan all my life. uga fans drove me to the passionate level of hate I have for uga…the school. I still like my friends that went to uga. They are fine folks. They just went tot he dark side.
I think Tech will continue to do well under CPJ. The years of going 7-4 and losing to uga 7 out of 8 years are probably gone for the near future. Tech will always have the difficulty of the narrow band of degrees to choose from that will make recruiting a struggle. The guys that we get will be winners though. Not that uga’s aren’t. Ours will tend to have less ego and “me first” mentalities…as a general rule. We will have a few. I think CPJ will mold them well.
JB, I think in your heart of hearts, you like the kind of coach that we have. You know he is a footbal coach as opposed to a CEO and you like that. Don’t you?
THWg!
Lance
July 22nd, 2010
9:43 am
who cares — this is a non-story as it relates to UGA.
JB
July 22nd, 2010
9:47 am
Actually I don’t.
The guy buys rings for beating us one year and then says it’s no big deal the next, when he loses. No big deal to play your in state arch rival? He then suggests that your fan base should take a swing at people. Really?
I think you will always struggle with getting WR’s (not that that may matter) and stud OL, as they both know that they can’t show case their talents in a predominantly run O. I also think that your O will start to get figured out, whcih will force you to pass… Ala IA.
So, frankly, I’d much rather have our coach than yours. Just sayin’.
HBTD!!!
cocky
July 22nd, 2010
9:57 am
As a South Carolina fan I know we are in serious trouble, UGA is not because AJ was at that party unlike Saunders. Like I am worried about playing UGA at 12:20 this season. I’m also afraid of some serious penalties on the USC program. This is not good for us or Bama. I think UF and UGA are ok however.
Bama fan
July 22nd, 2010
10:07 am
It would be pretty sad if UGA was cheating and didn’t have any more to show for it than they do, wouldn’t it?
srschirm
July 22nd, 2010
10:17 am
Give ‘em the Death Penalty.
JB
July 22nd, 2010
10:18 am
Watching Green at the SEC Media day now and he seems to be in awfully good spirits.
HBTD!!!
PMC
July 22nd, 2010
10:27 am
The problem is as mentioned by Mr. CFB all of the contact is by predatory agents who are small time losers that can’t do it the right way.
They do need to have more contact with good agents earlier on so they know how to maximise thier earning ability and how to make an informed decision on when to jump.
They need to modify the rules to let reputable agents have contact and that naturally will help to weed out a lot of the shady dealings and bad sports agents who wind up screwing thier client and their client’s school.
michaelj
July 22nd, 2010
10:28 am
These morons are going to talk to AJ because he’s an exceptional player. He didn’t even talk to that self-important self-reporting POS Chip Towers that was clearly trying to cause trouble.. If these guys that work for the Atlanta paper could actually write and report, this sort of abject speculation wouldn’t see the light of day.
And really, TMZ as a news source? Yeah, they are a step up from Fox so far as integrity and trustworthiness are concerned, but that’s like one small step out of just making stuff up.
They think Sara Palin speaks English, and what’s worse, they actually seem to understand the incomprehensible things she Tweets. (They don’t, either, but they have to act like they do.) As far as Pope Urban is concerned, he’s just getting ahead of the curve, like Pete Carroll. Rams next year? Maybe this all contributed to his heart/panic/conscience attack. Saban, on the other hand, proved beyond a doubt he’s mercenary, and incapable of coaching in the NFL.
This bidness of Saban and Urban acting like agents have Hansen’ disease, and they think they caught a non-communicable disease from smoking Pete Carroll’sHavanas is almost hilarious. I guess there’s no offense taken by their own agents.
At UGA, kids buy beer when they aren’t supposed to. Whoofreakinghooo. Kids in college drink beer. Athens cops have pictures of UGA players and target them.
Sometimes Athens cops recognize them as football players and jack them up beyond anything normal. I lived there years and years, and I know this for a fact. Barney Fife multiplied. And the University Police think they work for Tom Cruise preventing crimes before they’re conceived of. And every one of them wishes he could have played football.
Please apply the Gertrude Stein rule. There’s no there there, unless you make it up.
And the rent-a-guards at GT, they never got emoluments from agents, right? They saw agents more than they ever saw classrooms. What a crock.
Tech Buzz
July 22nd, 2010
10:34 am
The dawg players are on the take and they still lose 3-4 game per year. What gives?
james
July 22nd, 2010
10:39 am
Tech won’t have to worry about this kind of stuff.
Their players don’t get invited to parties.
They are too busy playing world of warcraft to notice.
Doug
July 22nd, 2010
11:27 am
Amendment;
Since the colleges are farm teams for the Pro’s,
And since most footbll players will not graduate from college,
And since most footbll players given the opportunity to go to the Pro’s could care less about their college,
Therefore what is taking place with the NCAA is all in a days work.
And furthermore, the colleges should just take money from the Pro’s, pay the footbll players on a graded scale of ability and let them forget taking up a seat in a classroom.
Alumni and football groupies then can buy tickets without having to be held hostage by the atlhetic association and their money reguest for good seats.
Passed this 23rd day of July 2010.
Dawghater
July 22nd, 2010
11:36 am
Better hope AJ’s not lying to the NCAA. They didn’t like that much last year when OK State’s Dez Bryant did the same! Of course UGA players don’t lie, right Mettenburg.
AJ Knows
July 22nd, 2010
11:47 am
AJ would not lie–Mark has counseled him using bible verses. He’s completely honest.
Damon Evans
July 22nd, 2010
12:49 pm
I’m ratting you bums out. how about em red panties.
Andy
July 22nd, 2010
1:02 pm
Well Memorial Day is a long weekend, is it not possible for AJ to be in Summerville 1 day and in Miami the next day ?
MisterT
July 22nd, 2010
1:07 pm
JB,
It was the defense that was solved by uga last year, notthe offense. If Superman, I mean Nesbitt, had not gone down, it may have been different…nahh…the defense was non-existant. I hope that issue has been solved. Note: It didn’t take CPJ three years to cut the DC loose.
CMR’s loyalty to Martinez likely costs uga a NC the year before last.
I think that WR would be well served to come to Tech. One of uga’s all time greats would have been phnominal in this offense. Heinz Ward is exactly the type of WR that would thrive in the Tech TO. BeBe Thomas was drifted high not only on the strength of his numbers, but because he was a complete WR. He wasn’t afriad to block.
I think you will see more passing anyway. Not because they have to, but because they can.
JB, you are afraid of someone taking a swing at you are you? Don’t talk trash unless you can back it up.
I actually did call a uga fan out on this once. Completely obnoxious at work in front of everyone. I invited him to step outside. Coward. Tried to report me to HR. They laughed at him and tlod him to shut his pie hole. Here is the rub. He never went to uga. Just a redneck with a big mouth and no backbone. Which is typical…not of uga fans necessarily…I meant big mouth and no backbone = all talk. I don’t see CPJ being all mouth. My fear is that one day he does punch somebody and we lose him.
THWg!
michaelj
July 22nd, 2010
1:28 pm
Mister T
I’m sure eevrybody laughed when you “called somebody outside” But you didn;t, and you wouldn’t, because you are a weenie. Making threats on the internet is Tlod you so so plastic pocket protector.
Usually it takes time passing and a ref messing up for Tech to beat Georgia. Sometimes it just takes Reggie Ball playing against actual football players.
Jared
July 22nd, 2010
2:18 pm
Saban calling ANYONE a greedy pimp is laughable.
As a Tech fan, I hope Green is not found to be mixed up in anything like this. Plus, I hate the rule anyways. Coaches make millions, ath. dept’s make even more millions, but the player is supposed to play for love of the school. The NFL should do something about it, as well, since they’re basically getting a free minor league system to evaluate players in.
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July 22nd, 2010
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[...] ♦ NCAA inquiry is the last thing Georgia and Mark Richt need [...]
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July 22nd, 2010
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[...] on this investigation other than NCAA is apparently looking at AJ Green…Sports Illustrated has a quote from AJ that denies the claim of him attending the South Beach Party…Meanwhile, TMZ reports otherwise. At [...]
BeefATL72
July 22nd, 2010
5:08 pm
From what I understand, if you are following AJ’s twitter page, you’re able to go back to memorial day weekend & see where he tweeted he was in Summerville with his family.
Now unless he’s psychic or constructed this outlandish plan to have his mother tweet that for him from Summerville with his own cell phone just to give him a fake alibi while he really went to this party in South Beach, I think it’s a safe bet he wasn’t there.
Mr. Sulu
July 22nd, 2010
7:42 pm
poppycock…….. I can beam A J anywhere he wants to go in a matter of moments…….
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July 23rd, 2010
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[...] ♦ NCAA inquiry is the last thing Georgia and Mark Richt need [...]
R G HIGHT
July 23rd, 2010
10:02 am
If you are old enough to die for your country, You should be allowed to make business decisions and make money anyway you can that is legal. The NCAA dose not have the right to tell anyone that they cant take money. People have the right to decide what benefits them, The NCAA is looking out after their own interest , so why not give the players the same benefit. If a person can pick up some money from an agent before the turns pro more power to him , i fail to see how that can make him a better athlete, it dose not change his talent level. however it is wrong to throw a game , no cheating in that reguard please.