UGA aware of accusations in Columbus that could affect eligibility of Jarvis Jones, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
A police investigation in Columbus has uncovered alleged illegal activity in the parks and recreation department there that may or may not affect the eligibility of Georgia football player Jarvis Jones and basketball signee Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported Sunday that an unauthorized bank account controlled by the parks director and one of his associates was used to pay for flights to and from Los Angeles for Jones while he was playing football for Southern Cal, and for the cell phone bill of Caldwell-Pope’s mother. Both Jones and Caldwell-Pope played AAU basketball for the Georgia Blazers, a “city-funded, Nike-sponsored” group overseen by parks director Tony Adams and Herman Porter.
Adams allegedly used the team’s credit card to pay for four flights for Jones to or from Los Angeles worth a total of $828 from June to October of 2009, according to the police investigation. Also, police allege Porter paid the $280 Verizon phone bill of Rhonda Caldwell in July of 2009 with some of the money coming out of the team’s account.
Eric Baumgartner, Georgia’s compliance director, told the Ledger-Enquirer, “I have not received or heard of anything” from the NCAA regarding the matter.
Reached Sunday, athletic association spokesman Claude Felton told the AJC, “We are aware of it and will do our due diligence in looking into the matter.”
Jones, a sophomore linebacker out of Carver High, transferred to UGA last year and is slated to start at outside linebacker this season. Caldwell-Pope, a five-star shooting guard, signed with the Bulldogs out of Greenville High last November and is scheduled to enroll at UGA this summer.
Whether or not this activity would affect either players’ eligibility at UGA is unclear. The newspaper cited a similar case with a Baylor basketball this past spring. Forward Perry Jones was declared ineligible after an investigation determined that, while he was in high school, an AAU coach provided his mother with three 15-day loans that did not total more than $1,000 and paid for the player to travel to a preseason pro football game in San Diego, which cost $4,100. Perry Jones was suspended from Baylor’s first-round Big 12 tournament game the first five games of the 2011-2012 season.
CLICK HERE to read the full report from the Ledger-Enquirer. Check back for further developments.
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281 comments Add your comment
Black Mountain Bulldog
June 27th, 2011
2:08 pm
Thanks for the clarification: BMHAW.
dawgfan
June 27th, 2011
2:17 pm
A HUGE problem in this story is the “Nike sponsorship” of any AAU program. Come on, this absolutely invites this type of behavior and Nike gets off scott free. They are offering incentives to these progrmas and the directors to build an early fan base for thier product. But in the end, it serves to show these kids that sports is a money game and there will be someone willing to pay the way if you can hit a jumpshot or run a 4.3 fourty. If the colleges can’t pay the athletes, then Nike or any other corp youth league sponsor should be acoountable for finacial improprieties within sponsored programs. At the very least, Nike should remove their support from these two bozo’s and the AAU program in question.
Will
June 27th, 2011
2:37 pm
Two unrelated sources with interest in this developing story have told me this has the potential for exploding onto the national sports scene.
Based on what I believe is to unfold, it may be best for UGA to go ahead and get ahead of this mess and cut ties with these young men. This will keep the athletic program above and away from a situation in Columbus that is going to quickly expand.
It will not be pretty.
jbdawg
June 27th, 2011
2:42 pm
The leather helmet blog has an interesting piece discussing reasons why Jones may not be penalized at all. Apparently, it has to do with “pre-existing relationships”. Here’s a link
It seems legitimate to me. There was obviously a pre-existing relationship with the two mean, and neither of the two men appear to have a relationship with USC. I’m hoping for the best….
Anti AAU
June 27th, 2011
3:04 pm
Dawgfan and Will,
Glad someone beside myself see the real problem. It’s AAU peroid. And yes Will this is a national problem because traveling AAU programs are money making machines. The coaches of these programs are in it for the money. A great percentage of kids on these teams go on to play Pro ball (basketbal and football). This a list of the top Traveling teams in Ga. GA Stars
GA Blazers
Atlanta Celtics
GA Elite
Coastal Crew Rebels
AAU is the number one reason why community base basketball programs have fallen ( ex SW Macon, Douglas Atl, Griffin and Statesboro to name a few). The players are recruited from these community to bigger school in Atlanta ( ex Milton, Wheeler). The AAU coaches steer their players to high school and then to certain colleges for money.
CecilDawg
June 27th, 2011
3:04 pm
Some of you guys sound like you’re terrified that Adams and McGarrity might want to raise the academic standing of UGa. Would that be the end of the world? Braggin’ ’round the campfire about football success is fun, but if I had a UGa degree, I’d appreciate someone being concerned about perceptions and accomplishments. But that’s just me…
Bang My Head Against the Wall
June 27th, 2011
3:10 pm
Will,
Living just outside of Columbus, you have probably heard the same things I have heard and witnessed in one report that is turned over to The GHSAA and the NCAA. The situation is not pretty and it will effect a ton of players in 4 sports who are enrolled in college or about to enter college this fall. The amount of head turning figures I saw made it pretty evident players were paid and benefits were given and the players involved are not all from the Columbus and Muscogee County districts. The fact that players were “moved” to Columbus area schools from outside areas is what has caught the GHSAA’s eye. This is going to messy and the reporters on the case have been given full authority to investigate, interview and uncover many many damaging documents.
Once again, this as it stands today does not reflect any wrongdoing of any college or university but does raise some questions about High School coaches and administrators turning their heads to some major eligiblity violations at the high school and amateur level.
Bang My Head Against the Wall
June 27th, 2011
3:27 pm
jbdawg,
The pre-existing relationship is far far away from what the NCAA views in this instance as “acceptable” and according to one familiar with the CLE the report is not pretty and documents are going to published that will make this case one of those that changes the outcome of games played by many many high school players and athletes. The NCAA is going to go after some of these guys and from we saw on paper it is alot more than these two or three athletes.
WDE
June 27th, 2011
3:50 pm
I can see it now…NCAA..Young man were you aware your Mom’s cell phone bill was being illegally paid for ? Player…my Mom had a cell phone??
jbdawg
June 27th, 2011
4:00 pm
WDE… I hope that was supposed to be sarcasim, because we all know Cam played the ignorant card when it is highly unlikely that he had no idea.
WDE
June 27th, 2011
4:07 pm
@jbdawg nope I meant it for certain and for sure…but for the reason you mentioned…they all know to play dumb now.
AltamahaDawg
June 27th, 2011
4:13 pm
Soundes like we have a bunch of things getting mixed up in the discussion. GHSA issues aren’t nessesarily NCAA issues.
AAU might have broken its own rules, but the the NCAA would have to directly link that to recruiting voilations wouldnt they? I understand the potential, and it seems to me that AAU was cerainly trying to influence mama to dig them, and I suppose then they could leverage that later, but at the time 2009, they were only acting on thier own behalf weren’t they.
It would seem to me that in the Jones case, an argument could better be made it was on behalf of some college program. Although I’d question how smart that use of funds was since he was appearanlty already decided.
Back in the day
June 27th, 2011
4:24 pm
I flew on now defunct Eastern Airlines to the Bahamas from Miami back in 1970 as a UGA Junior. My Florida grad uncle from Arcadia Florida paid for it so that I could do a family reunion. Nice trip that was. NCAA cared less. I was only 5′11″ and weighed 165 lbs and was slow and had bad hands. I did not play ball either. Nobody cared then or now about my trip.
These young men are surrounded by folks that may not have ther best interests at heart. THAT is the numero uno problemo with today’s kids. Lack of good adult leadership and ………….. parenting.
Too bad ………….. it could cost these young men their shot.
Go Dogs.
Blind Loyalist
June 27th, 2011
4:59 pm
AltamahaDawg
It looks like you are having a hard time looking over the hill due to the mountain. Accepting any form of gratuaity is an NCAA violation and from is being reported on various locations in an around Columbus the Jones kid will lose games if what was reported today on sports talk is verified. The two clowns from the Recreation Department have cut deals and are trying to save themselves by revealing where the money went and Jones was apparently often “hands out” according to the last report.
Get past the fact he was not at UGA, he was not at USC during a portion of this time, he was in Columbus and accepted extra benefits from a source, and the source does not matter in the eyes of the NCAA. He will lose games and maybe more.
As for the GHSAA, they seem to be interested in recruiting players to schools more than anything else. I know you are hoping for the best, but games will be taken from these guys and no matter how hard we want them not be punished, it is going to happen and you and I have to get over it pretty quick and stop making excuses for players who knew money and benefits were being exchanged.
brandon
June 27th, 2011
6:42 pm
I don’t quite understand why it matters if they weren’t enrolled in an NCAA institution. At least, I don’t understand why it matters for Cladwell-Pope (I get that Jones was at USC). If Pope wasn’t even enrolled in college yet, why does it matter that an AAU coach paid a phone bill?
fpice
June 27th, 2011
6:50 pm
MarineDog, take off the blinders. Mark Richt must approve ALL recruits. CMR and his staff should be diligent at looking into backgrounds of potential signees.
I understand you do not think Richt can do wrong. This must be around episode 96 or so of stupid mistakes!
UGA fans and alumni deserve a top quality coach. $3 million approx. a year for this joke is idiotic.
ugab
June 27th, 2011
8:23 pm
How in the heck does Scam Cam Newton get away with recieving hundreds of thousands of dollars?
Blind Loyalist
June 27th, 2011
9:31 pm
It is all about eligiblity, and accepting anything in the eyes of the NCAA that is not offered to the average student is a violation.
etdawg
June 27th, 2011
10:50 pm
just suspend him for the boise state game-the dawgs can beat them easy without him.
59bulldawg
June 28th, 2011
12:14 pm
No the University of Georgia is not involved. But the suspension of one or both these players would hurt Georgia athletics. I smell an Auburn or Alabama rat in the sports office of the Columbus Ledger-Enqirer. Hmmmm!
Chip Towers
June 28th, 2011
12:45 pm
newnancoach: You pose very good questions. Anytime you see any athlete sign to go to school far away, it is reasonable to wonder how he plans to get back and forth. If the family can afford it, there are no questions. If there are extended family members that choose to pay for it, no problem, as long as the money comes from them and is not redirected through a source connected to the school. If there are friends of the family that choose to foot the bill, that’s not a problem either as long as a preexisting long-term relationship can be proven and that friend has no ties to the school the athlete attends.
We don’t know for certain just yet what Jones’ relationship or Caldwell-Pope’s relationship was to the men in question. That they were tied to the AAU team is problematic. But that is what UGA is starting to look into now. You can bet they’re fully investigating all those factors. Even though it’s not likely to result in any institutional infractions, that it affects the eligibility of their student-athletes makes it their problem to deal with. You can bet calls will be made to Southern California as well.
As for you question regarding visits, the school is permitted one official visit in which it can pay travel expenses. Other than that, the same rules apply.
Buzzzed
June 28th, 2011
10:38 pm
This is ugly. UGA gets off, each player out for a year. AAU criminals go to jail.
MarineDog
June 28th, 2011
10:40 pm
@Buzzzed,
I really don’t know how to call this one. So many variables.
Loyal Dawg
June 29th, 2011
4:38 pm
Hee, hee, hee! This is were the NCAA opened a can of worms with the Cam Newton thing. Really, how can they do anything if both kids deny having any knowledge?
Seadoggy
June 29th, 2011
5:46 pm
I agree that this has nothing to do with UGA, and the football and basketball programs at UGA should not be penalized. This happened while Jarvis Jones was attending USC, and that school is the one that should be penalized if any school is. They should have been policing their own players more closely. Maybe they should have to forfeit a win or two from the year he played there.
Seadoggy
June 29th, 2011
6:04 pm
Mark Richt self-reports A.J. Green’s sale of his jersey, and A.J. gets suspended for 4 games. The loss of Green for those games had a profoundly negative impact on Georgia’s season last year. Head Coach Jim Tressel of OSU hides the fact that five of his players did the same or worse than Green. When the violations are discovered, each of the players is only suspended for one more game than A.J. was. They should have been suspended for double the number of games as A.J. for Tressel’s failure to report the violations. I think the NCAA should tacitly reward Coach Richt for his honesty by calling this a de minimis, no foul situation and not impose any penalty on Jarvis Jones, which would have the effect of unfairly penalizing the UGA football program.
sweep
June 29th, 2011
9:32 pm
mcgarity got good at covering up player crimes at florida. He’ll figure a way to sweep this under the rug and keep the players eligible for the big games. They’ll get “suspended” for some creampuff type game—book it.
JayD
June 30th, 2011
11:56 am
Jarvis if fine – Won’t miss a game
JayD
June 30th, 2011
11:57 am
Not sure why Jones would be in trouble with the NCAA. When he received money or plane fare – He was in college, playing a different sport – Wouldn’t the loans or gifts just be coming from an friend?? And how would he know what kind or who’s bank account it came from?? I think his matter is a police matter, not an NCAA matter at all
MarineDog
June 30th, 2011
10:46 pm
Interesting fact: In all the games that UGA lost last year, the other team scored first, with the exception of UCF in which the infamous 4th and inches field goal was the first score of the game.
MikeP
July 1st, 2011
2:45 pm
Chiefdawg
June 26th, 2011
4:26 pm
“Won’t turn out good for UGA. You can bet your bottom dollar on that. Yet Cam Newton was ruled eligible. Amazing!”
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There’s a good reason for that. There is proof that these guys got extra benefits. There is no evidence that Cam Newton or anyone associated with him got anything extra.