H*****r
发帖数: 764 | 1 BATON ROUGE — Former recruiting scout and prospect adviser Willie Lyles
says his Complete Scouting Services business is out of service, but the
mission statement on the still-active website remains true:
* Oregon's Lache Seastrunk (15) is part of an investigation into
recruiting agent Willie Lyles, who also has connections to LSU.
By Mark Ylen, AP
Oregon's Lache Seastrunk (15) is part of an investigation into
recruiting agent Willie Lyles, who also has connections to LSU.
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By Mark Ylen, AP
Oregon's Lache Seastrunk (15) is part of an investigation into recruiting
agent Willie Lyles, who also has connections to LSU.
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"Complete Scouting Service is a scouting provider that has changed the world
of college football recruiting."
That is clearly the case at the University of Oregon, which has garnered
national headlines for months because of an NCAA investigation concerning
Lyles. Often referred to as a "street agent," Lyles might have steered star
Texas players Lache Seastrunk and LaMichael James to the Ducks against NCAA
rules in addition to supplying prospect film and other information within
the rules concerning scouting services. Oregon paid Lyles $25,000 for his
services in 2010.
Oregon, or other schools with which Lyles has had contacts, also might have
broken NCAA rules in the use of Lyles as an improper representative or
booster of athletic interests if he is found to have given prospects
impermissible benefits such as cash, gifts or payment for trips to a school
for a camp or an unofficial visit.
*
MORE: Ohio state to answer NCAA charges by Friday
"NCAA rules allow conversations and information gathering between agents and
student-athletes, but agreements and receiving extra benefits are not
permitted," NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said Thursday. "Under NCAA rules,
an agent is any individual that markets or promotes a student-athlete.
Essentially, it doesn't matter how the individual classifies themselves -
whether it be 'agent,' 'runner,' 'financial adviser,' 'cousin,' et cetera —
but rather the important distinction and focus is on what activities this
person is doing for the student-athlete."
Lyles, who lives in Houston and works at one of the Spec's high-end grocery
stores there, recently has been granting extensive interviews for the first
time, notably with Yahoo Sports.
LSU, which paid Lyles $6,000 in December for his scouting services and $26,
000 to Lyles and/or his various scouting companies since 2008, continues to
come up during his discussions about Oregon, which opens the 2011 season
against LSU in Arlington, Texas, on Sept. 3. But that's not why.
LSU recruited Seastrunk in 2009-10 when he was the No. 3 tailback in the
nation out of Temple, Texas, before signing with Oregon in February 2010.
Seastrunk, who is a cousin of LSU tailback Michael Ford, attended a camp at
LSU with Lyles in the summer of 2009, according to Lyles. Trevon Randle, a
linebacker from League City, Texas, who signed with LSU in February 2010,
also has been linked to Lyles, as has LSU defensive line coach Brick Haley,
who recruited Randle reportedly with the help of Lyles.
Lyles said he has been interviewed extensively by NCAA investigators, who he
said asked about LSU as well as other schools, and he expects to be
interviewed more by the NCAA.
"I know (LSU head coach) Les Miles, and he knows me," Lyles said on
Oregonian columnist John Canzano's radio show in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday.
"I've been at high schools with coaches from LSU. With LSU, it was a
relationship I had with those guys (coaches). A lot of those coaches, I
spoke with. They inquired about players and things of that nature. They
asked for information, and I provide them with information. Kids were never
steered to go anywhere. I find it hard to believe that I can just control
these people to make them do what I want them to do. It's their job to
recruit. I don't close deals for them."
Asked by Canzano if he escorted recruits to the LSU campus, Lyles at first
said no.
"In eight years of working in scouting and doing different things in
scouting, you get a chance to see a lot and do a lot," he said. "It's just
one of those things where you see a lot of things that go on. And that's
just something that I just don't want even to touch on at this point. That's
about it. I haven't decided on what information I do want to talk about at
this point as far as dealing with them (LSU). I don't want to say anything
that would be out of line or out of turn as far as my dealings with LSU."
Asked again if he escorted recruits to LSU, Lyles reversed his field. "I
have. Well, yeah. Yes, I have. I actually went with Lache (Seastrunk). It
was me, Lache and his mother (Evelyn) on that visit to a camp at LSU on
campus."
LSU associate vice chancellor/associate athletics director Herb Vincent is
confident LSU has not broken NCAA rules concerning its employment of Lyles.
"Accompanying a recruit to campus doesn't necessarily constitute a violation
," Vincent said. "When an athlete comes on a visit or to a camp, they can
basically bring whomever they want. If that person paid the prospects' way,
that would be an extra benefit."
LSU has stringent guidelines and check lists for the numerous scouting
services it uses in a given year that are not all required by the NCAA.
"The first thing we tell our coaches is they have to get whatever scouting
service they're going to use to complete documentation for our internal
control," said LSU associate athletics director Miriam Segar, who works in
compliance.
"It's our own internal check to ensure that NCAA rules are being followed by
the service," Vincent said.
LSU's guidelines included written reports on separate dates and a continual
flow of film over the length of Lyles' pay period, Lyles said in his
interview with Yahoo Sports. Oregon did not have or use such written
guidelines.
"As far as tangible paper, they (Oregon officials) didn't have that," Lyles
said. "That's what I said to them (the NCAA). I sent LSU copies of junior
college athletes. That's what they got. They paid $6,000 this past year for
the services. They purchased junior college information from California and
Kansas."
LSU paid Lyles that $6,000 on Dec. 21, 2010, according to Vincent, who
supplied a complete list of LSU's payments to recruiting services dating to
2007. On Dec. 15, 2010, the No. 1 junior college quarterback in the nation
— Zach Mettenberger of Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kan. —
signed with LSU.
"That's a coincidence," Vincent said. "There is no common time we pay
recruiting services. We pay year-round. We usually pay when we get the
invoice. To the extent I know, our relationship with Willie Lyles is the
same as with other recruiting services. He completed a service for us, and
we paid for those services."
Mettenberger's father, Bernie Mettenberger, said he has heard of Lyles
because of his association with Oregon, but he that has never met or spoken
to Lyles.
"I wouldn't know him if I crossed him at the supermarket," Mettenberger said
. "Absolutely not."
LSU has been distancing itself from Lyles since March, when news of Lyles'
potentially illegal relationships with Oregon first came out.
"I think everyone is going to have to reconsider how they use Willie Lyles,"
Miles said at the time before being told by LSU officials not to discuss
the matter.
"We have no ongoing agreement with Willie Lyles that I'm aware of," Vincent
said. |
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