Sooner Saga; Athletes and Cars
2006-08-13
Posted by: badanov
One of the subjects which keep popping up in sports talk radio in Okahoma City these days is the other shoe dropping.
OU star qb Rhett Bomar and an offensive linemean J.D. Quinn, were both caught taking money from a local car dealership for hours they had been clocked in for during games, and road trips.
The other show dropping is of course an NCAA investigation. The word is from the OU athletic department is that no formal NCAA invstigation has been announced, and no visits have been made, and the sentiment is that since we ( OU ) caught it and reported it, as well as took subsequent action, this should not hurt us at all.
The timing to much of the facts is curious. The days "worked" in question took place last fall, and sometime between then and July, 2006, OU compliance office discovered the wrongdoing. Between that time and just about the time OU mens basketball coach Kelvin Sampson was sent to his room without supper, the owners of the auto dealership sold it to an old auto dealership family in Oklahoma City, around April, 2006.
To us, it seemed there was a lag between the presumed time of discovery and action taken ( about the time an Oklahoma sportswriter suggested Sampson was finished at Oklahoma ) of at least three months.
How are the mens basketball and football programs related?
One of the deep sighs of relief for the OU baksetball program was that OU escaped with mild NCAA sanctions and Sampson got hammered ( kissed actually ) in his new job at national mens college basketball icon Indiana. The dreaded "lack of institutional control' label, which gives the NCAA leave to impose penalties from loss of scholarships to forfeited games to the death penalty: the severest penalties were avoided by OU.
Our view is that Sampson's telephone calls to juniors of high schools, which occurred 577 times in the affected time was an egregious violation, so much so that Oklahoma did escape with a hand slap and, Sampson, well, he just got away.
577 illegal phone calls. You have to make one of those calls every other working day over five years in order to make that many illegal phone calls.
This latest revelation has the OU athletic department nervous and for good reason. OU kicked out the offending players: the offending car leadership was sold in the same month that Sampson was cashiered, and until this latest revelation came about, OU officials must have thought they were in the clear.
But even with Bomar and Quinn gone, there is a second incident which occurred last fall and it includs their ace running back Adrian Peterson.
The car dealership had given Peterson a late model Lexus to drive until a deal could be worked out for Peterson's next ride.
Depending on the source. Peterson drove a late model Lexus for between two and four weeks. We do not know the outcome of the deal. It is said to be common knowledge ( press reports have been publsihed/broadcast concerning this car deal ) and that the OU athletic department is investigating.
What OU officials are worried about is when, not if, NCAA investigator come to Norman to conduct their investigation, will they find more than OU has admitted. Speculation on sports talk radio is this is the other shoe about to drop on Oklahoma athletics.
And the dreaded NCAA charge of "lack of instutitonal control" could wreck OU for years to come.
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