7/1/2011: From Yahoo Sports:
In a wide-ranging, multi-day interview, Lyles said Kelly “scrambled” in late February and asked Lyles to submit retroactive player profiles to justify the $25,000 payment to his company, just days before the transaction was revealed in a March 3 Yahoo! Sports report. …
“I look back at it now and they paid for what they saw as my access and influence with recruits,” Lyles said. “The service I provided went beyond what a scouting service should … I made a mistake and I’m big enough of a man to admit I was wrong.”
More from the Lindsay Schnell in the Oregonian, George Schroeder in the RG.
I wonder how much Yahoo paid Lyles for the scoop. You lie with dogs, expect to get fleas.
Probably less than what the National Enquirer pays to get all those scurrilous stories about Bush, Obama …. sometimes the stories have a grain of truth, as with Clinton; sometimes …..
Just because Lyles got the players to take a tour doesn’t mean UO must be implicated. Hundreds of scouts “match” players to hundreds of schools; sending a player to take a tour of a school who’s team would benefit the player doesn’t seem like wrongdoing…
So let me get this straight… Auburn pays Cam Newton’s dad $200,000 to send him to the Tigers, and they come out clean. We pay a legitimate recruiting service $25,000 to match explosive players with an offensive scheme that completely benefits them as players, and it looks like the shit is about to hit the fan? I’m tired of this NCAA/BCS/SEC supremacy. I can only hope this turns out well. Go Ducks.
I agree w/ the dude above. Paying the players is the moral thing to do. If it breaks a few NCAA rules, too bad, then use an intermediary.
A transaction between 2 willing parties, with no external costs or benefits is Pareto improving. First fundamental theorem of welfare economics.
The mistake here was not following standard procedures with an offshore account, or cash. The ineptitude of it shows Kelly is too honest for college football. Hope you can transition his style to the pros.
to add to my point above (“So let me get this straight…”)
Also, the main argument against the Ducks is that Lyles gave us hard copies of the player’s information AFTER the NCAA began their investigation. But a scout’s “service” is to recommend players to schools (not the other way around). This doesn’t mean the scout has to provide them with the data behind the recommendation. So it’s really a moot point that he gave us hard copies after the fact. If anything, the fact that Kelly asked for the documents after the investigation started just substantiates the point that no violations were made- Kelly was simply asking for the data that we paid Lyles to compile and interpret for us. That’s the whole point of a scouting service.
Oh yes, it’s a scandal that players aren’t paid, especially considering the life-long injuries being imparted to their brains. The students need to unionize, demand fair wages and humane working conditions. Grad students have done it, why not student athletes?