6/1/2014 update: The Chronicle of Higher Ed has a fascinating story, here:
MARVIN CLARK JR. was sold. Fresh off a recruiting visit to the University of Oregon two years ago, he was convinced he wanted to play there.
He loved the Ducks’ fast-paced offense, the team needed a player at his position, and one of his youth coaches had played for an Oregon assistant. That was the type of edge that could help in a battle for playing time.
The campus wowed him. Everywhere he looked, he saw the Nike swoosh. The company’s co-founder, a big Oregon donor, had helped finance some of the nicest facilities in the country. For a kid who had spent time in homeless shelters, it seemed like nirvana.
A year ago, Mr. Clark made it official, committing to the Pac-12 program over more than a dozen other suitors. Around the same time, he had surgery to repair a fractured foot, forcing him to miss several months on the court. A fractured foot, surgically repaired with a screw, set Mr. Clark’s plans back a year ago.
He was prepared to graduate from high school last year, but Oregon’s coaches had encouraged him to spend a year at a prep school. The week he returned to the court, two Oregon coaches visited him there. It was his first game back, and it showed. After the game, he says, the coaches started to walk out of the gym without offering a word.
That night Mr. Clark hardly slept, fearing that he had lost his scholarship. The next day he called one of his coaches, who had been in touch with Oregon. Mr. Clark’s instincts were right—Oregon had moved on. …
5/12/2014: Did Lorraine Davis vet Brandon Austin?
Andrew Greif has a report on Duck recruiting and the NCAA APR in the Oregonian, here. One point:
Also on Friday, university president Michael Gottfredson announced a forthcoming independent review on how Oregon vets recruits.
Interesting. Currently Duck special athletic admits are vetted by a committee convened by Lorraine Davis, a longtime UO administrator, Duck booster in charge of the athlete recruiting parties, and the interim AD after Lariviere fired Mike Bellotti. At least I think Ms Davis in charge of this committee – President Gottfredson hasn’t been very forthcoming about her exact job duties:
I’m pretty sure it’s illegal for UO to redact basic info like this from a public record, but it appears she has no other job description. Full pdf here. Here’s the response from Dave Hubin and President Gottfredson’s Public Records Office:
Attached are the records responsive to your request made 08/01/2013. Some information is exempt under OAR 571-030. The univesity has searched for, but was unable to locate, a job description for Ms. Davis.
The office considers these documents to be fully responsive to your request, and will now close your matter. Thank you for contacting the office with your request.
Sincerely,
Lisa Thornton
Office of Public Records
More here about her athletic junket clause:
The academic side even paid her a bonus for going to the Alamo Bowl:
I’ve been wondering when Lorraine would show up in this latest scandal. That tattoo is going to be hard to remove.
Wait: “The obligations of [her] position require [her] to attend many social functions…[her] official presence is expected…”
So if the normal obligations of her job include such social functions as would occur around, say, the Alamo Bowl, how would that be overload? How does a state employee get overload for doing his or her job? I thought the sweetheart salaries were compensation for such employment hardships as bowl junkets…
Somehow I suspect that even when Lorraine is six feet under, she’ll still be collecting a special consultant’s fee and free bowl game tix for the entire family!
There’s an amazing Rob Moseley story below, and I remember some talk about administrative involvement, but I can’t anything solid. Please post or email if you know more or have any links. Thanks.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Oregon+defends+recruiting+practices.%28Sports%29%28Teamwork:+Administrators%E2%80%A6-a095771228
the recruits and sorority girls back in 2002 or so, before these stories broke. She’d invite faculty too. It was pretty creepy.
Programs using sex to recruit is old news and it has been done forever. In 1994 a friend of mine was recruited to play football at UNLV and he was taken to the Crazy Horse strip club as part of his visit.
But using UO students, and having the athletic department give them academic credit for participating, seems to have been a Duck innovation.
First you complain when we privatize, but then when we go in house…
(kidding)
Oh no, not even close. This idea has been going on all over the country.
Hell, even Stanford isn’t exempt from matters of the flesh, their footballers took recruits to San Francisco strip clubs, and turned in receipts for drinks and various other things. An attentive auditor questioned why the AD paid for all of that, which brings me to ask, are Stanford footballers so stupid that they would turn in evidence of recruiting violations? Or, is it SOP for schools in the Pac-12 to reimburse current players for any and sundry entertainment expenses, including making hs feel all right? Probably the latter, the auditor that uncovered the mess was hounded by then Stanford Associate AD Debra Gore Mann to keep quiet. When it became apparent that Ms. Mann had overstepped a wee bit, she became the AD at my alma mater, University of San Francisco, and did her magic in getting rid of their basketball coach. Some things never change…