May 07, 2003

MSU Recruit Received $800

Various Mississippi newspapers (Clarksdale Press Register, Jackson Clarion-Ledger) are reporting that an NCAA prelim. investigation has found that Mississippi State assistant coach Glenn Davis (Running Backs) gave Linebacker recruit Ken Griffith $800 to pay for classes at Southern Miss. Allegedly, this money was to pay for classes to help improve Griffith's eligibility for MSU.

The scary thing about this for MSU fans is that the allegations against Davis are coming straight from Griffith mouth. State's own institutional investigation has been put on hold by the NCAA. The NCAA's initial letter of inquiry has cited MSU for, among a litany of other things, Lack of Institutional Control which will net them much more severe sanctions if the allegations are proven true.

Why any coach in this day and age would do something so incredibly stupid is a mystery, but you can bet that these coaches would be less apt to try to skirt the rules if the NCAA imposed sanctions on the violators instead of restricting their actions to the schools. After all, how often do we see schools get found guilty by the NCAA for violations years back, only to find out that the coaching staff from that period of time is already coaching somewhere else? The NCAA really needs to clean up its infractions procedures if it expects to really influence the behvior of college football coaches, players, and boosters.

Posted by Pete Holiday

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1. Kevin says:

   posted on May 7, 2003 01:03 PM — link

   "Lack of Institutional Control" = NCAA speak for huge, huge penalties are coming.

   I can't believe that they would do something so asinine. The $800 bucks is probably just the tip of the iceberg. While the NCAA has been known to look the other way, once they start saying "Lack of Institutional Control", the NCAA generally runs a check on everyone and everything.

   I hope for the fans sake that MSU is spared the "death penalty".

2. Pete Holiday says:

   posted on May 7, 2003 04:39 PM — link

   What's worse is that Griffith claims that he offered to give $400 of it back because he didn't need it (Only actually took one class) and Davis told him to keep it.

   Additionally, the letter of inquiry was investigating allegations as far back as 1999... that in conjunction with the LoIC could spell trouble for the Bulldogs for several years to come.