Hey Vols - shit just got REAL...

[Tiger Wench]

Oops...

USC fans wondering why former assistant Willie Mack Garza resigned so abruptly two days before the start of this season now have an answer -- and that answer has a paper trail. According to a report by Yahoo Sports, Willie Lyles informed NCAA investigators that Garza had wired him $1,500 in 2009 to get coveted tailback Lache Seastrunk onto the Tennessee campus for an unofficial visit; Garza had been an assistant of Lane Kiffin at UT at that point, before Kiffin brought Garza with him to USC's staff in 2010.

On unofficial visits, recruits and their families are responsible for all costs incurred, so if Garza supplied that money to Lyles for the purposes of getting Seastrunk to campus, that's a serious violation of NCAA rules. Whether Garza gave money to Lyles is not in question, though; Yahoo Sports has a copy of the Moneygram record of that transaction, and sure enough, there's $1,500 going from Garza to Lyles. Being that Lyles himself told the NCAA that the money was to pay for Seastrunk's plane tickets, which totaled $1,446.80 in a purchase two weeks prior to the Moneygram transaction, there doesn't appear to be much wiggle room for Garza.

CBSSports.com first reported that Garza's departure from USC was related to an NCAA probe of Tennessee's recruiting practices on the day that Garza resigned, on September 1. That report has now been proven accurate by this Yahoo story.

For Garza's efforts above and beyond the NCAA guidelines, Tennessee didn't get much; not only did Seastrunk not commit to the Volunteers, of course, he didn't even take an official visit to Knoxville once it was time to make those choices. Seastrunk famously chose Oregon over Auburn in a recruiting process that still leaves a sour taste in Tigers fans' mouths to this day, and once the reports surfaced of Lyles maintaining close relationship with recruits even while getting paid large sums of money by the schools recruiting them, Seastrunk ended up transferring to Baylor.

For as bad as this report makes Garza look in the eyes of the NCAA, however, the real entity in danger here is Tennessee; that athletic department was hit with a failure to monitor charge in August among various major infractions perpetrated by then-head basketball coach Bruce Pearl, and the program is nowhere near completing its two years of probation handed down by the NCAA. If the NCAA finds this to be another egregious flouting of recruiting regulations, Tennessee is liable to be considered a "repeat offender" by the Committee on Infractions, and that easily could mean serious, long-lasting consequences for the entire athletic department.

[AWK]

Link?

[Townhallsavoy]

I'm failing to see how this should be problematic for the Vols. 

They were investigated and nailed by the NCAA. 

Because the NCAA retroactively discovers a new violation from a coaching staff that has been gone for two years, the Vols are going to get hit with repeat offender status? 

Makes no sense. 

[RWS]

I'm failing to see how this should be problematic for the Vols. 

They were investigated and nailed by the NCAA. 

Because the NCAA retroactively discovers a new violation from a coaching staff that has been gone for two years, the Vols are going to get hit with repeat offender status? 

Makes no sense.

I have to agree here. Those coaches are gone. Unless the AD or somebody else higher up in the department other than the coaches knew about this, I don't see why the NCAA should bother. I think they have well established that Kiffin and his regime were dirty. Dead horse and all.

[Tiger Wench]

Link?

http://eye-on-collegefootball.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/32307934

[Snaggletiger]

Cash people....cash...in an envelope...or a bag.  Cash.  How many times do I have to say it?  Do you think we'd have gotten away with pay for play thing if the transaction wasn't cash...in a bag...left under the Exit 235 bridge in LaGrange...at 9:00 p.m.....on a Thursday?

Sheesh, you people are so dumb, fo real.

[JR4AU]

I'm failing to see how this should be problematic for the Vols. 

They were investigated and nailed by the NCAA. 

Because the NCAA retroactively discovers a new violation from a coaching staff that has been gone for two years, the Vols are going to get hit with repeat offender status? 

Makes no sense.

Also, money sent to Lyles, not Seastrunk, and he didn't go to UT.  Nothing to hurt UT here.

[JR4AU]

Cash people....cash...in an envelope...or a bag.  Cash.  How many times do I have to say it?  Do you think we'd have gotten away with pay for play thing if the transaction wasn't cash...in a bag...left under the Exit 235 bridge in LaGrange...at 9:00 p.m.....on a Thursday?

Sheesh, you people are so dumb, fo real.

^^^DIS!

[Tiger Wench]

Also, money sent to Lyles, not Seastrunk, and he didn't go to UT.  Nothing to hurt UT here.

The money was sent to Lyles by a UT coach to pay for Seastrunk's plane ticket to Knoxville.  How can that not hurt UT?  Stupid to do it now, but UT was the coach's employer at the time.  Plus, it's the NCAA - when does it ever have to make sense?

[JR4AU]

The money was sent to Lyles by a UT coach to pay for Seastrunk's plane ticket to Knoxville.  How can that not hurt UT?  Stupid to do it now, but UT was the coach's employer at the time.  Plus, it's the NCAA - when does it ever have to make sense?

Didn't catch that part.  Still, I just don't see there being any great repercussions for UT.   The NCAA isn't as all over the map as those that wanted Cam declared ineligible would have you believe. 

[Snaggletiger]

Didn't catch that part.  Still, I just don't see there being any great repercussions for UT.   The NCAA isn't as all over the map as those that wanted Cam declared ineligible would have you believe.

Oh, the hammer's coming alright.  This proves it.

[Buzz Killington]

Cash people....cash...in an envelope...or a bag.  Cash.  How many times do I have to say it?  Do you think we'd have gotten away with pay for play thing if the transaction wasn't cash...in a bag...left under the Exit 235 bridge in LaGrange...at 9:00 p.m.....on a Thursday?

Sheesh, you people are so dumb, fo real.

Run an tell that, homeboy