Penalties From Big Cat Weekend Violations Released

[RWS]

http://blog.al.com/auburnbeat/2009/12/auburn_penalties_from_big_cat.html

Auburn penalties from 'Big Cat Weekend' released
By Evan Woodbery
December 03, 2009, 6:25PM

Press-Register, John David MercerGene Chizik Auburn was forced to temporarily halt contact with six prospective football players and assistant head coach Trooper Taylor was barred from off-campus recruiting through Nov. 30 after Auburn self-reported several secondary NCAA violations from Big Cat Weekend in May.


Auburn released the penalties Thursday night in response to open-records requests from the Press-Register and other media. The Press-Register first reported the possible violations in May.


Big Cat Weekend was an activity-packed weekend for high-profile recruits that culminated in the traditional rolling of Toomer's Corner at a busy downtown intersection on May 30.


Although NCAA rules bar the introduction of visiting student-athletes during any function, videos of the event posted on two Web sites show the crowd cheering as the recruits are introduced by name, position and hometown. The man yelling the introductions does not appear on the videos, but Taylor is shown leading the crowd in cheers immediately after the introductions.


The rolling of Toomer's Corner was advertised on all three major Web sites that cover Auburn, with push-pinned message board posts urging fans to attend. The posts did not attribute the information to coaches or other Auburn staff members.


NCAA rules also media from being present "during any recruiting contact made by an institution's coaching staff member." All of the major Web sites that cover Auburn were on hand during the rolling of Toomer's, and some of the recruits were interviewed by reporters.


Auburn first reported the violations of five bylaws on June 30 in a letter to SEC commissioner Mike Slive.


"Represents of Auburn's athletic interests (boosters) were in attendance during this event and engaged in recruiting activity. Media was also present during this event along with Auburn's mascot. Lastly, the prospective student athletes' names were announced at the event. All of these are violations of NCAA recruiting violations," Auburn senior associate athletic director Rich McGlynn wrote in the letter to Slive.


Auburn offered self-imposed penalties, including a reduction of eight official visits and a letter of reprimand for Taylor.


Slive accepted that punishment, but added further restrictions. He barred Auburn from contacting six recruits who were present at Toomer's Corner for six weeks, through Sept. 15. Further, a member of Auburn's coaching staff was required to call each of the six recruits -- Jessel Curry, Khairi Fortt, Marcus Lattimore, Eric Mack, Trovon Reed and Lache Seastrunk -- and read a specific, six-sentence statement that said the prospects should "disregard the Toomer's Corner activities when deciding upon the University you will eventually attend."


Further, Slive said that Auburn should bar Taylor, one of the team's top recruiters, from any off-campus recruiting until Nov. 30, and that all six of the staff members present at Toomer's Corner should also receiver a reprimand. Those six coaches are Taylor, offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, running backs coach Curtis Luper, special teams coordinator/tight ends coach Jay Boulware, offensive line coach Jeff Grimes and safeties coach Tommy Thigpen.


Auburn accepted the additional punishments, and Chizik personally called the players involved to read the statement.


The penalties do not affect the eligibility of the six players. Auburn has ceased recruiting Fortt, Reed and Curry have committed to the Tigers, Mack has committed to South Carolina, and Auburn is still recruiting Lattimore and Seastrunk.


The university issued a statement from head coach Gene Chizik that read: "We unintentionally committed a secondary violation and have cooperated fully with the Southeastern Conference and NCAA, and are moving forward.  We're pleased about the foundation that we are setting for this program and are excited for our upcoming bowl game. We will continue to work hard on the recruiting trail to recruit top-notch student-athletes that best fit our needs at Auburn."
© 2009 al.com. All rights reserved.

Nothing major, really.

[Kaos]

And this douchebag is "our" beatwriter. 

Fuck him. 

[RWS]

And this douchebag is "our" beatwriter. 

Fuck him. 

This is what I was waiting for. I was going to make note that the story was from your favorite writer, but decided that would work itself out shortly.

[The Prowler]

I sensed gleefullness in woodbammer's writings..."Big Cat Weekend", the rolling of Toomer's Corner with a lot of High Profile prospects, and making the statement "Wait 'till we get here" > Secondary Violations

[Townhallsavoy]

Free laptop?  Just give it back.  Take a few plays off.  No biggie.

Party at Toomer's?  BIG DEAL. Slive will make sure Auburn has the harshest punishment possible for a secondary violation.  Call those recruits and tell them not to consider these events when choosing their school.  Then, don't contact them at all.  For a while.  Then you can, but you better be on your toes!!

[RWS]

I sensed gleefullness in woodbammer's writings..."Big Cat Weekend", the rolling of Toomer's Corner with a lot of High Profile prospects, telling Coach Sheban that he's SOL (Shit Out of Luck) in regards to LaDarius Owens and making the statement "Wait 'till we get here" > Secondary Violations

Wait, is this the same Prowler that accuses Saban of violations left and right and how he has to cheat to get recruits, should be punished, etc? But if AU has to cheat to get a recruit or two, pfffftt, violation shmiloation. Gotcha.

[ibelonginprison]

It just means we need to send the recruits to Toomers with 15 hot auburn women. No biggie.

[RWS]

Free laptop?  Just give it back.  Take a few plays off.  No biggie.

Party at Toomer's?  BIG DEAL. Slive will make sure Auburn has the harshest punishment possible for a secondary violation.  Call those recruits and tell them not to consider these events when choosing their school.  Then, don't contact them at all.  For a while.  Then you can, but you better be on your toes!!

Its a little different when the coaches willingly orchestrate the actual violation.

[Pell City Tiger]

Fuck Mike "Saban's dick sucker" Slive. He can take those 6 sentences and shove them straight up his ass.

Booster funded deep sea fishing trip for 2 = nothing

Announcing a recruits name during a visit = reprimand

Fuck Mike Slive. Fuck him in the ass until he bleeds.

[Townhallsavoy]

Also, we're losing 8-9 official visits for the 2009-2010 school year.  Absolute horseshit.  

The boosters present?  Alumni and students.  Not "we donate a lot of money and hang out with Corky Frost."  

Announcing names of players committed by a STUDENT?  

Aubie WAS PRESENT?  OH NOES!  

The NCAA is a gaping vagina.  I can't believe we went along with this shit.  Added more sanctions on ourselves?  Seriously?  Maybe Auburn's AD is the gaping vagina.

[RWS]

Booster funded deep sea fishing trip for 2 = nothing

That whole booster thing is a tough sell when the guy has a kid enrolled at Auburn......just sayin....

[The Prowler]

That whole booster thing is a tough sell when the guy has a kid enrolled at Auburn......just sayin....

Yeah, especially when CA went to SPuat but dropped out before his Sophmore year....just sayin....

[Townhallsavoy]

Its a little different when the coaches willingly orchestrate the actual violation.

You're a blazing homer, RWS.  

"Willingly" indicates purpose.  Chizik (since you're just going to go with everything that's reported) has stated that the violations were unintentional.  

Were they violations?  Sure.  But it's just as bad for players to receive gifts for being football players.  Of course, Curtis Anderson was a set up job by Operation Red Dog, right?  He's also been friends with those guys forever.  He doesn't even like football.  

Secondary violations get reported all the time, but rarely does anything come of it but a slap on the wrist.  8-9 (why not pick a number?) recruits will not receive an OV next recruiting season.  That hurts.  Might only hurt a little, but that hurts.  

And for what?  Aubie being around?  Give me a break.  The coaches orchestrated one of Auburn's traditions.  The party at Toomer's after a victory.  Whoopty fuck.  

Not allowed to contact those recruits?  Jesus, I've never heard of that before.  Perhaps the reprimand had to do with the caliber of recruits that were involved?

Fuck Slive.  Lattimore is 50-50 between us and South Carolina.  Dyer already committed.  Curry committed.  Reed committed.  Mack is leaning towards us.  Looks like the weekend worked out okay.  Must have been the presence of Aubie that did it.  

[AUChizad]

Also, we're losing 8-9 official visits for the 2009-2010 school year.  Absolute horseshit.  

The boosters present?  Alumni and students.  Not "we donate a lot of money and hang out with Corky Frost."  

Announcing names of players committed by a STUDENT?  

Aubie WAS PRESENT?  OH NOES!  

The NCAA is a gaping vagina.  I can't believe we went along with this shit.  Added more sanctions on ourselves?  Seriously?  Maybe Auburn's AD is the gaping vagina.

This.

I am shocked. Bammers have the balls to bitch about the NCAA having it out for them. This is ridiculous.

The video showed that it was clearly a scrawny white kid calling the names out, not Taylor.

[RWS]

Also, we're losing 8-9 official visits for the 2009-2010 school year.  Absolute horseshit.  

The boosters present?  Alumni and students.  Not "we donate a lot of money and hang out with Corky Frost."  

Announcing names of players committed by a STUDENT?  

Aubie WAS PRESENT?  OH NOES!  

The NCAA is a gaping vagina.  I can't believe we went along with this shit.  Added more sanctions on ourselves?  Seriously?  Maybe Auburn's AD is the gaping vagina.

I think the issue here was the flagrance with which the staff did this. I mean, there were obvious multiple violations. The video that was up on AuburnSports was golden, until they realized that was going to cause problems, then got snatched down. Unintentional? My ass. It was straight up planned out. The reason why the NCAA doesn't really come down on secondary violations is because they are supposed to be unintentional in nature. An accident. A mistake. Something that you can objectively look at and say "Ok, I can see where you are coming from."

Please tell me how an event with the school mascot, AU coaches, top recruits, and media present is something unintentional, an accident, or a mistake?

[RWS]

Yeah, especially when CA went to SPuat but dropped out before his Sophmore year....just sayin....

I have a link to a statement from CA and his attorney saying he has a kid attending AU. You have a link to back up what you are saying? It probably needs to be better than a PM you sent somebody a few weeks ago saying he went to UA at one time.

[AUChizad]

I have a link to a statement from CA and his attorney saying he has a kid attending AU. You have a link to back up what you are saying? It probably needs to be better than a PM you sent somebody a few weeks ago saying he went to UA at one time.

Who gives a fuck? Taylor's dad is a bammer, for example.

You act like that's DNA evidence or something...

[Townhallsavoy]

I think the issue here was the flagrance with which the staff did this. I mean, there were obvious multiple violations. The video that was up on AuburnSports was golden, until they realized that was going to cause problems, then got snatched down. Unintentional? My ass. It was straight up planned out. The reason why the NCAA doesn't really come down on secondary violations is because they are supposed to be unintentional in nature. An accident. A mistake. Something that you can objectively look at and say "Ok, I can see where you are coming from."

Please tell me how an event with the school mascot, AU coaches, top recruits, and media present is something unintentional, an accident, or a mistake?

You're a blowhard.  You're just throwing out polemics because you're just eating this up.  

Saban, Mr. I Don't Give A Fuck About Minor Rules, has repeatedly broken the "bump" rule.  That was as intentional as the kindergarten kid drawing on the school walls.  He knows it's wrong.  He just doesn't give a shit.  

A writer for BamaOnline.com, another bias group of individuals acting as journalists, openly claims that he'll do whatever it takes to help Bama win and help them get recruits.  He admitted to not caring about rules and was subsequently relieved of his status as a "journalist  " for BsOL.  

And another thing, it wasn't intentional by any means.  You know why media was there?  Because Trooper Taylor and Luper talked about how big of a weekend it was going to be.  Then, the visitors were announced the day before the weekend.  When media got wind, they showed up.  Relisten to the Tom Luginbill interview on JOX.  He was in Atlanta, heard about the visitors, and showed up.  

Intentional.  My ass.  

Not shit has come from either of those two from the myriad examples of how Bama violates rules.  

[RWS]

Who gives a fuck? Taylor's dad is a bammer, for example.

You act like that's DNA evidence or something...

What field did Taylor graduate in from Auburn?

[RWS]

And another thing, it wasn't intentional by any means.