NCAA looking into possible violations at Southern Mississippi

[Da Coach]

The NCAA is investigating the Southern Mississippi basketball program for the last couple years under their Head Coach Donnie Tindall.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/11833052/southern-mississippi-men-basketball-ncaa-review

Tyndall is now the Head Coach at Tennessee, and this investigation could have repercussions for Tennessee, too.

https://twitter.com/EvanDaniels/status/530466612550565888

[Da Coach]

This looks like the NCAA investigation into the actions of Donnie Tyndall and his staff at Southern Mississippi may possibly be uncovering something significant.
Tyndall and several others from his So. Miss. staff are now at Tennessee, which was also rocked by scandal a couple years ago under Bruce Pearl.
But this PM, one assistant coach and another personal assistant under Tyndall at Tennessee have suddenly resigned-

http://www.tennessean.com/story/vols/2014/11/24/adam-howard-resigns-personal-reasons/70062086/

[Da Coach]

Looks like Southern Mississippi now realizes there are some serious infractions that the NCAA is going to find, so they are trying to head off serious penalties by announcing today a self-imposed post-season ban.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2015/01/20/southern-mississippi-basketball-postseason-ban/22075087/

That is not really much of a real penalty, since Southern Miss is currently 5-11 overall, and has started C-USA play by going 0-5. Two of their 5 wins are against non-D1's, and their RPI is a horrendous 302. Their self-imposed post-season ban is little more than a charade in hopes it will lessen the impending NCAA sanctions.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2015/01/20/southern-mississippi-basketball-postseason-ban/22075087/

After hearing of the post-season ban, the Southern Miss players refused to practice for first-year head coach Doc Sadler.

https://twitter.com/GoodmanESPN/status/557692035059445760

[tornado]

Southern Miss in big trouble

https://twitter.com/GoodmanESPN/status/560866969793351680

http://m.espn.go.com/ncb/story?storyId=12248286&src=desktop&rand=ref~%7B%22ref%22%3A%22http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FyCWNU3mvTh%22%7D&wjb

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=22997

[Da Coach]

After many months of investigation, the NCAA has released their findings in the Southern Mississippi case revealing multiple Level I violations that occurred there under Donnie Tyndall. It pretty much runs the gamut of the worst kinds of violations-

Falsifying academic credits- they helped numerous juco recruits enroll for and get fake online credits to insure they would graduate and become eligible for Southern Mississippi. They knowingly used those phony credits to get the students enrolled at So. Miss, and even paid for those online courses for the recruits!

Impermissible financial aid and benefits- Multiple players were given prepaid cash gift cards to use throughout the school year while enrolled at Southern Mississippi. The players used the free gift cards to pay for cell phone calls and other purchases.

And lying and obstruction investigations- the NCAA discovered that "pertinent emails" had been deleted by the coaches and that the coaches had provided false or misleading information, and had instructed other witnesses to do the same, as well as refusing to give the NCAA all the information and records they requested.

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/ncaa-southern-miss-tyndall-committed-multiple-violations-32673271

Here is the actual 46 page NCAA release with a lot more details-

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/smis/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/2015-16/misc_non_event/MBB_USM_NOA_072415.pdf

[tornado]

NCAA did not extend this investigation back to the Larry Eustachy era, but he kinda has to be sweating a little because once they start digging - they generally find something...and Larry was investigated once at So. Miss already.
Anyway - Larry already has enough problems, he missed the NCAA Tourney last spring, had one player suspended by the league and now has another in jail..

[Da Coach]

More on the cheating scandal at Southern Mississippi that got Donnie Tyndall fired from Tennessee, along with several of his assistants, and now another D1 coach gets fired.
It shows just how deep and sleazy the recruiting violations went.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/25253396/se-louisiana-assistant-loses-job-because-of-usm-investigation

I actually suspect this kind of cheating happens a lot more than we ever hear. Others are just better at hiding and covering it up, or paying off others to take the fall.

[tornado]

you "suspect" it is happening...so you're not that sure?
I am 100% sure it is happening a lot of places - just being hidden well and largely the NCAA looks the other way as they did with OJ Mayo, Reggie Bush, Cam Newton, John Wall, Josh Selby, Derrick Rose, etc...

and of course the guy didn't want to come clean about cash payments and money in his bank account that could have been traced to the runners who "buy players" or influence where they go...
In a couple years he'll get hired again - just as Bruce Pearl said -- and just as happened to Pearl himself and Kelvin Sampson, Tim Floyd, etc..
Kansas has had two such ineligible players booted yet remain unpenalized - LINK LINK

[Tommy]

It's all politics, and frankly, college players should be able to be paid openly. Just one more case of greed controlling finances, and the NCAA has had a monopoly on the lives of young athletes for years by doing it.

[tornado]

Do you pay the team managers? The cheerleaders?

It's all starting to happen. It will soon be like the club soccer model in Europe - money will always buy the best players - so the Barcelona FC & Man U will always be the best teams. Some fans might not care - it might work out ok from their viewpoint.
But to actually work the whole system would be pros and it would have to divest itself from the pretense that the teams are in any way amateur or sponsored by the colleges and universities.

[Tommy]

As long as it's not coming from tax dollars, I don't see a problem with it.

The market should dictate who gets paid what and who pays what, not organizations like the NCAA. They are no different than an overbearing government.

Why do they not want to pay the players? Are their reasons altruistic? No. Are they trying to maintain competitive balance? How is that system working so far if that's the reason? Let's be honest, the only reason there have ever been reasons against paying amateur athletes is so that more of the money if funneled through the organizations that control those athletes.

The NCAA is nothing short of a monopoly, and the college athletes are like union workers paying 100% of their earnings toward union dues, while the universities and colleges (employers) they play for rake in millions upon millions of dollars. Greed at it's finest.

[tornado]

The NCAA is nothing short of a monopoly

but then you have a thousand such monopolies...
the IHSA and other 49 state associations, the NJCAA, NAIA, AAU, etc..

all are voluntary, nobody forced to join or not-join, and in almost every case the vast majority of members are happy - so I don't see that it's a "monopoly" -
members in most all have a vote and everything's fair...

it's only when the amount of money gets into the billions and the greed accelerates to monumental levels - then people change the rules & it is no longer fair but the money keeps members "loyal".

I think we all agree it is as it is and there's not much we can do - but I see it heading in a direction that'll leave some good people and good schools cast by the wayside.

[tornado]

Despite the ongoing cheating investigation of Donnie Tyndall,
he just got hired as an Associate AD at Tennessee Wesleyan - an NAIA school

[Da Coach]

Despite the ongoing cheating investigation of Donnie Tyndall,
he just got hired as an Associate AD at Tennessee Wesleyan - an NAIA school

Tyndall is actually a volunteer assistant AD

http://hoopdirt.com/donnie-tyndall-to-serve-as-volunteer-assistant-ad-at-tennessee-wesleyan/