Yesterday morning, on his morning show, ESPN's Colin Cowherd brought up a rumor that a source of his alerted him via text about. He didn't go into any detail, saying that he was still pursuing the story and a lot of the details still were not confirmed."I received an interesting text about 10 days ago, and this should be very frightening if you’re a fan of college football, that a major program in this country is going to be outed very soon for major recruiting violations. It is a top 10-12 program. I know what I think it is according to both my sources; I received another tip last night. I went to Vince Doria, who is sort of the journalistic editor at this company. He had heard the exact same thing. We are pursuing this story with vigor."
"Made some calls. A reliable source high in the athletic department said everyone there was "surprised" to hear about the rumors. They have not been contacted by the NCAA on this matter, nor anyone else.
Said source: "We haven't heard a peep from the NCAA. If there was something going on, we'd typically hear about it way beforehand."
That was interesting because in most cases like this, the NCAA does usually have some sort of communication with the university before violations are made public. They usually don't come completely out of the blue. In fact, sometimes the colleges will come out and make an announcement before the NCAA even has a chance to, and impose some sort of self-punishment in hopes that the NCAA will go a little easier on them.
It's strange that Oregon says that they haven't heard anything from the NCAA.
The Oregonian's John Hunt posted a story this morning shedding a bit more light on what the allegations may have to do with, if these rumors are even remotely true. He writes, "Much of the angst stems from earlier reports on street agents and one in particular, Baron Flenory - a former player on Chip Kelly's teams at the University of New Hampshire.
Flenory and Will Lyles are two street agents who have a relationship with some of the Ducks. For those new to the street agent game, here's a good primer."
It's strange that Oregon says that they haven't heard anything from the NCAA.
The Oregonian's John Hunt posted a story this morning shedding a bit more light on what the allegations may have to do with, if these rumors are even remotely true. He writes, "Much of the angst stems from earlier reports on street agents and one in particular, Baron Flenory - a former player on Chip Kelly's teams at the University of New Hampshire.
Flenory and Will Lyles are two street agents who have a relationship with some of the Ducks. For those new to the street agent game, here's a good primer."
John Taylor, who writes for CollegeFootballTalk.com, offered his two cents as well. "For the record, Oregon is not the school we have heard connected to these rumors. Nor is it Auburn. Nor will we mention the school’s name we’ve heard floated around as it’s not been remotely confirmed."
At this point in time, we don't think it's Oregon. And we also hope that it isn't Oregon. But the truth of the matter is that as Oregon football continues to be successful like it has been for the past three seasons, stories like this are going to pop up more than once.
I'm not saying that if you have a successful football program, you're somehow doomed to commit a recruiting violation or two and that's just how it is. I'm just saying that as you get bigger and better and become more successful, as the Ducks have done, there are going to be a lot more people out there who want to be associated with your program and want a "piece of the pie."
Whether that be agents, street agents, family members, buddies, or long-lost cousins. Most of the problems like this that colleges face these days, start with these hangers-on.
