Auburn has drawn plenty of praise and criticism for pushing the envelope with its innovative brand of recruiting gimmicks this spring, but the Tigers are reviewing whether any NCAA violations occurred during their recent "Big Cat" recruiting weekend, a school spokesman confirmed Monday.The Tigers welcomed around two dozen high-profile recruits for unofficial visits last weekend, a trip that culminated with the prospective student-athletes and a crowd of a couple hundred rolling Toomer's Corner on Saturday night. In doing so, the program may have committed NCAA violations.
This has already been outlined extremely well by colleague Evan Woodbery off the Mobile Press-Register here, but it warrants mentioning on this blog as well.
Any violation would be secondary and would not affect the eligibility of any student-athlete involved. It would also not preclude the Tigers from continuing their recruitment of any of the players.
The weekend has been lauded as an enormous success for Auburn. The school welcomed a bevy of high-profile recruits, including running backs Lache Seastrunk (Temple, Texas) and Marcus Lattimore (Duncan, S.C.), the top two backs in the country according to Rivals.com, wide receiver Trovon Reed (Thibodaux, La.), offensive lineman Eric Mack (St. Matthews, S.C.) and linebackers Khairi Fortt (Stamford, Conn.) and LaDarius Owens (Bessemer, Ala.).
But three NCAA recruiting rules have come into question following the weekend's activities.
You can find a longer video of the event for free here. This is a portion of one video posted on YouTube:
13.10.5 Prospective Student-Athlete's Visit.
A member institution shall not publicize (or arrange for publicity of) a prospective student-athlete's visit to the institution's campus. Further, a prospective student-athlete may not participate in team activities that would make the public or media aware of the prospective student-athlete's visit to the institution (e.g., running out of the tunnel with team, celebratory walks to or around the stadium/arena, on-field pregame celebrations). Violations of this bylaw do not affect a prospective student-athlete's eligibility and are considered institutional violations per Constitution 2.8.1.
While the university did not publicize the event, the information was posted prominently Saturday afternoon on the three major recruiting Web sites that cover Auburn and on the marquee of at least one area restaurant. No source was given for the information.
Additionally, when the group arrived at Toomer's Corner, seven police officers were present for crowd control. Aubie, Auburn's mascot, was also in attendance, suggesting a planned event.
13.10.6 Introduction of Prospective Student-Athlete.
An institution may not introduce a visiting prospective student-athlete at a function (e.g., the institution's sports award banquet or an intercollegiate athletics contest) that is attended by media representatives or open to the general public. Violations of this bylaw do not affect a prospective student-athlete's eligibility and are considered institutional violations per Constitution 2.8.1.
In videos of the celebration, an off-camera voice introduces several of the visiting players one-by-one, announcing each player's name, position and hometown before the crowd chimed in with a loud cheer, although the voice does not appear to be that of an Auburn coach. If it was a university employee, it would be a violation.
13.10.1 Presence of Media during Recruiting Contact.
A member institution shall not permit a media entity to be present during any recruiting contact made by an institution's coaching staff member. Violations of this bylaw do not affect a prospective student-athlete's eligibility and are considered institutional violations per Constitution 2.8.1.
Members from several media outlets, including the three recruiting Web sites and the Opelika-Auburn News, were present during the recruits' rolling of Toomer's Corner while wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor and running backs coach/recruiting coordinator Curtis Luper were in attendance. Photos appeared on all three of the recruiting Web sites shortly thereafter. Two sites had video, in addition to the O-A News.
Now, these would be merely secondary violations, so any kind of action that would come from it would most likely be a stern talking to rather than a wrist slap (or for that matter a hard slap to the face). Tennessee's Lane Kiffin, for instance, has committed four secondary violations since being hired on Dec. 1, using every medium known to man. (I'm guessing he's the first to tweet a violation) Of course, his athletic director doesn't seem to mind that much.
My guess: not too much comes out of this. Auburn got its publicity for the weekend, might have a minor reprimand. But in the end, it won't affect the Tigers' ability to go after these recruits who they apparently wowed this weekend.
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