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Even through the secretive, undercover, obstructive, and obscure standards of college athletic crisis management, Auburn stands out as the looser school. His motto might as well be Lie and Deny. It is certainly not truth and transparency.
But over time, lying and denying can be a losing strategy. Finally, there is nowhere to run and hide.
Auburn, a school that would line up boosters for sworn affidavits stating the skies are green if it helps the Tigers win a game or sign a rookie, started running out of real estate on Sunday. It was then that the school suddenly announced a self-imposed post-season ban for the 2020-21 season.
If Auburn fans believe in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, the news of an impending problem in Bruce Pearl’s schedule may have come as a surprise. For anyone living in the real world, it was Auburn who was forced to acknowledge what has been going on for three years: The Tigers are in big trouble.
No one is self-imposing a post-season ban unless they know they are responsible for major violations. Start with this knowledge.
Now, is it possible that the Tigers think it’s a mess of the season and that they have a weaker team than the previous couple, so grab your bumps now? Especially when five-star rookie Sharife Cooper’s eligibility came under investigation, according to multiple sources? Sure. Pearl alluded to it in the school’s statement on Sunday night, saying, “We have to take this penalty now to put it behind us.”
Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports
But if anyone thinks Pearl and the school are outsmarting a bad situation, understand: that doesn’t put anything behind Auburn. Self-imposed penalties can help mitigate future penalties – but they also might not, at the discretion of the NCAA Offenses Committee. And if the violations are serious enough – which they sure could be – then it will be more than a one-season problem.
According to the NCAA Penalty Matrix, a level one standard violation can result in a one or two year postseason ban. A level one aggravated violation can result in a two to four year postseason ban.
Could this be an aggravated case? Without knowing the details, this is just a guess. But that’s not a guess: Auburn hired a guy with an NCAA rap sheet after a three-year demonstration penalty for violations in Tennessee. Great trainer, lots of luggage. If you’re asking for trouble by bringing trouble to town, don’t expect the NCAA to take a sympathetic point of view.
Last winter, the school certainly received a notice of allegations from the NCAA regarding possible major rule violations. Auburn’s response has been to hide it from the public, to refuse to return it via freedom of information requests, to dismiss questions about it and to stick its fingers in their ears and shout “I can’t.” not hear you ”to anyone trying to get to the bottom of the matter. Sporting director Allen Greene’s leadership idea was to curl up in his office and decline interview requests, retreating behind statements about “cooperation with the NCAA.”
Auburn was one of many schools involved in the federal college basketball bribery investigation, with assistant Chuck Person pleading guilty to bribery charges for accepting money to refer players to a potential agent and a financial advisor. Auburn fired the person. But that was not the end of the situation; It was just the beginning.
Auburn was one of the few schools involved that didn’t even admit being officially indicted by the NCAA. The only other school that is totally hiding from the truth is Creighton. The State of North Carolina, Kansas and Louisville have published their notices of allegation; The state of Oklahoma, USC, South Carolina, TCU and Arizona admitted they had been charged but did not release details.
Doesn’t the purpose of pretending bad news exist? This question remains unanswered for the moment. It is certainly easier to recruit rookies – including fifth national prospect Jabari Smith last week – if there is no academic acknowledgment of the major allegations. But even then, these recruits might have a strong case for an immediate transfer waiver if they were not fully informed of what the school is facing.
(The precedent for this: Mississippi football under Hugh Freeze. The school’s deliberate disinformation campaign underestimating the scope of its NCAA allegations resulted in an exodus of players who were immediately eligible elsewhere.)
It may just be the Auburn way. This is a school that had five major offense cases between 1979-2004, according to the NCAA Offenses Database. That does not include the circumvention of penalties in an investigation into the Tigers’ hiring of star quarterback Cam Newton in 2010, which led the team to the national championship.
Investigators were told by Mississippi State Boosters that Newton’s dad, Cecil, worked through a former Bulldogs player to request six figures for his son to sign with the Bulldogs – then he signed with Auburn. The NCAA actually changed its statutes in the wake of this case to hold family members more accountable when they are involved in alleged claims for ineligible recruiting benefits (the so-called “Cecil Newton Rule”) .
So let’s just say Auburn and Bruce Pearl got around the NCAA violation block. Now they are leaving, in a case they tried to wish for. That wish has not been granted, and it is time for industry leaders in crisis management Lie and Deny to face the music.
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