Agent Fires Back at Saban

Link here.

“In terms of him throwing that out there, most agents know what goes on in college programs and what programs are clean or not. You want to find out who has the dirty programs, give immunity and go off the record with agents, and it would be like a cockfight, the last one standing wins. There are ways to determine the truth of allegations out there.”

General

21 Responses to Agent Fires Back at Saban

  1. baxter 07/23/2010 at 8:57 AM #

    I was just thinking while I perused the internet for some news stories, that it is interesting that Saban, Meyer, and Spurrier just seem to have no concern about discussing this publicly, and then Butch avoids saying a single word outside of “we’re cooperating with the investigation”… Is it just that Butch is more likely to lose his job over this? Or is his program the only one that really has explosion potential due to multiple players?

  2. Pack05 07/23/2010 at 9:03 AM #

    I think he is tight lipped because the last thing he wants is someone doing a legit investigation into the Wichart > Blake > Austin connection. That’s when things could snowball out of control for UNC-CHeat.

  3. WolfWall.com 07/23/2010 at 9:15 AM #

    I agree. I think Butch is holding his tongue in order to make the investigation go swiftly and prevent a deeper investigation into other possible issues.

  4. baxter 07/23/2010 at 9:19 AM #

    Maybe it’s just my personality, but wouldn’t that be the signal to an investigator of, yeah, there’s more here. It seems the other investigations are going a lot smoother as well, so I wonder how the resources are being distributed to go to each campus. Wouldn’t it be nice to get an inside view of how this kind of investigation works, step by step?

  5. Pack05 07/23/2010 at 9:34 AM #

    There’s so much out there. The question is does the NCAA really want to pull back the covers and expose all this. I don’t know if they really do.

    It would really make USC offenses look relatively arbitrary and they just nailed them to the wall.

    USC would then have a strong case to scream to high heaven / if not sue the NCAA.

  6. VaWolf82 07/23/2010 at 9:37 AM #

    The more likely explanation is that Butch is keeping his mouth shut because that’s what he was told to do.

  7. one00_proof 07/23/2010 at 9:39 AM #

    The NCAA started this, there’s no going back now in my opinion. This could get interesting since it sounds like agents are a vengeful bunch. If the NC SOS really pursues criminal charges and the agents are as vengeful as this guy puts them, I could imagine them singing like a canary to bring the UNC football program down with them.

    I need more popcorn…

  8. bradleyb123 07/23/2010 at 9:51 AM #

    More popcorn you say?

    http://i.imgur.com/tZk92.gif

  9. PackManSJP 07/23/2010 at 9:57 AM #

    One thing to keep in mind is Butch can stay as tight-lipped as he wants because the NCAA does not have the power of subpoena, only the federal and state courts do. He can cooperate without saying much and I doubt the NCAA could do much to him. I am not an attorney, so I could be completely wrong on this.

  10. newt 07/23/2010 at 10:05 AM #

    This potential foodfight between schools and agents is why UNC probably doesn’t covet a criminal investigation into the agents.

    Also, based on reports out of Bama about Marv’s role in inviting their player to the infamous South Beach party, and Marv’s prominent participation seen in pictures from the party (he looks like the ringleader), it appears that Marv from UNC was the catalyst and the other players/schools are fingers of the investigation.

    Now if Wichard is the agent host of the party, that gets mighty interesting.

    If I was a sports reporter covering this story, my mission in life would be to find out what agent hosted that party.

  11. PackMan97 07/23/2010 at 10:07 AM #

    What a horrible idea – immunity in return for ratting on programs?

    I can just see your typical agent wasn’t given the access to players at a school, or maybe the coach pissed off this guy a few years ago or whatever…talk about a blank check for some payback!

  12. Scooter 07/23/2010 at 10:41 AM #

    RE:Pack5 — It looks like the NCAA could have to choose between a rock and a hard place when putting this investigation up against USC’s. If the NCAA does not fully investigate as they did with SoCal, USC could have a reasonable complaint that they were arbitrarily investigated given the same or similar set of circumstances at UNCheat. On the other hand, if they fully investigate, they could find way more than they want to and have to report on it. The last thing the NCAA wnats to do is hand down the kiss of death to one of its darlings, given the potential loss or revenue associated with it.

    Also, it will be interesting to see what comes of Elaine Marshall’s investigation. I wonder what her political strategy will be for timing the relase of the results and punishment.

  13. PackMan97 07/23/2010 at 10:50 AM #

    One thing I would be interested in knowing is that if Marvin Austin is a key figure in this connecting players to agents and discussing various compensation from agents with other players, does this bring him into the world of being an unlicensed agent and open him up to criminal prosecution?

  14. VaWolf82 07/23/2010 at 10:56 AM #

    One thing to keep in mind is Butch can stay as tight-lipped as he wants because the NCAA does not have the power of subpoena, only the federal and state courts do.

    I seriously doubt that he is tight-lipped with the NCAA. He may claim to (or actually) know nothing. But you do not want anything less than complete cooperation with the NCAA. If the NCAA doesn’t feel like it’s getting complete cooperation, then there is no way of knowing how long they would drag out the investigation.

    On the other hand, Butch owes the press absolutely nothing.

  15. 61Packer 07/23/2010 at 11:57 AM #

    Saban, Meyer, Superior and Butch- the Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse?

  16. Gowolves 07/23/2010 at 12:55 PM #

    Did soneone mention Ole, Arn, Tully & the Nature Boy!

  17. old13 07/23/2010 at 1:06 PM #

    The agent’s response to Saban’s comment is ludicrous! Saban was talking about unethical/crooked agents; not all agents. If the guy has a problem with that, maybe he should be investigated!

  18. GAWolf 07/23/2010 at 5:43 PM #

    Or maybe he’s not talking too much because he’s the same guy who said at the Pigskin Preview that the NCAA promised UNC the would expediate the investigation. I hope he meant expedite.

    This is all I could find on the word expediate:

    Verb
    expediate
    Common misconstruction of expedite.
    [edit]Etymology 2
    From Latin expediō (“set loose”), a compound of ex (“out, free”) + pedis (“of the foot”), thus “freeing the feet”.
    [edit]Verb
    to expediate (third-person singular simple present expediates, present participle expediating, simple past and past participle expediated)
    (rare, historical) To injure (a dog) by cutting away the pads of the forefeet, thereby preventing it from hunting.  [quotations ▼]

  19. McCallum 07/23/2010 at 11:29 PM #

    Saban should be burned at the stake for building a 10.5 million dollar spec. house on Lake Burton.

    Thing has been sitting empty for sometime now. Of course it is right in the middle of the lake near the big island and his 15,000 sq ft “lake cabin” is right across the water.

    I’m thinking about a midnight run over to the Saban house with Round Up, Milwaukee’s Best Light and 10,000 rubber bands.

    Who is with me?

    McCallum

  20. stejen 07/24/2010 at 6:24 PM #

    I have been trying to figure something out. Didn’t Roy Williams order his players not too use Twitter last year? Some coach around here did but I can’t remember who it was. If it was Williams you have to wonder if he had concerns even back then.
    As for Butch Davis, I think he was ordered to keep his mouth shut and that is probably a good idea. But, going back to what I was saying in the first paragraph, if Williams did ban the use of Twitter then you have to wonder why. How deep is this going to go?

  21. john of sparta 07/25/2010 at 8:02 PM #

    eventually, the NCAA will be sued for restriction of trade.
    just like the American Needle vs. the NFL Supreme Court case
    was 9-0 for AN, the NCAA is looking at the same thing although
    in the form of a labor dispute. this year’s super-conference
    contagion was the beginning of the possible changes for the NCAA.

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