A popular axiom exists regarding cheating and other malfeasance. The worst thing about getting found out for having acted in such a manner is not the action itself, but that the perpetrator got caught doing it.
Hence, the anguish and scorn felt by Oregon football fans across the nation as to recent allegations. Head coach Chip Kelly and his staff confirmed that $25,000 was paid to a man named Will Lyles, representing a sole proprietorship called Complete Scouting Services. Another $3,745 went to a man named Baron Flenory, who owns a company called New Level Athletics. Both companies provide critical information on high school football players, including test scores and Social Security numbers. Flenory’s company also runs elite player camps and travel football team tournaments.
The NCAA has reportedly begun to investigate the Ducks, with Lyles as the focal point. His payment has been called into question as excessive by industry standards. Athletic department personnel have told The Register-Guard and The Oregonian that Oregon was unsatisfied with what the payment brought the football coaches.
Couple that with allegations that Lyles, who billed himself as a trainer and mentor for Oregon running backs and Texas natives LaMichael James and Lache Seastrunk, influenced Seastrunk into signing a national letter of intent with the Ducks. The only way Lyles’ small, disreputable scouting service earned that take, many observers allege, was by securing the commitment of a five-star player for a program that otherwise had no chance at attracting him.
If this is in fact the case, Lyles would be classified as a booster by the NCAA, and Oregon would be in violation of NCAA rules. Pick your punishment: bowl ban, loss of scholarships, limited recruiting access. All would be fair game.
How could Oregon get caught with this?
This requires accepting a few tenets that we’re coming to know and love as integral to the college football landscape. First off: The AAU-ization of high school football is complete. Travel teams and elite camps mean that the institution of high school football no longer holds power.
Second: Middlemen exist everywhere, and Oregon and other schools have to deal with them. The simple times of family members demanding cash to lobby for a player’s commitment (Cecil Newton?) are fading away. One need not be a relative — Lyles is not related to Seastrunk or James — to be an influence.
Third: These scouting services and camps are useful, packaging vast amounts of information into user-friendly interfaces that can navigate through tens of thousands of high school prospects. In the modern college football world, there is no longer time to gather all that information. Better to let someone willing and able do it for you.
However, the matter at hand is much more pressing than the changing landscape of college football recruiting. And because Lyles has not responded to requests from any media outlet regarding his services provided to the Ducks, this scandal will continue to stew.
What is the best overall outcome? No one at this school wants to see Oregon punished, but the chance of that happening is real. An arguably better outcome would be sweeping reform to NCAA rules, with updates governing scouting services and camp services.
Oregon fans must realize that these are not mutually exclusive. The NCAA’s standards for punishment simply have to follow the agreement that a university makes when it becomes a member. That often seems arbitrary, the punishments excessive or fleeting, depending upon which side of the fence you stand.
What’s most galling about this entire scenario is not that Oregon was caught paying individuals with questionable ties to recruits. It’s the possibility that everything the Ducks did was completely in bounds.
The Oregon athletic department wisely made the first move by admitting to paying Lyles and Flenory, and opening its books to confirm that fact. (A fair amount of damage control has also been applied.) The onus is now on the NCAA to act swiftly in investigating the Oregon program and adjusting its bylaws to reflect the real world of college football.
Cheating should be specified. And cheaters should be punished.
That much we can all agree on. I think.
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