|
|
 |
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
NCAA continues Tide probe Recruiting parties, Memphis businessman on agenda
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- NCAA investigators looking into Alabama's football recruiting practices reportedly have asked about parties with strippers that some recruits attended. David Paine, a former Crimson Tide signee from Memphis, told The Birmingham News in a story Thursday that investigators last week wanted "some real detail" about recruiting parties he attended in Tuscaloosa. He said the parties were hosted by then Alabama player Fernando Bryant, now with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, that included strippers. He said Bryant handed out $5 each to the Alabama players and recruits attending to be given to the girls who were entertaining. "Basically I told them the girls just did what they were supposed to do," Paine said. "They just entertained." Paine, who signed with Alabama in 1999 but failed to qualify academically, said he spent more than two hours last week with two NCAA officials. "They said there are a lot of rumors going around saying that I got paid to go to the University of Alabama," Paine said. "I told them no, I never heard anything like that until now. I told them if someone got paid they must have skipped me." Paine said investigators also asked him if he knew of any involvement Memphis investment banker Duncan Williams had with recruiting. Paine said he told investigators he didn't know Williams, a 1990 Alabama graduate whose family has contributed to the university's business school. Williams also told the News he has no connection to recruiting and he has not heard from the NCAA. "I think that just comes from being in Memphis and people watching too much of the Internet, that all of a sudden they associate somebody who has a successful business with all of that," Williams said. NCAA investigators have interviewed Memphis businessman Logan Young, a longtime supporter of the university who was named in claims that a Memphis High School coach received $200,000 to steer defensive lineman Albert Means to Alabama. Investigators concluded a second round of interviews on the Alabama campus on Wednesday, following up sessions with players and former coaches initially interviewed last November. The investigators plan to travel to Memphis next week for additional interviews. University officials would not discuss the latest round of NCAA interviews. Stan Murphy, a university lawyer, said nothing "should be read into" the NCAA's return to campus. "It's a cooperative undertaking," he said.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
