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NCAA Basketball Investigation/Lawsuit Thread (merged)

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Link to Geiger's press conference on June 8, 2004. According to the chronology of events, the money was *lent* after the NLOI was signed and before the NCAA finally ruled on the athlet's eligibility status. If the loan was made in this time frame, OB would have had an affirmative duty to report to the NCAA that even if the athlete is somehow absolved by the NCAA on account of playing for a club team in Serbia, that athlete is now ineligible because the coach had just provded an impermissible extra benefit to the athlete. I can't see how OB wins this case, but stranger things have happened.
 
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Link to Geiger's press conference on June 8, 2004. According to the chronology of events, the money was *lent* after the NLOI was signed and before the NCAA finally ruled on the athlet's eligibility status. If the loan was made in this time frame, OB would have had an affirmative duty to report to the NCAA that even if the athlete is somehow absolved by the NCAA on account of playing for a club team in Serbia, that athlete is now ineligible because the coach had just provded an impermissible extra benefit to the athlete. I can't see how OB wins this case, but stranger things have happened.
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I agree, but the sticky point here is that Obie's lawyers are saying that the player, played overseas for money prior to the time Obie gave him the "loan", thus he was inelgible and not a recruit.
 
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bucknuts44820 said:
I agree, but the sticky point here is that Obie's lawyers are saying that the player, played overseas for money prior to the time Obie gave him the "loan", thus he was inelgible and not a recruit.
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I understand what OB's lawyers are saying, but the fact remains that OB was part of an NCAA review process that dealt specifically with the eligibility status of the very player that he lent money to. OB was duty bound under NCAA rules to report the loan to the NCAA especially in light of the fact that the NCAA was in the process of ruling on the player's eligibility. To act as devil's advocate - if the eligibility status was a slam dunk certainty, then why did OB participate in a process on that very issue?
 
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Link to the June 15, 2004 Cincy Post article regarding this mess. The Post also covers Spomenko Pajovic, the man who helped Radojevic come to the US and who was known in European circles as a broker/agent for European players who were looking to come to the US to play basketball. Pajovic was also involved with Savovic, and nothing at all good has come out of the Savovic situation. What a freaking mess.
 
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Does anyone else find it ironic that the University is attempting to establish that recruiting violations did in fact occur (violations which will result in punishment from the NCAA) and that former employees are attempting to establish that no violations did in fact occur? Most universities deny wrongdoings, but yet we are going out of our way to show that they did in fact occur. I know it is to show that they were proactive when learning of the violations in an attempt to reduce punishment, but it still seems funny to me.
 
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the facts you guys are spewing are slightly off from what iv heard...
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I am only going by what is out there in print, its possible I missed something. If there are missing details we are not hitting on, please fill us in.

To act as devil's advocate - if the eligibility status was a slam dunk certainty, then why did OB participate in a process on that very issue?
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I asked the same question earlier in this thread...

OB was duty bound under NCAA rules to report the loan to the NCAA especially in light of the fact that the NCAA was in the process of ruling on the player's eligibility.
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I agree with this 100%. When tOSU was going through the process of determining his eligiblity with the NCAA, I guess Obie thought it wasn't important to mention the simple fact he gave this recruit money.
 
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bucknuts44820 said:
I agree, but the sticky point here is that Obie's lawyers are saying that the player, played overseas for money prior to the time Obie gave him the "loan", thus he was inelgible and not a recruit.
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OK, lets take that premise as being good. It makes the player de facto unrecruitable.

If he was not legally recruitable what was O'Brien doing bringing him onto campus? This calls for a Denny Crane simplicity. To my ears O'Brien sounds like he wants to have his cake and eat it too. You can't have the loan being OK AND the recruitment and playing of the player OK all at the same time.

Doubtless O'Brien's atty will try to lay out a timeline that exonerates his client. I simply do not see such a tortuous presentation of claims and/or facts being easy for a Jury in Franklin County, Ohio to swallow.
 
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If he was not legally recruitable what was O'Brien doing bringing him onto campus? This calls for a Denny Crane simplicity. To my ears O'Brien sounds like he wants to have his cake and eat it too. You can't have the loan being OK AND the recruitment and playing of the player OK all at the same time.
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I agree with your comments, the problem here is that logic may not play a role in the court decision if you know what I mean.

In a perfect world, OSU doesn't owe him one penny.
 
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Report on Holbrook's testimony today.

OSU president says no NCAA ruling required for coach's firing
By RUSTY MILLER, Associated Press Writer
December 14, 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The president of Ohio State testified Wednesday that the school had grounds to fire basketball coach Jim O'Brien because he admitted violating NCAA rules by lending a potential recruit $6,000.

Because of the admission, Karen Holbrook said the school didn't have to honor a provision in O'Brien's contract that said the NCAA had to rule on alleged violations.

O'Brien, however, denied telling former athletic director Andy Geiger that he violated an NCAA rule. His suit, in the Ohio Court of Claims, asks for $3.5 million in back pay and benefits for being improperly dismissed in June 2004. The judgment could grow by millions if interest and other damages are awarded.

"The issue was the coach had entered into a clear violation of NCAA bylaws, it was a considered to be a blatant violation, and an egregious violation, and one that had no remedy," Holbrook said.

O'Brien said the loan to Aleksandar Radojevic, a 7-foot-3 prospect from Serbia, was not a violation because he knew Radojevic already had forfeited his amateur status by playing professionally.

He said he gave the money to Radojevic because the player's father was dying and the family had no money for medicine or the funeral.

O'Brien coached the Buckeyes to a 133-88 record that included two Big Ten titles and a conference tournament title in seven seasons.

Updated on Wednesday, Dec 14, 2005 4:04 pm EST
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O'Brien said the loan to Aleksandar Radojevic, a 7-foot-3 prospect from Serbia, was not a violation because he knew Radojevic already had forfeited his amateur status by playing professionally.
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then why did they have an eligibility hearin with ncaa to determine his status? after this hearing, why did obie say he was surprised at the ruling as he thought the serb would get a 10 game suspension and have to repay his earnings?

obrien is best served to keep his forked tongue behind his teeth. i wonder if his lawsuit has opened the door to blacks at boston college yet.
 
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CPD

12/15

Ohio State defends firing of O'Brien

12/15/2005, 4:28 a.m. ETBy RUSTY MILLER
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — When Ohio State president Karen Holbrook was told men's basketball coach Jim O'Brien admitted breaking an NCAA rule, she knew she didn't have to wait for a long investigation.
"I believe that the university had a reason for terminating his employment because one of our regulations is that coaches do know and comply with NCAA regulations," Holbrook testified Wednesday.
O'Brien is suing the university in the Ohio Court of Claims for $3.5 million in back pay and benefits for what he says was an improper dismissal in June 2004. The judgment could grow by millions if interest and other damages are awarded.
In her 20 minutes on the stand, Holbrook said former athletic director Andy Geiger told her O'Brien admitted he paid $6,000 to a recruit in 1999. O'Brien denies he ever told Geiger he broke NCAA rules.
Holbrook said she didn't have to wait to hear from the NCAA how serious the violation was.
"The issue was the coach had entered into a clear violation of NCAA bylaws, it was a considered to be a blatant violation, and an egregious violation — and one that had no remedy," she said.
A provision of O'Brien's contract said the NCAA had to rule on alleged violations before he could be fired for that reason. But Holbrook said there was still justification for the dismissal without such a ruling.
"The contract still requires him to uphold Ohio State's standards, which are the same as the NCAA's in part, but nonetheless, it is an Ohio State contract that was breached," she said.
O'Brien says the loan to Aleksandar Radojevic, a 7-foot-3 prospect from Serbia, was not a violation because he knew Radojevic already had forfeited his amateur status by playing professionally. He also contends that the loan did not come to light until after the NCAA's four-year statute of limitations.
O'Brien, who coached the Buckeyes to a 133-88 record that included two Big Ten titles and a conference tournament title in seven seasons, says he gave the money to Radojevic's family in late 1998 or early 1999 because the player's father had recently died.

Holbrook said there was no reason to investigate the matter or to contact the NCAA after Geiger reported to her that O'Brien had acknowledged giving Radojevic's family the money.
"We did not ask the NCAA," she said. "This was a university decision."
Radojevic never played at Ohio State and never enrolled in classes at the school. After he signed to come to Ohio State from a junior college, it was determined that he had played professionally for a team in Yugoslavia and he was declared ineligible by the NCAA.
Geiger said "it was a charade, a sham," that O'Brien allowed Ohio State to spend months on an appeal to regain Radojevic's eligibility.
"The coach had already made Alex irrevocably ineligible by giving him the money," Geiger said.
O'Brien attorney Joseph Murray asked Geiger how he knew the loan would make Radojevic permanently ineligible. Geiger said his belief was based on what he considered a major violation.
"Have you ever heard of Troy Smith?" Murray asked.
Smith, Ohio State's starting quarterback in football the past two years, accepted $500 from a team booster a year ago. He was forced to sit out two games but played most of this season with the Buckeyes.
 
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