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Oregon Ducks

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For those so interested, the Eugene paper is the Register Guard. Few interesting write ups if you go to its page. Here's one such item (and I link it because of the Ohio State mention):

http://www.registerguard.com/web/sports/26486736-41/lyles-kelly-oregon-ncaa-coach.html.csp

The wording in the public record released by Oregon is clear:
?Employee further agrees to abide by ? and to comply with the constitution, bylaws and interpretations of the NCAA.?
Later in the head coach?s $20.5 million contract, we learn he can be terminated for just cause if he commits ?a serious and knowing violation? of NCAA rules.
It goes on from there, with lots of lawyer language. But it?s pertinent stuff, because that?s the debate today:
Chip Kelly?s future.
The question isn?t whether Oregon?s football program is being investigated by the NCAA. It isn?t whether there will be repercussions, probation and penalties.
Given what Will Lyles admitted to Yahoo! Sports ? and later Friday, to me ? about his participation with Oregon?s recruiting efforts in Texas, it?s apparent he will be tagged by the NCAA as a booster. Which means his relationships with Lache Seastrunk and LaMichael James violated NCAA rules.
?(Oregon) paid for what they saw as my access and influence with recruits,? Lyles told Yahoo.
But the larger concern Oregon?s power brokers ? President Richard Lariviere, athletic director Rob Mullens, are you listening? ? should have today is over the clumsy attempt at a cover-up.
It deletes the Ducks? dodge that they were duped by a smooth operator. If Kelly and company believed that they were operating within the rules, why try to cover their tracks?
The extent of Kelly?s involvement with Lyles, all the way back to 2007, should be concerning. Also, the coach?s approval of the $25,000 payment to Lyles for services that did not include an authentic ?2011 National Package.?
And if Lyles is to be believed, there?s also the coach?s approval, earlier this year, of yet another $25,000 payment.
I like Kelly. Sure, he coaches circles around other guys. Away from the field, he?s brash and quotable, and if he?s East Coast abrasive, he seems good-hearted. He preaches doing things the right way, even as we know coaches exploit those gray areas, and you want to believe him.
But the evidence keeps coming, destroying the Ducks? defiant narrative: We?ve done nothing wrong.
A brush fire has become an inferno. And it?s possible this debate is about to become what?s more important to Oregon: salvaging the dynamic coach or protecting the emerging football program?
We don?t know what Kelly told the NCAA about the payment to Lyles, and the scout?s involvement with Seastrunk, and the coaches. As important, we don?t know what Kelly told Mullens. Or Lariviere.
Kelly isn?t saying. The school remains silent. But I know what Kelly told me in March, which was essentially that they?d made a bad business deal, and they were finished dealing with Lyles.
And we know what Lyles is now saying.
Friday afternoon, Lyles returned my call ? he hadn?t responded to repeated messages I?d left, beginning in March. He said he was talking now because he wanted to get his side of the story out. He felt he?d been unfairly caricatured.
?I?m not saying I?m an angel, I?m not saying I?m a devil,? Lyles told me. ?The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle.?
Lyles said recruiting assistant Josh Gibson and Kelly both called him last February, at just the time news organizations were sniffing around. They told him to throw something together and send it as soon as possible.

That?s when he produced the document for the 2011 national package that was filled with recruits from the Class of 2009.
?To be honest with you, I never thought that would see the light of day,? Lyles said.
Looks bad in the glare, doesn?t it? And so does Oregon?s claim to have done things the right way.
If Kelly lied to the NCAA ? and understand, attempting to pass off those documents to the NCAA as legitimate might be construed as intentional deception ? we?re looking at Tressel trouble.
Yeah, Ohio State.
Where?s the truth here? It?s hard to know.
It?s clear Lyles feels as if he?s been mistreated by Oregon. But his story seems credible, in part because in some ways he?s acting against his own interests in speaking out.
Angel, devil or some unholy hybrid, he won?t soon be back in the scouting business. Or the street-agent business. Or whatever it actually was.
cont.
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Lyles said he?s willing to fully cooperate with NCAA investigators. Said Lyles: "What did coach Kelly say to the NCAA? What did he say to the administration? That?s going to be a key piece of information for them. I keep things. I don?t throw things away. It bodes well in this circumstance."
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[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cufzG9QfbVA"]YouTube - ‪Stir Crazy - You Can Kiss The Baby‬‏[/ame]
 
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