Selena Roberts is reporting that Auburn University allegedly changed players’ grades to secure eligibility, offered money to potential NFL draft picks to return for their senior seasons, and committed recruiting violations under then head coach Gene Chizik. Roberts’ original story is no longer up but ESPN is reporting on the story. Players are now coming out and saying they were misquoted.
In Roberts article she reports that three ex Auburn players said as many as nine players’ grades were changed before Auburn’s win in the 2011 BCS national championship game. Ex Auburn defensive end Mike Blanc told Roberts:
We thought we would be without (running back) Mike Dyer because he said he was one of them, but Auburn found a way to make those dudes eligible.
Now Blanc is backtracking and he told ESPN’s Jonathan Coachman that the report was not true. He tweeted Wednesday: “Man this article is outrageous and isn’t true.”
Roberts report also claims players were offered money to bypass the NFL draft. Blanc asserts his knowledge about pay is second hand and gave the following quote to Al.com:
Yeah. Me, personally, I don’t have any direct knowledge of it. You just hear stuff. I’m pretty sure other guys on the team that know more, like guys that were closer to Darvin and these other players I know. Darvin probably would have told those guys. I know Mike and Darvin were really cool. Maybe Darvin could have shared some information with Mike. But, me, personally, I don’t know nothing factual that any guys got any money.
Roberts is a well respected journalist and stands by her reporting that Auburn did in fact commit the acts she details in her article. Roberts said:
I think it’s very difficult to take a strong stance and to tell the truth and then to have to deal with the consequences in a place where I think the story even shows that there is a great deal of pressure to keep what’s in-house, in-house. I think the entire sort of umbrella of the story explains just what’s at risk for people who step outside the bounds. In some ways, it almost dovetails with the story that they may not know exactly what’s going on. They may feel that kind of pressure to then alter what they said to me.
Stay tuned there is more to this. I tend to lean on Roberts’ side here and am curious to see how Auburn tries to spin this one.