Guest ERock Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Documents: Oregon paid pair with ties to Recruits The University of Oregon paid more than $28,000 to two men with ties to multiple recruits who signed letters of intent with the school, Yahoo! Sports has learned. According to State of Oregon expenditure records, the university paid $25,000 to Will Lyles of Complete Scouting Services in Houston, and $3,745 to Baron Flenory of New Level Athletics. Lyles is a former athletic trainer who recently was serving as a mentor to highly touted Ducks running back recruit Lache Seastrunk. Meanwhile, Flenory runs the Badger Sports Elite 7-on-7 football camps which have featured several celebrated Ducks signees including running back DeAnthony Thomas, defensive back Cliff Harris, defensive back Dior Mathis and wideout Tacoi Sumler. Flenory had a personal training relationship with recent Ducks signee Anthony Wallace. AdChoices If Lyles and Flenory aided in or were involved in any way in the recruitment of student athletes to Oregon, they would be classified as boosters by the NCAA, and any payment to them from the school would be considered a violation of Bylaw 13. Bylaw 13 prohibits boosters from directing a recruit to a school. A message left on the cell phone of Oregon coach Chip Kelly was not immediately returned, and there was no answer on a number listed for Lyles. Flenory said the payment to him was for a recruiting service that his company set up for Oregon. The package included names, birthdates and other info on potential recruits. Flenory said the package to Oregon was the only one ever sold by his company because “we stopped doing it because the NCAA said recruiting services could no longer do camps on college campuses. Because we were running camps, we decided that was a better business for us than to sell the recruiting packages.†Flenory said he didn’t have an invoice readily available for the service, but that his company approached the school and offered the package. He said the school instructed him how he could be paid for the recruiting package. Flenory said he played no part in players either visiting or signing with the University of Oregon, and didn’t understand why the NCAA would have a problem with him. “We stopped doing it when the NCAA made the rule,†Flenory said. The payouts all took place within the last fiscal year and appeared in the annual college budget expenditures for the university. According to records, the monies were paid under the account for “Books, Publications and other References.†The $25,000 check was made out to “Willie J. Lyles/dba [doing business as] Complete Scoutingâ€. The check to Flenory was made payable to his company, New Level Athletics. Lyles became a known quantity on the football scene as a personal trainer in Houston while running a company called Speed Dynamics. The company held conditioning camps for players on college campuses. The camps were typically held in the summer and focused improving the speed and overall fitness of players as they headed into the fall football season. Lyles has also been affiliated with Complete Scouting Services, which claims to offer a national high school scouting and video database nationwide. Flenory received his college degree from the University of New Hampshire, where he played under current Oregon coach Chip Kelly. Following his senior season in 2005, Flenory remained close to football, joining Scout.com as the company’s Midwest Scouting Director. In that position he made widespread connections with high school coaches and was charged with evaluating national prospects for the service. After leaving Scout.com, Flenory established New Level, which runs 7-on-7 tournaments and camps for the development of skill position players in the prep football ranks. Since the establishment of New Level, the tournaments have come to field some of the most coveted high school recruits in the country and include 32 traveling teams nationally. Hmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest -AC- Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Oh Shi... As an SC fan, I'll I have to say is- once yahoo! gets involved you're pretty much F***ed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SoCalFan80 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 I just saw this today and it looks like my source was right regarding Seastrunk. I posted that the other day but had doubts because I don't really believe in hearsay but man, Oregon sure did become unbeatable overnight...lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ERock Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Both Lyles and Flenory are well established "street agents" right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SoCalFan80 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Both Lyles and Flenory are well established "street agents" right? According to their backgrounds I guess you can say that. Until the NCAA puts all schools on a level playing field when it comes to penalties and sanctions this stuff will continue to happen. These parasites (wannabe agents/runners/sport camp organizers) will continue to exploit young athletes and their families in hopes of getting paid and when a young athlete starts to make decisions for themselves these parasites turn on them and start running their mouths for a check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ERock Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 ESPN is now reporting that the NCAA is taking a closer look into the recruitment of Seastruck. ESPN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RogueDuck Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 And what in the reserch shows UO doing anything against the rules? Do any of you really thing UO would be dumb enough to pay for something against the rules with a check, and then put it on the books which are made public? I'm guessing, as it says in the paper, is that UO only payed for info, not for these individuals to recruit for the UO. UO goes down for a recruit who hasn't seen the field and by all accounts will be 4th string this year, that would suck . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SoCalFan80 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 And what in the reserch shows UO doing anything against the rules? Do any of you really thing UO would be dumb enough to pay for something against the rules with a check, and then put it on the books which are made public? I'm guessing, as it says in the paper, is that UO only payed for info, not for these individuals to recruit for the UO. UO goes down for a recruit who hasn't seen the field and by all accounts will be 4th string this year, that would suck . $25,000-$30,000 for "info?" What kind of info were they trying to find for that amount? Don't be naive there Duck. I think the info that cost them that much was how can you get these kids to Oregon because we are tired of getting our assess kicked by SC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RogueDuck Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Really, and Joe McKnight wasn't tied to him also as well as a couple other SC recruits? LSU has also signed about a dozen of his players. You also might want to check UO record vs SC since 95. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ERock Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 The ESPN article says that typical recruiting packages cost in the norm of $5000 and not $25k. It also says that UO paid Lyles after Seastrunk signed in LOI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SoCalFan80 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Really, and Joe McKnight wasn't tied to him also as well as a couple other SC recruits? LSU has also signed about a dozen of his players. You also might want to check UO record vs SC since 95. Duck, I say this with a laugh and just good nature ribbing. Don't take me serious at all. I can't stand the way recruiting has gone the past 10-15 years but that's the way things are right now and until penalties are handed out even by the NCAA it will continue. What I would like to see is a agency approved by the NFL and NCAA that provides camps for top high schoolers and agents (after student-athletes declare themselves) that are legit and licensed to speak with these kids not these fly-by-night wannabes looking for a quick paycheck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest -AC- Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Really, and Joe McKnight wasn't tied to him also as well as a couple other SC recruits? LSU has also signed about a dozen of his players. You also might want to check UO record vs SC since 95. Mc Knight was in his camp... But two things here- 1. We would have given Mc Knight back, if we had the chance too... 2. As far as we know, there isn't a $25,000 check floating around out there from USC... Amateurs! You should have used un-marked cash! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RogueDuck Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 I understand I'm not getting worried, UO may get hit over this, but the fact is a lot of schools paid for this info as it points out on ESPN. It sounds like the NCAA is looking at stopping the practice of these agents selling the kids info to schools. If you read the report 3 months ago, this guy is tied to a lot of recruits and schools, and UO isn't the only one to deal with him. If they come after UO they will have to go after half the SEC also. I think they just want to stop this from becoming basketball. Latest from CBSportsline Bryan Fischer reinterates: "Multiple sources have told me again there's no formal investigation into Oregon. The NCAA is looking at the scouting services." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MrBug708 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 SHOW ME THE CHECKS! WHERE IS THE PROOF?!* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SoCalFan80 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Duck, to answer your question, SC is 5-7 against the Ducks since "95". The teams didn't play in 95 or 96 so I guess you just threw that year out there. Overall, SC is 37-18-2 against the Ducks and ran off 7 straight PAC-10 titles in the timespan you referenced...I like that overall record and conference titles to match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RogueDuck Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 And honestly if they can't tie Cam to $200k, how will they tie anyone to having "known" they where paying for anything other than info. The agent won't admit he did anything wrong, and the schools will all say they just payed for info on the recruits, anything beyond that wasn't ever asked for or part of the deal. I also think the key here will be that unlike other schools, UO never denied they payed them. We came right out and said yes we did here is the books and receipts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RogueDuck Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 I just threw '95 out there because it was the last 15 years(and before that UO just sucked), plus we have had some epic games in that time, like 2000 and '01 as well as blowouts both ways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ERock Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 FYI the Yahoo writer of the story is the same guy who broke the Reggie Bush story. Basically I see this as the start of a possible investigation. More stories will get released just like the Reggie Bush saga and it could lead to a formal investigation by the NCAA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SoCalFan80 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 And honestly if they can't tie Cam to $200k, how will they tie anyone to having "known" they where paying for anything other than info. The agent won't admit he did anything wrong, and the schools will all say they just payed for info on the recruits, anything beyond that wasn't ever asked for or part of the deal. I also think the key here will be that unlike other schools, UO never denied they payed them. We came right out and said yes we did here is the books and receipts. True, but the Newton thing is still under investigation. It would be crazy if both Auburn and Oregon had to forfeit this past season behind scandals. Who would we crown the 2010 champ, TCU? I just think paying up to $30K for "info" on recruits when you pay your coaching staff much more to do the same job is suspect...don't you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MrBug708 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 True, but the Newton thing is still under investigation. It would be crazy if both Auburn and Oregon had to forfeit this past season behind scandals. Who would we crown the 2010 champ, TCU? I just think paying up to $30K for "info" on recruits when you pay your coaching staff much more to do the same job is suspect...don't you think? When wins are vacated or forfeited, they don't reward the next best team Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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