More Charges Against Lance Brauman And Some Involving Tyson Gay

"Between May 1 and Aug. 10, he allegedly caused the University of Arkansas to send a payment through the mail to BCCC to pay for Tyson Gay's enrollment in a technical mathematics class, although he knew Gay would not complete the course as required."

Is this what you are talking about? I've read this a few times now, can anyone decode what this is saying?

he allegedly committed frauded. he got arkansas to send tuition money for gay's tuition even though he knew gay wouldn't actually attend/complete the class. basically, he was paying barton college to keep gay eligible. the reason this is a federal case is because he used the mail (a body of the US government and interstate commerce) to do it.

Weldon,

If U of A can be proven to have sent money to cover this guy's tuition, that would be considered a violation of NCAA rules forbidding extra benefits for athletes. Conceivably, they could add an unethical-conduct charge against the employee who approved the payment. Should be an interesting trial.

yes, a four year school can pay for an athlete's classes - wherever that athlete chooses to take them.

for instance, if i'm on scholarship at Georgetown, i can take summer classes at Georgetown (obviously), at the London School of Economics (if I'm smart enough to attend) or at Northern Virginia Community College. Georgetown can elect to pay for the classes, or choose not to, depending on their criteria. But they aren't prohibited for paying for classes at another school.

Think of any smart kid - good enough to have a scholarship in a one-season sport (like volleyball) who wants to go study abroad during the spring semester. That tuition at the foreign school can be covered by scholarship money.

It only looks more suspicious here because of the community college aspect of it - and not a "real" college. but there's certainly nothing illegal about this fact, as long as the credits transfer.

Thanks for clarifying this. Oh I was confused. I was thinking for some reason Gay was in CC and Brauman was coaching there still and this was prior to Arkansas but see I am wrong.

Just doing some googling, it looks like Gay was at Barton through the end of 2003 track season, and from the article it says that this occured between May 1, 2003 and Sept. 2003, so it probably wasn't while he was a student at Barton.

From an NCAA standpoint this would have to be a benefit that was available to any student not just an athlete.

Look a little deeper.

The class was taken after Gay "graduated" from Barton CC, but is lited on a fraudulent transcript giving credit for a college algebra class that Gay did not complete and the Brauman knew he would not complete. If this class was required to make him eligible to compete at Arkansas, there are some track national championships won in 2004 and 2005 that should be open to being wiped out.

So far the sound of the NCAA Enforcement Division's lack of making a "federal case" out of this is deafening.

Depending on the structure of a scholarship, they can be used almost anyway the student wants. There are restrictions on where some scholarships may be used, i.e., a scholarship for a specific business college; none on others, i.e., the local VFW gives a kid $200 to use for education however the kid wants.

Some scholarships are for books, some for room and board, some for tuition, some are monies given directly to the student with the hope they are used for education.

This reasoning (or rules or standards or guidelines) applies to both athletes and nonathletes.

For over 10 years I have questioned the ethics of Arkansas. Anyone that would allow Teddy Mitchell to transfer in to their program will always be suspect.

wejo wrote:

Thanks for clarifying this. Oh I was confused. I was thinking for some reason Gay was in CC and Brauman was coaching there still and this was prior to Arkansas but see I am wrong.

i think you're right in your thinking: gay WAS at Barton at one point and Bruaman was still coaching there.

what happened is this:

gay left barton cc for arkansas in may of '03. he still needed a class to be eligible - so arkansas paid for him to take that class at barton. (it sounds shady, but think of incoming freshman who need more work, so take a summer session right before school; same thing here, only gay is taking the class at BCCC).

the problem comes in that gay didn't actually take the class, and thus shouldn't have been eligible. arkansas may or may not have known whether he took the class, but even if they did know, they'll deny it. their defense will be: "we trusted the transcripts from an accredited community college. we had no way of knowing whether a student actually completed all the work - that's the job of the community college - and they signed off on it."

if you were thinking that it was somehow illegal for arkansas to be paying gay's tuition at BCCC (say during the year) then that would be illegal. but once he signs with arkansas - or completes the process of transferring - he can take classes wherever, and the university can pay for them.

Good message. Another question following through here is:

Once the coach moved to UA, they were an official of the university and thus the university "knew or should have known" of the actions of their coaches. If the time that LB was at UA covers Gay's time there, there probably is an issue. How retroactive it is (does it only apply to once LB got there or is the school responsible for retroactively knowning about the Gay eligibility problem?) might be an issue.

26mi235 wrote:

Once the coach moved to UA, they were an official of the university and thus the university "knew or should have known" of the actions of their coaches. If the time that LB was at UA covers Gay's time there, there probably is an issue. How retroactive it is (does it only apply to once LB got there or is the school responsible for retroactively knowning about the Gay eligibility problem?) might be an issue.

i don't get what you're getting at. we know brauman was crooked, and that he involved gay in the crookedness (as well as others.) but so far there is nothing to suggest that john mcdonnell was complicit in the actions.

once bruaman moved on to UA, what he did @ UA is what Arkansas should know about. How is Arkansas suppossed to know the Brauman was fixing grades for his athletes at BCCC? Was he bragging about it? By all accounts from Barton - which at the time was an accreditted community college - he produced great runners. I don't think the Barton folks (even if they were in on it) we going to be running around telling people they cheated. UA would have no way of knowing - heck, it took an investigation by the FBI to uncover this. Is a simple background check by an employment firm going to uncover this sort of dealing.

Personally, I think the whole thing stinks. Brauman is crooked. But I don't see how Arkansas - unless Brauman was stupid enough to tell them that he's a cheater - would have known.

As for the guy above, saying that the "benefit" must be available for all students - it is. Any student at a university is free to take classes where ever they want - provided the school accepts the credits. If joe chemistry student wants to avoid a dreaded philosophy class, sometimes they can take one at the community college. now of course an athlete on scholarship is having his classes paid for - and that's different from a regular student. but the option still exists. like i said - students study abroad or take summer classes at other universities all the time. this just looks shady because arkansas is a school of such poor academic quality that they'll accept (and pay for) community college classes.

I just got done talking to one of our compliance officers regarding the basic scenario that has been presented in this thread.

As of the summer of 2006, universities may pay for classes taken by student-athletes elsewhere, ONLY if they are branches of the same university system.

Priot to this coming summer, the rule that stood for years was that a university MAY NOT pay for clsses taken elsewhere by a student-athlete.

That would seem to indicate that if junior college classes were paid for in the summer of 2003 by a member of the staff of a Division I university, there was an NCAA violation. Should the NCAA look at this, the situation would likely be exacerbated by the fact it was a coach personally sending the payment.

former parkie wrote:

...we know brauman was crooked...

...How is Arkansas suppossed to know the Brauman was fixing grades for his athletes at BCCC?...UA would have no way of knowing - heck, it took an investigation by the FBI to uncover this...

Personally, I think the whole thing stinks. Brauman is crooked. But I don't see how Arkansas - unless Brauman was stupid enough to tell them that he's a cheater - would have known.

This use of the word "know" by you is interesting. The courts don't "know" any of this. The FBI doesn't "know" any of this. Only you seem to know of this crookedness that so far is only revealed enough in an investigation to justify an indictment. An indictment is not a statement of guilt.

I can only guess you are one of the material witnesses who will reveal all they "know" on the stand, eh?

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty in da courts of the land?

Brauman is as dirty as Dan Waters who got TCU in trouble with the NCAA.

College Algebra???? Does this mean High School Algebra at a college????

Brauman is just the start of a long list of coach's who will eventually get busted for tampering with their athlete's academics. He's just a popular case because of where he's at (arkanasas). I've known of other coach's at JuCo levels who have commited similar actions, they just haven't been caught - Yet.

Great Bend wrote (in part):[...]I've known of other coach's at JuCo levels who have commited similar actions, they just haven't been caught - Yet.

Hmmm, another person who "knows" stuff, but doesn't seem to feel strongly enough to go to the authorities and put a stop to it.

What strange standards. He likes to crow about it on a forum, but doesn't want to get involved with the clean-up.

Plural of coach is coaches.

"arkanasas" does not spell "Arkansas"

"commited" should be "committed"

"athlete's" should be "athletes'" unless all these coaches are sharing one athlete.

Hmmmm, maybe you should have had one of these [coach's] you know fix you up with an English tutor, eh?