NCAA clears Lance Stephenson, Sidney could be next

[Russ Smith]

Seems that the guy in charge of Amateurism Certification, Bill Saum, is no longer employed with the NCAA. They won't comment on why, but it would appear the NCAA has done an about face now with Saum gone.

Today they cleared Lance Stephenson of accusations he'd taken money both from his Born Ready website, and from a documentary film about him. He is completely free and clear with no games suspended to play at Cincy.

And Sidney's lawyer is telling people he expects Sidney to be cleared any day now, he thought it would be Monday or Tuesday but there may be a slight delay as the NCAA conducts followup interviews about the document they turned over last Friday.

Donald Jackson, the lawyer, has a long and contentious history with Saum dealing in the past with eligibility issues and several years earlier with gambling when Saum was in charge of the Gambling Activities investigative team of the NCAA. Saum was the guy who was responsible for the gambling allegations against Neuheisel in 2003 that ultimately led to Neuheisel suing both UW and the NCAA. He wound up winning 1.5 million from UW(they let him keep a loan to cover the cost) and 2.5 from the NCAA because it was alleged the NCAA bylaws were violated when Saum publicly commented on the case and what was alleged. In the end Neuheisel, UW and the NCAA settled out of court. Saum was then re-assigned to the Amateurism Certification team although the NCAA denied any connection.

Given that history you have to wonder is the NCAA thinking he did the same thing with Sidney that he did with Neuheisel(he was accused of having a vendetta to get Neuheisel) and the NCAA ultimately decided we can't prove it so we have to clear the kid?

We'll see but I now expect Sidney will be cleared.

 

[overseascardfan]

Seems that the guy in charge of Amateurism Certification, Bill Saum, is no longer employed with the NCAA. They won't comment on why, but it would appear the NCAA has done an about face now with Saum gone.

Today they cleared Lance Stephenson of accusations he'd taken money both from his Born Ready website, and from a documentary film about him. He is completely free and clear with no games suspended to play at Cincy.

And Sidney's lawyer is telling people he expects Sidney to be cleared any day now, he thought it would be Monday or Tuesday but there may be a slight delay as the NCAA conducts followup interviews about the document they turned over last Friday.

Donald Jackson, the lawyer, has a long and contentious history with Saum dealing in the past with eligibility issues and several years earlier with gambling when Saum was in charge of the Gambling Activities investigative team of the NCAA. Saum was the guy who was responsible for the gambling allegations against Neuheisel in 2003 that ultimately led to Neuheisel suing both UW and the NCAA. He wound up winning 1.5 million from UW(they let him keep a loan to cover the cost) and 2.5 from the NCAA because it was alleged the NCAA bylaws were violated when Saum publicly commented on the case and what was alleged. In the end Neuheisel, UW and the NCAA settled out of court. Saum was then re-assigned to the Amateurism Certification team although the NCAA denied any connection.

Given that history you have to wonder is the NCAA thinking he did the same thing with Sidney that he did with Neuheisel(he was accused of having a vendetta to get Neuheisel) and the NCAA ultimately decided we can't prove it so we have to clear the kid?

We'll see but I now expect Sidney will be cleared.

Not to call myself a psychic but I had a feeling they'd both get in, I figured it would take a month into the season to happen but this makes MSU a legit tournament team and could be a great loss to USC/UCLA as Sidney could have played at either school. As for Stephenson, I would rather have the class Miller got than to swap out one of them for Born Ready, the guy is a prima dona.

 

[Russ Smith]

Not to call myself a psychic but I had a feeling they'd both get in, I figured it would take a month into the season to happen but this makes MSU a legit tournament team and could be a great loss to USC/UCLA as Sidney could have played at either school. As for Stephenson, I would rather have the class Miller got than to swap out one of them for Born Ready, the guy is a prima dona.

The Sidney case can't get any funnier. Today the lawyer accused the NCAA of intentionally stalling to punish Sidney. He then announced that the NCAA had asked for even more information. Seems when he told everyone weeks ago he'd handed over records, he really hadn't. The NCAA said they were still waiting for phone records for the family dating back to Jan 1, 2006. And when they handed over the Sidney's bank records of deposits, they left off one small detail, the deposit records didn't include the SOURCE of the deposits!

Yeah that's exactly what you need to clear a kid accused of not being an amateur, a list of amounts of deposits with no indication of who that money came from?

I'm now reversing field again and assuming he won't be cleared.