Update

It has been a crazy week… I really did not expect a simple little story on my own blog to garner as much attention as it has.

I did two radio appearances yesterday on 750 The Game; I was very happy to share this perspective with a larger audience and thankful for the positive reception of both Chad Doing and Dave Smith! The audience was very receptive, so I am happy that I was able to bring some people a little relief.

A couple of notes to pass on, and, since this is a personal blog, it is as good a place as any I suppose.

First, I have heard some attempt to say that all of the facts I uncovered and articulated are irrelevant. There might be merit to that, with one exception; the information is relevant because it strips down the credibility of the only person who has spoken publicly to this point.

We now know that other recruiting services do, in fact, charge $25,000 for national packages; some charge more. The early tone of the Oregon debate was based on a call an Oregonian reporter made to a coach who said it seemed extreme. Well, based on research, it is not, in fact, extreme. This is not to say that what Will Lyles provided was worth $25,000, only that the perception which was laid out early on, and never followed up on, was incorrect; $25,000 is a reasonable price for a national package. So, to say $25,000 was too much and shows they must have been doing something wrong is disingenuous. $25,000 was not too much for a true national package.

The next phase of the “Oregon is guilty” party was that Lyles had too much influence on Lache, therefor, the payment was really about buying his influence. This was the crux of Lyles’ own statement as he reflected on his relationships. However, if we find that Lyles’ influence on Lache was nowhere near as impactful as Lyles says it was, then Oregon was not paying for his influence. You cannot pay for what does not exist.

We then hear, in rebuttals in the blogs of local journalists that none of this matters because the NCAA will only care about Oregon’s intent. Well, my first thought is, really, and the NCAA has told you this? Not likely. But let’s assume for a moment that this is the last frontier for the NCAA; Oregon’s intent. This is the most difficult concept to prove in any system that metes out discipline. Intent is difficult to prove without some form of written communication that says “hey, Will, we sure could use someone who can influence kids, we would pay good money for that. ” In the absence of a “smoking gun” the NCAA will be left with the information provided by all the parties they speak with. At the moment, only one person is saying that Oregon had bad intent; and he only said that after Oregon turned him down for a second payment, and after it was clear that, on his own, he could not produce quality information. Intent is a relatively useless argument in this case as it is virtually unprovable.

And that leaves us with a simple question: Did anyone steer Lache Seastrunk to Oregon? Well, as of this moment, every single person involved with Lache Seastrunk maintains firmly that Lache made this decision of his own accord.

The local newspapers can scoff all they want, the facts I have presented are facts. Regardless of the fact that I am “just a fan,” the facts remain. And, for John Strong, Dan Wetzel’s status as a journalist does not negate my facts. The facts I present are very strong. Further, the fact that he has unlimited resources and time to look into more than the words of Will Lyles, yet simply ignored a plethora of available information makes it extremely sad that somehow this information had to come from someone else.

I can tell you this, if Dan Wetzel came to my office and was able to do a project better than me, I would be ashamed.