The problem is the, so-called, cover-up. George, Canzano and every other pundit all point to one paragraph from Willie Lyles’ statement in the July 1 article for their “proof” of the cover up:
“They said they just needed anything,” Lyles said of the embarrassingly thin recruiting profiles that Oregon made public earlier this month. “They asked for last-minute [stuff]. So I gave them last-minute [stuff] … I gave them, like, old stuff that I still had on my computer because I never thought that stuff would see the light of day.”
BUT, and this is a big BUT, later, in that same article he states:
“that is a stark contrast from LSU, which Lyles said sent him a checklist to follow when submitting reports for the junior college package purchased by the Tigers. Their standards required written reports on two different dates and film on a continual basis over the length of the deal. Lyles said Cal requested nothing specific, so he sent the same spreadsheet databases to the Bears that he eventually provided to the Ducks.”
So, this information he supposedly “just threw together” had already been compiled and given to Cal and LSU… so, he ATTEMPTS to paint the story of a cover-up, but, in fact, Lyles contradicts himself in the same story…and no one, I mean NO ONE, has mentioned this BLATANT contradiction. The “continuous video” he sent LSU was 36 DVD’s, many of which were less than amateur quality… some of which looked like they may have been taken with a camera phone!
Further no one has yet thought to ponder that, it is entirely possible that Oregon had been asking Lyles for information for MONTHS only to be rebuffed by an obviously disorganized inferior businessman… maybe the “demand” was simply because they were tired of playing softball… Certainly we cannot simply take the word of Willie Lyles… he cannot even keep his story straight in the Yahoo interviews… how are we supposed to believe him?
Sorry, George (Schroeder), your additional conclusions about Lyles being labeled a booster are likely inaccurate as well… much to your dismay, Chip pointed out one tidbit today being missed by all, in his years as a scout, Willie Lyles has worked with over 80 schools… I sincerely doubt that the NCAA is going to rule that Lyles is a booster to 80 different schools… And we know he mentored kids that ended up with at least 6 different schools… I doubt the NCAA rules he was a booster to 6 schools… he had enough of a background in the industry that there were some people who trusted him… should they have? Probably not… did their trust violate NCAA rules? Not likely.
A final thought, In the Charles Robinson story, Lyles says that LSU paid $6000 for a JC package, Cal paid $5000 for a Texas only package… so, the “cost difference” is not relevant… they were different levels of service. but again, that does not fit the aspired narrative, so it gets left out of most conversations.