NCAA drops inquiry into Oregon Football Recruiting. Levels Sanctions against University of Texas Athletic Department

As we've seen time and time again in football, referees rarely catch the instigator and almost always flag the player who retaliates. This time, however, the referees got it right.

The NCAA has leveled a charge of "Lack of Institutional Control", not on Oregon, but on the University of Texas Athletic Department and Head Football Coach Mack Brown.

At the center of the investigation was Willie Lyles, a Texas-based trainer who reportedly took $25,000 from the University of Oregon for "recruiting services" to help influence Lache Seastrunk to head to Eugene. Lyles was a well-known personality in Texas Football culture, having been involved with players that eventually signed with Baylor, Texas A&M and others.

An anonymous whistle-blower inside the University of Texas Athletic Department

After the Rodgers Brothers went to Oregon State, and then LaMichael James committing to Oregon, Mack [Brown] was furious. He called everyone into the office, including [DeLoss Dodds, UT Athletic Director]. He made it VERY clear that this wasn't how Texas Football should be treated and that we needed to take care of this "little problem".

It was at that meeting that we devised the payments to Lyles through a UT booster club member located in Oregon. They successfully got hired on in the University of Oregon compliance office where they were successfully able to communicate back to us in Texas through MySpace. Since no one goes there anymore, it made for the perfect cover.

Here's a visibly irritated Mack Brown at a 2011 press conference talking about their recent group of signees. Knowing what we know now, you can see how frustrated he must have been in losing the recruiting wars.

Jon Jarvis with the NCAA

I cannot comment too much but we received some anonymous information about the Texas angle in the investigation of Oregon after the Alamo Bowl this year. We take every lead very seriously and we performed a methodical investigation into these matters.

Jarvis on why the investigation took this long

I would be lying if I said that this was usual for us. We like to have these investigations wrapped up as quickly as we possibly can. As you in the media know, however, we've had some issues with employee turnover lately that we're looking to get addressed. We've implemented a great new morale booster at the office where we dress up as our favorite characters from the investigations we've done. Next time, I'm going as Reggie Bush! I was going to go as Rick Neuheisel but Mark [Emmert] called DIBS!

ATQ has received this video of who we suspect might be the subject of the NCAA investigation from this past year's Valero Alamo Bowl

Well, I don't think I have to tell you how relieved I am by all of this news. I'm happy to be done with talk of sanctions and I'm very happy that the NCAA actually got something right for a change. We should be hearing from the NCAA about penalties for the Texas athletic department soon. On a personal level, I'm hoping they involve watching "Animal House" and "Woodstock" over and over again.