NYT: NCAA Conducting A "Wide-Ranging Investigation" Of Lane Kiffin

Bumped from December, 2009. GO BRUINS. -N

Looks like the spotlight is on Lane Kiffin's program again for not exactly football related reasons on the field:

The N.C.A.A. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the University of Tennessee’s football recruiting practices, according to interviews with several prospects, their family members and high school administrators. A significant part of the investigation is focused on the use of recruiting hostesses who have become folk heroes on Tennessee Internet message boards for their ability to help lure top recruits.

N.C.A.A. officials have visited four prospects and are scheduled to visit two others this week in an investigation covering at least three states. The inquiry is unusual in its scope and its timing. It is rare that the N.C.A.A. looks at this wide a swath of one university’s recruits before the players have signed with a program in February.

Tennessee Athletic Director Mike Hamilton confirmed that an investigation was under way but declined to elaborate.

"Typically, we do not comment on inquires that are in progress," he said Tuesday night in New York.

Since Tennessee Coach Lane Kiffin took over in December 2008 after being fired as the Oakland Raiders’ coach, the Volunteers have committed at least six secondary N.C.A.A. violations — unintentional violations that provide minimal recruiting or competitive advantage.

That was from the New York Times this am. It is interesting to me why NCAA is looking into Kiffin's program for this. I was under the impression that the aspect of "recruiting hostesses" was SOP for football programs all over the country (especially in SEC/Big-12 land).However, according to the article here is how the Tennessee hostesses might have gone the extra mile beyond the parameter of NCAA rules:

In one case, hostesses traveled nearly 200 miles to attend a high school game in South Carolina in which at least three Tennessee recruits were playing...The hostesses are considered representatives of the university, which would mean they could not recruit players off campus. Therefore, the visits may be considered violations of N.C.A.A. recruiting rules.

The article provided the following explanation on why Kiffin might be facing extra scrutiny:

Kiffin’s numerous secondary N.C.A.A. violations could be a factor or might have prompted the investigation.

"Secondaries mean something to the N.C.A.A.," Evrard said in a telephone interview. "It’s very telling if an institution continues to report secondaries particularly if they’re in the same category. If you keep doing the same thing over and over and keep reporting it, that would trigger the N.C.A.A.’s enforcement staff to possibly go in and look at some of that activity."

That raises the question once again where is the scrutiny on the program where Kiffin got his key college coaching experience (which he used to market himself into a head coaching job with the Raiders and subsequently the Volunteers)?

GO BRUINS.